Today we took the first hike of the 2010 season. We awoke early this morning and drove up into the foothills of Alpine to hike the "Three Mine Trail." It was a pretty good hike up to three old abandoned mines. It turns out that my great-grandfather was one of the prospectors that worked in and partially owned the mines. The hike was great and we were quickly reminded that it had been a long couped-up winter.
We found the first mine's entrance, which was not blocked off by anything. Crystal didn't appreciate my idea to go spelunking in the first mine or to become prospectors and spend the rest of our lives in the mountains mining for gold. I thought it sounded fun and profitable, but I was reminded that I was boy. We hiked up the side of the mountain and found what we thought was the entrance to the second mine. It looked like there was a mudslide that covered the entrance. We kept on the trail in search of the last mine. Up and up we went to no avail. Crystal looked up and saw that the top of the "mountain" was only a few hundred feet straight up. So we blazed our own trail up the side of the mountain and, with hearts racing and heavy breathing, reached the top.
We stood at the top and realized that we had only reached the top of one of the bumps. Maybe next week we'll conquer the whole mountain...maybe.
When we got back home after our few hours in the mountains I went up to help clear a family of birds that had taken up nest inside my grandparent's dryer (they had come in through the vent and built a nest). I walked downstairs to find this scene:
