2009.10.19 Walking up Mountains

We went for a little stroll this morning - about half way up Pinnacle Mountain. First we had to drive about 30 or 40 minutes to get there for the privilege. Then the walk we took today was 35 minutes up for me and about 40 minutes up for Don. (He did go further than me.) I just love doing this and our goal is to make it all the way up. We've done it before but it has been years. I find that it reminds me of times when I used to walk Olivia, mine and my father's dog, in North Wilkesboro. The dog and I would go pretty far into the woods and up hills and while I rested from the climb, she would run around and have great fun. We don't run around doing anything and we are careful around the rocks and muddy spots that we encounter but both of us enjoyed it very, very much. We have done it in the recent past to a lesser extent, maybe 4 times previous to today. But today, we were especially proud of our progress because we got almost to the really hard part that is almost straight up. Our next goal is to make it to Turnaround Trail and come back down that way instead of backtracking the way we went up. If we can do that 4 or 5 times, we think we can start trying to do the hard climb and see how far we can go with that. Once we decide to go the whole way, we are going to do it slowly - even if it takes a couple hours. But we want to get there.

I also want to do Kings Mountain again, mainly to go see the museum there but also to get to the top again and see everything there. We can take cameras and get us some pictures at the top of all these mountains. We are also planning to do Crowder just to have the exercise and variation of scenery.

It makes me look forward to exercise to have something visually interesting and to have someone to talk with who is also enjoying the work of climbing. I do need a stick for some of the Pinnacle Trail as it can be a bit treacherous in spots. So far though, nothing we can't handle. If it were, I would wait and turn back when Don came back for me.

I saw some pictures of me last year around this time. Nothing anyone wants to see. I have climbed a great healing mountain in the past year and I am so grateful for the chance to try things like this again. Somebody did a good job helping me get put back together and I am grateful to one and all who worked with me and wished me well. It seems to have been successful.