Late Year Happenings

It has definitely been a while since I put some news on this page so here's a bit of what has been going on as 2012 draws to a close.

My son David and his family -- Samantha, Hannah, and Riley -- have relocated back to the Fayetteville, NC area after spending about 10 months up in the Chicago area.  I went over to help them unload the truck and it was certainly good to see them all.  It's not a quick drive over but it's certainly shorter than driving up to Chicago.  They've gotten themselves a nice rental house as they all begin their own version of 'This Stage in Life' with David starting a new job and all of them renewing NC friendships and enjoying the closeness of family members.  I got over there before David arrived with the truck and was able to provide a few things one needs immediately.  David and I got to unloading some things from the truck and Samantha and the girls arrived perhaps an hour or two later.  The next day is was serious unloading and unpacking and Samantha's dad and friend came over to help out.  It all went well and in a short while the truck was empty and the garage and house was full of boxes.  I spent the rest of the day and evening with them and then left them alone the following day for what was their first evening alone and together in their own place in quite a while.

For Christmas I headed back over to NC to spend the holiday there.  On the way I decided to do a bit of state park geocaching at a couple of sites along the way.  It's the first time I've been out in a while and it was a beautiful day weather-wise.  I got the caches at a historical site and picked up two state park caches... not bad.  No bears but I did encounter a few snakes sunning themselves on a large rock right where I figured the cache to be.  I was very surprised to see them... warm weather must have brought them out.  They were so lethargic it took me a while to get them to move but after a bit of beating on the rock with a stick they sloooooooooooooowly moved away.  As I was beating on the rock my stick broke and when I looked down to where the piece landed I noticed another snake not far from where my foot was.  As these were all copperheads I was glad they weren't very active.  After this little diversion the caches were found without event.

Christmas Eve was spent at Samantha's mom's house which was decorated beautifully and she cooked up a fantastic meal with enough leftovers to provide great eating for days afterwards.  It's the first time I'd seen Sam's mom in a number of years.  Little Riley wasn't herself and later during the night the reason presented itself... she was running a temperature pushing 105.  Christmas morning was a lot of fun for everyone made better by Samantha's dad coming over to join in.  Riley woke up feeling a little better but still running a good fever which, happily, went down later in the day.  Plenty of toys to play with and David proved himself to be the better remote-controlled helicopter pilot between the two of us.  Samantha had the same idea for him so he's got two of them now!  I'll practice more with the one Santa brought to me for being good.  David grilled a pork roast and Samantha cooked up some wonderful side dishes for a great dinner.  Afterwards we just sat and talked over coffee and a bit of warming liquid.  It was a very, very nice evening.  The following morning David was back at work and I headed back to GA. 

That's it... the latest happenings.  2012 has been a year that saw great changes for just about everyone in the family and the year is ending with brighter happenings and good prospects for a very good coming year!

Guests and Leaves

Some very dear friends of mine, Anne and John, came down for a visit.  They had left their home in New Jersey just a couple of days before the hurricane hit and spent a few days in NC.  Their intention was to have a wonderful time driving their motorcycle around NC, TN, and GA but the sheer size and stregth of the storm put an end to that plan.  They put the bike back on the trailer and headed down to us so that we could do some riding together.  We did get out for one pretty nice ride during the week but when it came time to prepare for our 'big' ride together on Sunday, I  was not able to lead them as I had a flat tire on the back of my bike.  Total bummer for a lot of reasons.  As it turned out, I charted a course for Anne and John and they spent most of the day out and about having a pretty good time of it.  Although things didn't go as hoped for -- all of us riding together -- I think things went pretty well.  It was a wonderful visit with a lot of good conversation, more laughs than can be counted, and one hell of a fun night playing some stupid card games.

Saturday we went down to the motorcycle show where, among other things, Anne picked up a new jacket for herself.  As seen, she didn't want to take it off although it was pushing 80 degrees. 

Getting the bike loaded up for their trip to Savannah before they head back to New Jersey later in the week.

Lastly, fall is upon us and the leaves are turning so I include a couple shots outside of the house.  It really is very nice to see, at least until they fall off.

A shot taken while sitting in my chair on the back deck.

Looking left of the previous shot, still off the back deck.

And one from the front door. 





