Little Beaver State Park, Beaver, West Virginia
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. ~ Psalm 1:1-3
I fear my tan will be non-existent by the time we return to Ohio in two days, as the sun’s rays have rarely reached my skin in recent days. It’s either been cloudy, or too cool to wear anything by long sleeves and pants. Or the sun’s just not as potent further from the equator. . .
And I’ve so enjoyed looking healthy . . . and not wearing make-up . . . and not wearing hose with my dresses on Sunday mornings . . . oh, well. I suppose there are more important things in life. Sigh . . .
Today’s adventure took us on hiking trails within the Park. There are so many trails here, we don’t have to drive anywhere to seek out our adventure. In the time we’ve been here (and plan to be here), the only time the Jeep’s been moved was when Blaine ran out to IGA today to pick up a couple of groceries. By the way – he came back and said it was the dirtiest grocery store he’d ever been in, which surprised me being as how it’s a chain and all.
Anyway, one of the longest trails runs right beside our site, so we donned our boots, and began our day of over 13,000 steps.
Within a few moments, we came almost nose-to-nose with deer! These deer were obviously used to people and we think maybe handouts as well, because a couple of them actually took steps towards us! They stuck around quite a while for photo ops before hightailing it out of there.
And now I’m wondering if that’s where that term comes from – deer lifting their tails when they run away?
Of course, I had to check. It is! Maybe most of you already knew that, but it was a lightbulb moment for me. 😊
We only hiked the short version of the trail before lunch – around the campground and down to the lake and around that.
As we approached half-way around the lake, we came into close contact with a Canada geese (goose?) family. Not sure which form of the word to use – it’s multiple geese in one goose family . . .
Anyway, these also must be used to people, because they allowed us to get closer than any geese before . . .
. . . that is until they determined that the photo shoot was over and in the blink of an eye, they were all in the water.
After a quick bite to eat, and a change of clothes, we tackled another trail – this time adding our hiking sticks (because we are in the hills now and didn’t know what type of terrain we might encounter this time) and a bottle of water.
So who does it belong to?
We didn’t end up using sticks often, but a couple of times they were helpful. With trail names like “Drop Off” and “Nature Ridge”, we were anticipating doing some climbing, but we really didn’t. The descriptions even say that they’re strenuous or very steep. Obviously, these people have never been to Stone Mountain, North Carolina. 😊
And it even stretches a bit like rubber.
I never noticed the reflection in the water. : )
The maps weren’t the best. . .
by an abundance of water flowing down here,
but no one’s bothered to put them back in place,
so we had to pick our way across the water.
Our day ended with relaxing by the wonderful fire Blaine built. And eating burgers cooked over it. Mmm . . Mmm . . . Good!
And it’s before Blaine started the fire.
I don’t sit still like this very often. : )
and it shows when he builds his wonderfully fantastic fires!
Not sure why they have cones and cups. : )
Aren’t they the cutest??
Harper and Kade – our two youngest grandkids.