Another trip to the mountain version of our Park, another adventure. Yesterday, the Mr dragged our neighbor up to help him cut downed trees, with the mission being bringing back a ton of firewood. I don't know how much either of us will need to see us through the winter. We don't have an indoor fireplace, and our little backyard firepit only sees occasional use anymore. Neighbor Man has both a fireplace and a fire pit, and honestly, he probably needs what he can get right now while his boiler is out. It's a bit cold to be waiting on a massive overhaul of his house's entire heating system. They left a lot of cut up wood on the mountain, and it was up to me to ride shotgun on this trip. I can't carry a whole lot of weight, but I can fetch and carry little things, and I can drag dry logs to the edge of the pickup and prop them up to be loaded in by someone stronger.
Retrieving the wood took very little time overall. But we had a chore to take care of up at the campsite, so away we went up the hill on foot. The Mr has been testing out alternate routes to the top, in the inescapable hope that someday he can find a way to run an ATV or even a truck up to the site. While he was there, with a chainsaw in hand, he insisted we try out two of them on the way up and down. Going up the hill nearly did me in, with all of the altitude gain coming at once at the beginning. After one of my many stops (probably the one where I finally sat down and waited for my heart rate to slow to merely ridiculously high), I was presented with a great walking staff that really did help with the climb. I have kept it, and plan to sand and finish it for future use. Without it, I probably wouldn't have made it up and especially back down as easily today. The new route had a lot of duff, soft fluffy earth, pine needles, and decaying plant matter (and bear poop). It felt really weird and unstable walking that path, instead of the firmly packed standard route. I used the walking staff to make sure where I was stepping wasn't going to slide out from under me.
Yesterday, the Mr learned that something has tried yet again to tear down his tepee, where he keeps the junk he doesn't want to haul up and down every time. He made the mistake once of leaving dog food up there, and ever since, permanent residents of the mountain have been trying to rip apart the plastic tarp between them and possible stores of kibbles (which haven't been up there in a year). We patched the most recent tears with RV seal tape, and have to hope that it holds through the winter, until late next spring when we can finally restart building the shed.
On the way down, the sun was setting, and the views were incredible. I asked him to stop the truck several times, so that I could attempt to capture a little of the fading light. I played with the pro settings on my phone camera, but I have yet to go look through the results on a big screen to see whether I really have anything. I guess I'll go look for good shots, especially of the crescent moon, and post them before I go soak away my stiffness from the walk in a large vat of hot water.
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