Friends Gone

When I was living in Brookfield I began to ride with a motorcycle riding club that called themselves The Jerseypine Cruisers.  I really don't know the particulars of how this came to pass because they rode out of Des Plaines which was not on my normal travel routine.  Regardless, they let me join up with them and I made a lot of friends riding and cavorting with some very good motorcycle riders who happened to be very nice people.  When I left the area for Connecticut I continued -- and still do -- to keep up with them by reading the monthly newsletter and communicating to this day with a couple of them.  In June I was startled to read that 2 of the members that I knew had died... Al Large and Bill Theodorf.  Neither of them were kids, Al was 75 and Bill was 79, but it still startled me when I read of their passing.  A few days ago I chatted with another one of the members, one of my favorite riding friends Steve, and found out that both of them had died while on their motorcycles, within 10 days of each other.  This news really got to me.  Al was riding home on the highway/tollway from a Cruiser event with a fellow rider when the car in front of them hit some thrown truck tire tread, sending it into the air and into Al, killing him and causing his  bike to crash into his fellow rider who went down but, thankfully, was not critically injured.  Bill was killed when an 18 year old driver made an oncoming left turn into him. 

I never got to know Al real well but he was always a gentleman who was always friendly and helpful towards me and everyone else I saw him interact with.  He was a very long time Cruiser and had developed many deep friendships with the group.  Bill I got to know pretty well and, as it turned out, Bill and I often roomed together on overnight trips and together he and I made several long-distance trips, the most memorable for me being a trip just he and I took to West Virginia and another one down to Arkansas.  Bill was also one of a small group that took a trip over to Connecticut to spend a few days with me when I lived there.  There are people that you just like to ride with and along with my friend Steve, Bill was high on the list along with a few others.  From the time I left the Chicago area I have missed riding with these good people and now I miss them even more.

This photo is from September of 2004 and likely taken while we were out on one of the wonderful 'Sunday Rides' after a Cruiser breakfast ride.  I think this is the earliest photo I have of us together.

A photo of my friends doing what all Cruisers just love to do when out on a ride... eat icecream!  Bill on the left, my friends Steve in the middle and another Bill, 'The Cook', on the right.

Steve must have taken this one as I'm in this one and Steve isn't.  Same trip I'm pretty sure... the annual Cruiser event up in Door County.

Someone must have said something funny.  A shot of Steve and Bill as we wait for the ferry on our way down to Arkansas.

After a few days the others in the group had to head back to the Chicago area but Bill and I stayed down in Arkansas for about 5 more days, driving around and checking out the sights, and the music of the locals.  It was a very, very nice time.  Bill was the person who really got me to appreciate that it's the journey that counts, not the destination.  I can't even imagine the number of times we just stopped along the road to smell the flowers... literally.  The photo above is just one of those many times.

Bill once mentioned that he enjoyed 'following' me on trips because I was always able to find the places that needed to be found and enjoyed.  This time, a waterfall on our WV trip.  By now you must have noticed that this guy always looked the same!  Same smile... same positive bearing.

Again in WV.  Over Bill's shoulder is the largest radio telescope in the world, at least it was in 2005, located right there in WV.  Bill mentioned to me that he really enjoyed these 'things' that I took us to.  So did I :)

Like I said, the guy always looked the same!  This is at a rest stop on the way back from WV.  I look like I'm ready to pass out and Bill, the old fart, looks like he just stepped out of the shower.  Go figure.

And this one I save for last :)  That's a real butterfly that just decided to land smack on Bill's nose.  The butterfly knew he was picking a good spot to hang out for a while as it took me a bit to grab the camera and all.  I liked hanging out with Bill as well.

Bottle Lamp

Some months ago a pretty bottle was found at Goodwill.  The intention was to someday put some little lights in it and fill it with glass beads and make a nice nightlight type of thing out of it.  Well, today was that day.  I'd never drilled a hole in glass before so with a bit of looking around on the internet and a run to get the drill bits for doing so I managed to cut my first hole in a very thick bottle without shattering the thing.  The hole let me feed a string of lights into it from near the bottom so the cord/plug would be down there.  I surrounded the lights with colored glass stones and voila!  I think it turned out rather well.

The new lamp sitting on the mantle next to the Christmas lights that we never put away.

A closer look... better focus this time.  $2.50 less 25% for the senior discount, plus the costs of the lights.  We won't count the $10 for the drill bits as I'll use those again, I'm sure.

File This

For those of you not familiar with or aware of my most intimate secrets, I love file cabinets.  I find them the most useful storage pieces for everything and I've made a point of picking them up when I come across them at a good price.  I only want the best... office-grade, ball-bearing suspension tracks.  I brought home a 'cheaper' one a long time ago and while I've still got it and use it for storing sandpaper, glues, putty and the like, if I can find a replacement 2-drawer model, I'd get it.  Anyway, these suckers are expensive as you know and I'm quite frugal.  I think I've gotten all of mine at Goodwill except for the aforementioned crummy one that I got out of the alley.  I picked up a great 5-drawer cabinet last summer I think it was but have struck out since then... until yesterday :)  It was priced right, $8.98 and was in pretty good shape.  BUT... it was 'senior day' which meant the 25% discount took it down to $7.20 and although I was hoping for something in the $6.00 range, I decided to splurge.  It was filthy and covered in tobacco smoke residue but a bit of grease remover and soap and water and this puppy was clean.  It was kind of an ugly grey so I decided to give it a couple coats of black paint.  I also discovered that someone had painted over the solid brass drawer pulls!  Well, a few minutes with a bit of paint stripper and those suckers were shining.  Just this morning moved it upstairs to its new home.  I'm happy :)

Eat your heart out, Samantha!  You'll get it someday but that's a long way off :)

Happiness is...

... an unexpected and unplanned trip up to see family!  I just got back from a very quickly organized drive up to Mom's house to visit with her, David, Samantha, Hannah and Riley.  An extra bonus was seeing Sue and Lori and Lori's new little one as well.  It was a good visit with lots of laughs, lots of serious discussion, sights seen, Chicago pizza and hotdogs, a very fun round of golf with David, some great Scrabble games, and one of Mom's home-cooked meals.  I was apprehensive about making the drive alone but I kind of surprised myself and made the trip both ways without stopping for the night and continuing the next day.  The drive up was very bad because it rained for the first 600+ miles.  Coming back it was sunshine all the way... until it got dark.

Amongst the many happy events was seeing Riley demonstrate the progress she's making working with the physical therapist.  It really was exciting and heart-warming to see her standing up, kind of crawling, and just venturing out a bit.  Although she's only just begun working with it, she's now got a walker to work with as part of the program.  I figured that I just had to have a picture of Riley with her walker, and great-grandma with hers.  So, as out of focus as they are, some happy shots:

There is an awful lot of good in this picture!  First, grandma doesn't really use hers much, so that's good.  Second, Riley is wearing her brand new shoes which the therapist thinks will help her.  The fact that Riley is standing is icing on the cake.  Of course she just had to look around and, now that I think of it, she may never have seen her great-grandma with a walker before.  Cool!

And now that Riley looks straight ahead, grandma isn't!  Of course no one wants Riley to need this thing but it is the cutest little walker.  David got it adjusted pretty well for her and the handles are no more than shin high, even compared to grandma's shins :)

And it's very appropriate to have Hannah in this 'therapy' shot because Hannah goes to all of Riley's sessions and takes such good care of her little sister at all times.  Way to go Hannah !!

Dahlonega & Amicalola

I headed back up north today to hit the Dahlonega gold museum and then over to the Amicalola Falls state park.  For those of you who don't know it, the first gold strike in the U.S. of A. was right here in Dahlonega, Georgia.  I'd been in the area a few times but never to the museum and besides, it is an official 'stop' on the History Trail geochallenge.  Finding the clues and opening the cache got me another location card and I noticed that the partner card was the Picketts Mill Battlefield site.  So, I turned in my cards to the nice ranger lady and she gave me my very first prize:  a history challenge path tag.  Yippee! 

Here it is... my prize!  It's a small medallion thing which is actually quite pretty.  The pick and rifle on the front signify the two locations visited for this challenge.  On the back is a registration number that you can use to register the tag and then place it out in a cache to see where it moves to.  I ain't giving up my tag!

Then it was off to the Amicalola Falls State Park to search for another state cache.  I'd been to the park before with friends Bill and Jane.  This was the park that had so many steps to go down to the bottom of the falls that I walked.  The cache walk and find were pretty lame.  Nowhere near the falls and the path was paved.... sheesh.  It took me longer to put my boots on, get my stuff on, walk to the trailhead through the parking lot than it did to walk to and find the cache.  Oh well, at least it's another challenge cache found.  Just for the record, a couple of pictures near the falls... not near the cache.

Taken right at the very top of the falls.  I'm standing on a little wooden bridge spanning the little creek that falls down the side of the mountain.  Very pretty view, for sure.

