An Unexpected Hike

 

AN UNEXPECTED HIKE - to Stone Mountain

      The end of June, we stopped by Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap, North Carolina, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Our intention was to walk along an easy one-quarter mile trail to a scenic view of the stone mountain.  At least, that is what I thought I read in the brochure.  However, it appears that I must have imagined such a trail, because it doesn't seem to exist.

       These words by Alexander Graham Bell had special meaning when we ended up taking an unexpected two-mile hike in the woods:  "Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone and following after the other like a flock of sheep.  Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods.  Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before." 

 

     Well, we did "dive into the woods," and in spite of everything it turned out to be a nice adventure with a lot of good exercise - up and down and all-around on what seemed at the time to be a never-ending trail.  We were able to maneuver over tangles of roots, fallen trees, numerous wide steps, and a sad lack of signage to finally arrive at our destination -- a stunning stone mountain, complete with a furnished homestead and outbuildings from an extended family who lived there for over a century, beginning in 1855 when they built the house. 

    I'm reminded of the many wonderful Bible verses that speak of mountains, here are just a few:

--"For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands," Isaiah 55:12.

--I will lift up my eyes to the hills -- from whence comes my help?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth," Psalm 121:1-2.

--"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God," Psalm 90:2.

--"He puts His hand on the flint; He overturns the mountains at the roots," Job 28:9.

--"For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you," Isaiah 54:10.