Chipmunks, Chestnuts and The Black Chickens

So my friend Esther from the gym asked if I wanted to go hiking in the mountains. Up for the challenge I joyfully responded, yes!

We met the next morn. me with backpack and rations in tow, she with a water bottle.

So what gives I'm thinking. But what comes out is which bus do we take. No bus, she says it's just over here.

To my amazement the mountain is just behind my place. How cool is that, I'm thinking. I also thought why am I just finding this out!. But every thing in it's own time. So what if it's seven months down the road. Now I know.

So we dropped off my unnecessary gear and headed for the trail. It took about an hour or less to get to the top. Lovely views overlooking the city along the way to the top.
Many people out with the same idea.

Sooooooooooo that explains the comings and goings of the many people that I'd notice in the mornings and early afternoon with their multi-pocketed vest on, with hiking shoes, sticks and loose fitting clothing.

There are places to sit and exercise equipemnt to use along the main trail. We stopped at the first one which is honestly 15 minutes into the climb. It's a large covered platform. Really nice wood. I found a perfect stick that I began to use as a staff. It quickly became very useful.

As we continued on we came across some fresh fallen chestnuts, so I had a crack at one of those, it was ok. I think I'd like them better roasted. Then I saw some Chipmunks, or really tiny squirrels making it into some brush to get out of the way of the humans who had invaded their sanctuary and their food court!
The climb began to get really intense and I just had to thank God for my workout classes, weights, squats, step, all that! Once I really got into it, it was great.

Hiking is huge here in this country but then it's surrounded by mountains so I suppose that's a given. Men, women, children, of various ages. They even brought the pets along.

After making it to the top, typical views but nice still, we decided to descend on the opposite side to explore a bit further. There were actually stairs at one point because it was so steep, you could have fallen head first!

Back on the ground there was a guy selling snacks. Oh at the top there was a portable restaurant. Someone has to feed the wearied hikers yes? He had coffee and other simple fare. We didn't bother with that.

The other side was pretty flat. So we turned back after a brief walk through those woods.

Die hard hikers we went back up, since we had no idea where we came out at and we could try to make our way back to the original trail.... yeah right! There are so many different ways to walk on and off that mountain. We finally found one that seemed to point in the right direction so off we went. We stopped by and did a few rounds on the hula hoops that we passed so all was going well. We thought only to then run into what seemed like a dead end and a drop off. So we backtracked and off we went once again. Finally we began to pass by more people so we kept going in that direction realizing we were on our way down.

Came across some black feathered chickens which blew me away. I'd never seen or heard of any before. But I was really annoyed at myself cuz when I dropped off my gear I left my camera. I did however have a cookie left for my rations so I was able to call them....chick, chick, chick. To my surprise they came and were quite calm until a hikers pet came along and chased them off a bit.

So we pushed on. But the chickens caught back up with us, guess they had a short cut,and I gave them the remainder of the cookie. That was way cool.

But still it was not the trail that we took in but it led us back to a familiar area that was still close to my place, just on the opposite side.

I planned to take that trail again and bring along my camera in hopes of seeing those birds.

PS. I've taken the trail with my camera twice since my maiden hike. Check next weeks blog for photos and an update. I even shot a video/movie....lot of forest footage.

I love this hiking thing!