This was taken from the very same spot with the camera now pointed pretty much straight down.  This is the highest falls east of the Mississippi at 729 feet but it's a pretty lame waterfall as waterfalls go.  It's really more of a near-vertical rapids.  Regardless, it's pretty and this area of the park was, and I guess always is, quite crowed even on a weekday.

Looking back up at a part of the falls... maybe 200 feet of the fall.  I got this picture off Wikipedia.  They must have taken it in the winter months.  No leaves on the trees.  I have similar pictures at a previous posting on this blog:  http://bobcernock.blogspot.com/2011/08/long-overdue-visit.html



Chattahoochee Overland

The first visit to the Chattahoochee Bend State Park, Georgia's newest state park, had us playing in the playground and taking a walk along the river trail.  Yesterday I headed back there by myself with a list of hidden caches that were put out along a different trail.  I would end up at the river but I'd get there via an overland route, over hill and dale.  I had my list of cache coordinates and took off to see how many I could find.  Turns out it was my best day by far in terms of number of caches found... seven!  It was another beautiful day weather-wise and again going on a weekday I had this big, beautiful park all to myself.  Never saw another person aside from the ranger in the information center where I started out from.  I ended up being out a bit longer than I had anticipated -- took me a bit to find the caches once I was in the vicinity -- but it's not like I'm on a schedule.  Total trek was just over 6 miles over terrain that wasn't all that bad.  Of course there were ups and downs over the hills and such but nothing like the weekend adventures.

Caches 1 and 2.  The first one was right at the information center and was one of the most clever jobs of hiding I've encountered.  Talk about hiding something in plain sight!  It's a PVC pipe and screw on lid just like those around my own house and was located not far from a downspout.  It actually took me longer to discover this one than any of the others... go figure.  I walked past the 2nd one but found it when I turned around.  I covered it a bit better before I left.

Numbers 3 and 4.  I'm not real big on sticking my hand into holes in the ground or in a tree trunk or the like.  I use my walking stick to poke around for living things first.  I was a bit surprised that with the cool mornings and very warm afternoons we've been having I didn't see a single snake.  I would have thought they'd have been out sunning themselves to warm up.

Numbers 5, 6, and 7.  These were some pretty good hiding places but the gps unit was working pretty well and I was rather happy with myself that I found every one on my list.  After the last one I turned around and headed back.  Funny how the hills get steeper later in the day.

Sweetwater Solo

Well, it was my first time going out to a state park solo.  I needed to go to the park anyway to pick up a voucher to get my first 'award' from the state of Georgia for visiting 15 different state parks and finding the official cache at each of them.  I figured I'd go find another one in the park while I was there and it was a great walk in areas of the park I hadn't visited before.  The great thing about this state park is that it's less than 20 minutes away... yippee!  I did double check my gear and such not wanting to be unprepared should I encounter some unforeseen adventure, like getting a snake bite or falling down a cliff while out alone.  The cache was a multi-cache which means I was walking to various places to get clues needed to get into the cache.  I did all right, found all the clues needed to open the cache, and had a most lovely walk in the woods... without any of those unforeseen adventures :)

One part of the walk, about 3 miles in all, was along this very pretty creek.

Further along was the history lesson for the day, visiting the location of what was once a thriving manufacturing company.  Rather incredible to me that the chase for the waterwheel (the canal-like run dug out to divert water to the waterwheel) is still very noticeable.  I love seeing this historical stuff... imagining what once was and all.  If you click on the picture and make it bigger you can read about it which will provide background for the next photo.

This is what remains today, and was all that remained the day after those damn yankees came down here and burned the place in July of 1864.

Further along I found this narrower finger of the creek and was able to walk out into the middle of it to snap this picture looking one way...

...then turned around and snapped this picture looking the other way.

And this lovely view is of the place I sat for a while to rest a bit and eat a bit of lunch.  I really enjoyed this.  Sitting here with no one around and the only sound being that of the water running through these rocks.  Very nice indeed :)  It was a good little adventure and I'm glad I got out.  More solo trips to come I figure.

Mountain Adventures

I headed out this weekend for northern GA to visit a couple of state parks up in the mountains.  It was a beautiful, bright day and the temperature wasn't too hot.  First stop was at Cloudland State Park and although I've got pictures below, you all know that pictures just don't capture the real view.

