We started in late morning, leaving one car at the Price Lake parking lot where we'd end, and driving to our target starting point at Boone Fork parking near BRP mm 299.9.  At 11:30, we set out on the connector trail from the lot to the Tanawaha.
     
From Boone Fork Parking to Cold Prong, the deeply shaded trail was quite wet as a result of a heavy rain early this morning.  We stepped carefully over the slippery rocks, avoiding deep muddy patches and networks of roots crisscrossing the trail, which tunneled frequently through rhododendron.
     
After finding a couple of letterboxes off the trail and stopping for a brief snack, we reached Cold Prong at 12:50, the first mile and a half completed.  From Cold Prong, the trail passed through a hardwood forest strewn with boulder fields before breaking out of the woods into open fields and pasture land.  Another couple of letterboxes waited for us along this stretch of trail.
     

Picnic in the meadow

By the time we exited the forest and clambered through the first stile into a cow-populated meadow, it was 1:45 and we had long forgotten the snack we'd eaten more than an hour earlier.  So we plopped down in the grass and unpacked our picnic.  The nearby cows seemed to find our activity rather odd and kept a wary eye on us.
     

Blackberry picking

Leaving our grassy rest area, we came across a patch of blackberry bushes heavy with fruit and collected a few before Emma tried to befriend a pair of young twin cows, one of whom was a bit bolder than his brother but still too cautious to make contact.
     
Back on the trail, we continued toward Price Lake, uncovering one more letterbox just as we encountered a couple from Knoxville with their bullnese pup (a cross between a Pekinese and French bulldog).  Of course, Emma and Mr. D became fast friends before we parted ways with the Tennessee twosome.
Just after crossing Holloway Mountain Road and re-entering the forest, we found the perfect hiding spot for a replacement of one of our letterboxes which had been muggled in a too busy nest behind the Boone library.  We traversed some fields of wildflowers before plodding through more rhododendron tunnels and arriving back at the car by 3:45.
     

Rubbing her hands in anticipation

Since we hadn't made it to Kilwin's ice cream shop in Blowing Rock yet, it seemed the perfect reward for this long trek.  On a busy Saturday afternoon in Blowing Rock's high summer season, we were not the only ones with the yen for an ice cream treat, but the Kilwin's staff is quite efficient and before long, we had ice cream in hand, or in cup, at least.
     
After visiting a few shops in the village and replacing the logbook in our letterbox planted near Kilwin's, we returned to the cabin where Ken cooked a delicious fideua, a paella-like dish with thin noodles instead of rice.  A game of Phase 10, a little work on the jigsaw puzzle, and we were ready to call it a day.
     

     
DAILY STATS

• Weather:  overcast, sunny, 57° to 72°
• Letterboxes found:  5
• Cows in pasture:  15
• People in line at Kilwin's:  42
• Pieces added to the jigsaw puzzle tonight:  298

Ken on the Tanawha

Stamping in on the Tanawha

Tanawha meadow

Tired?  Who's tired?

Another favorite family activity