18 days 남은

Today was a bank holiday for Veteran's Day, so Alli and I had a weekday off together. Since we live in an area known for its hiking trails almost as much as its beer, we decided to climb one of the mountains that surround us.

We packed a daypack with lunch, donned our hiking clothes, filled our Nalgenes, headed to a local tourist shop for a free map, and drove to the trailhead. A couple thousand foot ascent made our calves and thighs burn with fire, but we made it all the way to the summit of Lookout Mountain. It was Alli's first summit of a mountain, so she was super pumped.

 

I cooked up our lunch on my trail stove and snapped some pics of our town from way above.

 

 

The burning of our thighs and calves we experienced climbing up turned into tight knees and feet when we had to go back down those same twelve hundred feet in about a half mile. These next pictures are of the actual trail.

 

We had a great time on that hike.

We followed it up by sightseeing down some unfamiliar roads when we came across two abandoned houses under the shadow of the mountain range closest to our house. I L.O.V.E. abandoned houses, so of course I pulled up the overgrown driveway to check them out. As I parked the car, I noticed something black in the weeds in front of the garage. I got out and walked through the weeds and found it..... a dead black bear. The little girl was less than six months old and couldn't have been dead more than a day. There was no gunshot wound, no telltale signs of a car accident, nothing. She simply looked like she'd just walked to that spot and died. (No, I didn't take a picture.) I talked to a friend this evening who said the Mama bear probably had more cubs than she could care for and this one just died from lack of food. It didn't dampen the great day we'd had, but it was still sad to see.

And now we're watching the Steelers on Monday Night Football. The best part of our day? We were both getting paid the whole time. Oh yes, bank holidays are nice!