This is Cloudland Canyon.  This view/overlook was a very short walk from where I had parked and it was just so beautiful.  Not a cloud in the sky and bright sunshine.  I was hoping that the geocache wasn't at the bottom of this puppy.  Hopes in that regard were soon dashed :)

After a short walk along the rim of the canyon I got to the trail head and this lovely message appeared.  At this point I was already hearing rushing water and started down into the canyon.  The trails were pretty steep and there were a LOT of stairs to get down the areas where the canyon walls were just to steep for a trail.  There are 2 main waterfalls, marked as such, and although I did get near them I didn't take a single picture of either.  Go figure.  The trip down the canyon sides and along the bottom was just incredibly beautiful.  Lots of noisy, rushing water, rocks galore some of which were absolutely giagantic and one just had to wonder what it must have been like when they came down.  It was a long time ago for sure because the floor of the canyon is heavily forested.

Still going down but basically at the base of the canyon.

Looking down along the floor of the canyon as I crossed a bridge to the other side.

A fast, noisy waterfall that was not included in the two waterfalls to be seen.  This sucker was probably 40-50 feet high and again, just beautiful.

Just included this one because it's pretty :)

The geocache was located in the hollow base of the tree pretty much in the center of this photo.  Is this gorgeous or what?!?!?  Due to the terrain and the canyon playing a bit of havoc with the gps readings this find took quite a while.  I did NOT rush to leave the area as I was a bit tired and I knew what the return trip was going to be like.

 

After resting and cleaning up a bit I got back in the car and headed off to another state historical site for a pretty easy multi-cache where I learned a bit of history as well.  From there it was off to Fort Mountain State Park and yet another 'mountain' trek.  The trek for this one was much, much easier as we took a nice walk around a lake to find the fork in the trail to get to the cache.  The cache description was spot on... the last 2/10ths of a mile were severe, headed right up the mountain.  No meandering back and forth... straight up.  I got to the area, found the cache, and agin took a bit of a break.  Heading back was so much easier this time.  Downhill and level the whole way :)

Once A Bridge

After not really going out over the Labor Day weekend and it being rather rainy yesterday I got out today to another of the state parks here in Georgia to find the geocache there.  It was good to be out and about, for sure.  Panola Mountain State Park is primarily a conservation area with a lot of protected land and property but at the same time there are a lot of community things as well.  There is a two lane concrete bike path that goes for 18 miles... one way.  There's also a rather large maintained field for flying remote-controlled planes and a few lakes around which some folks were fishing.  A very nice park for sure.  The cache was an easy walk along a golf cart path along an abandoned golf course that must have been abandoned some time ago.  I walked beyond the cache site and found an old bridge that was on the 'things to see' list and I'm glad I got there.  This kind of stuff really gets my mind whirling imagining what was once but is no more.

So this is the bridge I found.  So many 'things' about it that I'd love to know about.  Those things that might look like fallen leaves, aren't.  Yeah, there's some leaves but there are hundreds of man-made depressions in what looks like some crummy concrete and why those depressions are there is just one of those things that baffled me.

As said in the title of the post, this was 'once' a bridge, but no more.  If you blow up this photo by clicking on it you can those depressions pretty clearly.  The closest thing that I know that they look like are bear claw scratches... 3 perpendicular lines about 4-5 inches long... hundreds of them in random directions.

As I just kind of stood around taking a bit of a break I kept discovering things.  You can see that this was a very well made structure.  A very solid flat rock base, cast iron/steel support pieces, and then the concrete layer, perhaps added when it was built, perhaps added later.  Another thing I'd like to know.

I took this picture because I was just kind of dreaming, I guess.  Like, what the hell happened here?!?!?  That's 4-5 feet of dirt settled on top of what once was an active bridge and an active road.  Beyond it, very dense growth that has obviously been there for a while.  It became more intriguing when I went back.  I didn't follow the cart path back but followed a road in the opposite direction to the photos here.  The road was an untraveled dirt/gravel road at least two cars wide.  A ways up this road I noticed a road sign in the brush/trees and when I went over to get to where I could read it, it said One Lane Bridge Ahead.  So, this was an active road and an active bridge at one time.  Now it's not.  Now I'm wishing there was a way I could have gotten across this somewhat deep little river/creek to see what was on the other side.  There was no informational sign or the like to be found so this will bug me for a while, I'm sure :)

Very Cool Place

I was off to a couple more state parks today to locate the geocaches.  The trails were pretty and as is the norm on a week day I pretty much had the parks to myself, at least the trails.  I found the caches and then followed the recommendation of the local ranger to continue on the trail to the far end of the loop.  I did continue on the trail, up hill all the way for a ways past the cache site.  The trail kind of ends at a most beautiful cavern or whatever it's called.  The ranger said that at times a waterfall falls into the cavern and so it was.  Not much water around so the waterfall was more of a heavy drip but the place was still really something. 

