Saturday, May 14, 2011

Mother Nature's Playground

About 1/4 mile from my house is one of the coolest little trails you could want. It's called Shining Rock and we've climbing to the top for years. The kids call it Shiny Mountain. It's a little state conservation area.


Over the winter, two things happened. First, I became insane and decided I loved running on hilly trails. Second, some wonderfully nice mountain biker carved a couple of downhill runs with some scary technical stuff. I would be crapping my shorts if I tried riding on this but running on it is an absolute blast. It's fun going up and going down. There are jumps, burms, rocks to climb, streams to splash in, and cliffs to fall off. That is my idea of a party.

The big payoff is the scenery from the top. You can see about 20 miles from the edge of the granite face.
It really makes it worth it to stop, rest, and enjoy what you have accomplished. Since Shining Rock Golf Club is at the very top, you may also be lucky enough to catch the beer cart girls for a little celebratory libation along the way.

2 comments:

  1. You can't mention the beer cart and then not have a beer in the picture. I mean, come on!

    Also, do you want me to tell you where the typo is?

    ReplyDelete