I went on a group hike this morning at 10am. It was surprisingly warm with temps hovering around 50f and the rain that was forecast fortunately stayed away. Yay!
The trail we hiked was in the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, a bit northwest of Durham, NC. It's only 15 minutes from my house but I'd never been there before.
This picture here is of the face of an old abandoned quarry that the trail circled around. We didn't approach it any closer at the bottom but later on we did get closer to the cliff face while up above.
This is what it looked like looking down from the top of the quarry. It was quite a ways down and given my general lack of interest in heights, I stayed well away from the edge. *shiver*
It's difficult to see, but there's water there down below. A little stream and a series of small ponds. We had hiked alongside the stream on the way into the quarry.
About this time I realized that I'd not had anything to eat yet today and was getting quite hungry. We only had one dog along with the group and she was 14 years old and probably a little too gristly for culinary purposes.
Here's a few members of the hiking group, and one dog, on top of the quarry cliff looking down on the terrain that we had hiked along just a few minutes before.
You can probably see what I mean about the dog. You want animals with good fat layers for food purposes. That's why cats would make such great eating. They're almost always over fed. Anyway...
Here's a little aside, I watched two DVDs yesterday, Kung Fu Panda and The Bank Job, both recent movies from 2008. I liked both but did have some qualms. I thought the plot of Kung Fu Panda was a little weak though in that sense it was probably just imitating the genre. On the other hand, the voices given to the animated characters was spot on. It was the best voiceover work I think I've ever heard in an animated movie. Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane were particularly good and of course Jack Black was great too. There wasn't a single weak link in the voice talent. I was quite impressed.
My only problem with The Bank Job was that the plot meandered a lot in the last third, but since it was a movie based on a real event (the 1971 Baker Street robbery in central London), I guess to some degree their hands were tied. Apparently the real bank job played out like the movie--and I'll tell you, it was complicated at the end. It's just I was expecting something more like Oceans 11 and in this movie there were a lot more loose ends to be tied up.
By the way, notice what it says on that sign over on the left. We were being a wee bit careless wandering so close to the edge of that quarry. Ooops!
And the picture below is what I had for lunch after I got home. I used up the second half of a loaf of challah bread by slicing it into 8 pieces, smearing some butter on and then piling mozzarella on top and tossing them onto a panini grill. I then dipped them into a mix of spaghetti sauce and salsa to add a little taste. Yummy!
The trail we hiked was in the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, a bit northwest of Durham, NC. It's only 15 minutes from my house but I'd never been there before.This picture here is of the face of an old abandoned quarry that the trail circled around. We didn't approach it any closer at the bottom but later on we did get closer to the cliff face while up above.
This is what it looked like looking down from the top of the quarry. It was quite a ways down and given my general lack of interest in heights, I stayed well away from the edge. *shiver*It's difficult to see, but there's water there down below. A little stream and a series of small ponds. We had hiked alongside the stream on the way into the quarry.
About this time I realized that I'd not had anything to eat yet today and was getting quite hungry. We only had one dog along with the group and she was 14 years old and probably a little too gristly for culinary purposes.
Here's a few members of the hiking group, and one dog, on top of the quarry cliff looking down on the terrain that we had hiked along just a few minutes before.You can probably see what I mean about the dog. You want animals with good fat layers for food purposes. That's why cats would make such great eating. They're almost always over fed. Anyway...
Here's a little aside, I watched two DVDs yesterday, Kung Fu Panda and The Bank Job, both recent movies from 2008. I liked both but did have some qualms. I thought the plot of Kung Fu Panda was a little weak though in that sense it was probably just imitating the genre. On the other hand, the voices given to the animated characters was spot on. It was the best voiceover work I think I've ever heard in an animated movie. Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane were particularly good and of course Jack Black was great too. There wasn't a single weak link in the voice talent. I was quite impressed.
My only problem with The Bank Job was that the plot meandered a lot in the last third, but since it was a movie based on a real event (the 1971 Baker Street robbery in central London), I guess to some degree their hands were tied. Apparently the real bank job played out like the movie--and I'll tell you, it was complicated at the end. It's just I was expecting something more like Oceans 11 and in this movie there were a lot more loose ends to be tied up.By the way, notice what it says on that sign over on the left. We were being a wee bit careless wandering so close to the edge of that quarry. Ooops!
And the picture below is what I had for lunch after I got home. I used up the second half of a loaf of challah bread by slicing it into 8 pieces, smearing some butter on and then piling mozzarella on top and tossing them onto a panini grill. I then dipped them into a mix of spaghetti sauce and salsa to add a little taste. Yummy!
Comments
How long did that hike take? It seems close enough for the likes of me to get there, and I like me some pretty scenery and abandoned industrial sites.