The trail itself kind of double-backs to the right but for all intents and purposes, the trail ends at this location.  I've been impressed with all the parks and this one was no exception.  It's kind of hard to see but if you blow this up by clicking on it you can see where the water is falling into the pool from above.

The water falls into this pool and then runs into the large opening on the right.  The boardwalk is really neat as it has a nice place to sit and watch the waterfall and then continues on behind the waterfall.

This is the view from behind the waterfall.  You can see better where the water is falling into the pool.  I'd really like to be here when the flow of water is more substantial but it was still a most beautiful, peaceful and rather awesome experience to get to this location.

Extremely Fabulous Tree

I headed out to a couple state parks today located a bit northwest of Atlanta and once again experienced a bit of wonderment as I wandered through a couple more forests I'd likely never have seen if David hadn't gotten me started in geocaching.  I found the caches... one located in a very small cemetery located inside one park and the other located pretty deep into the forest.  But in addition to finding the caches I saw the most fabulous tree in the world!  Along the trail in this forest, located in Hard Labor Creek State Park I saw some really massive oaks, 4 deer go scampering by just moments after I said to myself "I'm surprised I don't see more wildlife," and the tree below.  The tree was located not far from the cache location so it kind of hit me in the face.  This thing is not dead... it's growing!

I stepped down a bit and took this shot of what was likely the main roots at one time.  I'm thinking that sometime a hundred years ago or so this tree fell over.  There are a great number of trees that have fallen over in all the parks we've visited.  Plenty of trees that have broken, but many that have just fallen over bringing up and exposing their root system.  The cache found at this location was actually hidden in just such a root system of a fallen tree not too far away.  Between where the walking sticks are and the backpack there is another obvious root system that nature let take hold.  The tree started growing up again at that point.  How fabulous is that?!?!?

Now you can see that this is a BIG tree.  The straight-growing trunk in the middle is not part of this fallen/growing tree but the other two trunks are.  Each of them is as big as a 'regular' tree and each has it's own leaf canopy way up there.  I know... I know... I've never been one to get all involved in nature and all that but this stuff is kind of growing on me... no pun intended :)

Fun with FDR

As anyone who has heard my comments regarding my feelings about FDR I'm not a fan of the guy, what he did, what he stood for, or his taste in women.  With that said, his having been around provided for a pretty good day today for me.  Continuing with my geocaching took me down to the Warm Springs, GA area today for a cache find at The Little White House (LWH) and then over to the FDR state park.  I have to admit that it was good to learn a bit of history and see where the guy got away to when he could.  The LWH itself is a rather humble but cozy place, not big at all.  Interesting that all the beds in the 3 small bedrooms were single beds and that here, as in the real white house, FDR and Elanor had separate rooms.  I wonder why?  An information sign noted that the lovely Elanor didn't go down to the LWH much but their kids did.  I give credit to the GA state geocaching program because this was what is called a multi-cache and it kind of made sure you saw, and read about, the history of the place.  You're directed to 4 different areas looking for informational answers.  At each you read something and the 'answer' you're looking for is a part of the combination to open the cache box at the end.  I lucked out... got them all first time through.  It was a good experience and I did enjoy myself as well as learn things. 

After the LWH it was a short while over to FDR state park where I went after an official geocache located not too far down one of the trails.  The trail runs for 28 miles through the park... I only had to go 1/2 mile :)  The trail was right along the crest of a mountain and had it not been for the trees the views probably would have been spectacular. 

See?  If they'd just cut down the trees near the top the vista is quite beautiful.

This is the trail.  As said, I only had to go out about 1/2 mile but it was most difficult walking because virtually every footstep was on/around an embedded rock/stone in the trail.  I'm talking major sprain-your-ankle-sucker rocky.

 

At the cache site.  It was kind of funny.  The trail is just above the large rock formation you see behind me.  I was standing up there with the GPS unit and thought something like "It's underneath me" and thought about how I was supposed to get down to it.  Of course I got down and pretty much walked right to the cache which was located in a splintered section of the big rock behind me, directly below where I was standing before.  Pretty good find I'd say.