Photos, Cont'd.

I thought I'd post some more pictures from my backpacking days.  I hope it isn't too boring, but it can't be as bad as hearing about my aches and pains, and weight gain issues!  Unfortunately, my life isn't very exciting at the present time, and it's fun for me to look back to when I was younger, more fit, and capable.  I'm still the same person only older, wiser, and slower!

This is a picture of Smoky in the tent, and for some reason he looks brown rather than the inky black that was his true color.  Something in the light, or maybe the film developing.

The next three are taken in Grayson Highlands, VA.  In the first picture the wild ponies spotted us about the same time that Smoky spotted them.  The air was electric with their curiosity, and finally they inched towards each other for a sniff. 

The next two pictures were taken at McAfee's Knob, near Roanoke, VA.  I can't believe we got so close to the edge and looked so nonchalant about our surroundings.  The 2nd picture shows another hiker and me standing on the precipice so you can see that Smoky & I were just about in the thin air!

I did some car camping with Guy in the Shenandoah a few months after I had to stop hiking.  One time we stayed at Big Meadows campground, and another we threw down our sleeping bags on the edge of a cliff!  I graciously let Guy have the cliff side while I took the side towards the woods.

During the following year a friend of mine and I went to Vermont where she had always wanted to hike.  This was taken in Vermont.

Cheryl loved a campfire.  I stayed away from them because they made me so dehydrated I would get a headache!

This is me in front of the 3-sided wooden shelter (or lean-to as they are called in the northeast).

And another Vermont scene:

I did fairly well on that trip, but Cheryl was such a slow hiker that it was a pretty easy 50 miles for me.  She died in about 2006 from multiple strokes, still in her late 50's I believe.  

I loved listening to the coyotes from the shelter in Vermont - I had heard them in many previous campsites, but never so close.  I could listen to them all night, but I am hopeful that some day I may get to hear wolves howling.

That's enough for today, I think.  I've had so much fun going through old photos.  I know that having them online is a streamlined way to keep pictures nowadays, but I still love my old albums and ziplock bags full of pictures and stuffed into shoe boxes.  Just holding the picture in my hand transports me back in time and place.