“Well, um, actually, a pretty nice little Saturday. We’re going to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Beth, Bad, & Beyond, I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.”
If you’re anywhere near my age (elder-ish Millennial…pushing 40 more than you’d like to admit), you’ve undoubtedly quoted Will Ferrell as Frank the Tank’s “actually a pretty nice little Saturday” before, typically to describe a Saturday heavier on errands than fun. The thing is, as I start really pushing that big 4-0, the more I enjoy these nice little Saturdays. Not literally—the thought of hours in Home Depot and Bed, Bath, & Beyond hurts my soul—but I’ve started appreciating a super low-key Saturday that lets me go to bed rested and early, and this past Saturday, I might have peaked on nice-little-Saturdays (at least for this summer).
I had planned a big hike in preparation for a trip to Vermont in the Adirondacks in a couple of days but was having some car issues (aka a nail in my tire which literally happens to me all the time), and since I wasn’t able to get an appointment at Meineke till Monday, I decided on a more local hike I knew wouldn’t involve any dirt roads: my go-to Flat Laurel Creek, MTS Trail loop.
Since I wasn’t doing a huge hike, when I woke up at 5:00, I didn’t rush to get ready. Instead, I made myself a lovely bacon and eggs breakfast and read for an hour. I stopped by Daymoon Coffee Bar for my favorite chocolate chip pumpkin muffin and a blended chai for the ride and set off.
I’ve already talked about this hike in previous posts, so I won’t belabor the point, but I think it’s genuinely my favorite hike in the area. It’s got woods. It’s got babbling brooks. It’s got parkway views. It’s got Shining Rock Wilderness views. It’s got state balsam fir forests. It’s…got a bathroom at the halfway point (The Sam’s Knob parking area), which I needed desperately last Saturday (maybe the huge breakfast was a bit of an amateur move).
I also tacked summitting Sam’s Knob on, which increased both my step count and the views, and because I was literally on no schedule for the day, relaxed on the top of the mountain for 40 minutes. I was planning on reading or writing but did neither. I just sat…something I do far too infrequently.
My favorite part of this hike is the little watering hole I’ve found off Flat Laurel Creek Trail. It’s not necessarily a secret, as there are almost always people there, but it’s not super well-traveled, and I’ve perfected perching myself on one mid-river rock and reading for…in this case, three solid hours while listening to a combo of the waterfalls and one of my particularly excellent playlists.
I’ve driven through Canton countless times to and from this particular hike but never stopped in to walk around. Last Saturday, I got a second chai latte at Papertown Coffee (I don’t really have anything to say about Papertown Coffee other than the fact that I stopped there because the teen workers were definitely ready to close when I stopped, so while I was planning on sitting, I hightailed it out pretty quick), then popped by Blue Moon Books and bought three more used books I don’t have the bandwidth to read nor the shelf space for, but all three look great!
This might sound gross, but when I got home, I had a particularly satisfying frozen meal (I’m not one to truck in frozen meals, but this one—boneless wings and mac and cheese—was on sale near the register at the grocery store the night prior, and turned out to be what I needed at the time. That night, I went to a friend’s house for 3 backyard beers (Cape May IPAs to honor Jersey Shore’s return) and was home in time to enjoy a glorious sunset and read some before bed. A PRETTY NICE LITTLE SATURDAY!
AshevilleExplorer 