Test Hike!

I visited Stone Mountain State Park today. It's only a two-hour drive from the house and I really needed to get up to the mountains, at least for a few hours. I wanted to try out my knee on a short and relatively easy hike. It did okay, but for the first time in my life my legs feel weak. That sucks. I've always had strength in my legs, even when my upper body strength was lousy. I had a hard time climbing up to the top today, even on the improved trail system the park now has in place. I have my work cut out for me to complete my physical recovery.

I'll post more on the hike tomorrow.

This self-portrait came out pretty good. I was moving as fast as I could up the steep slope near the summit of Stone Mountain. I just set the timer and started (kind of) running.

The summit area of the mountain was PACKED with turkey vultures. So I sat down on the exposed rock, put the telephoto lens on the camera, and took about seventy photos, hoping that at least a few of them would come out okay. I got lucky, and this was one of the good ones. Vultures are one of my favorite birds. Huge, and resourceful, and extremely intelligent.

This is Stone Mountain Falls. A bit over 200 feet, they say, in a series of cascades. I think a moron recently got killed here--he ignored the butt-load of warning signs and climbed over the fence and went out on the slippery rock surface. Death followed.