Birthday Hike, 10/15/05, Part 1 (10 Photos)
The hike up the Peaks of Otter was a smashing success, even if we (well, most of us) did arrive nearly two hours late. Laurie, Tamara / mauzybroadway, and I all rode up together, closely followed by Walt / whiskeyrivers and Pete K. Mike / time_shark arrived at the same time as Walt and Pete...and then partway up the trail we met Casey / sophonax, who had arrived on time and was on her way back down. Fortunately she was willing and able to hike back up to the top with us. :) (This was the first time we'd met Casey in person, and she turned out to be a great lady.)

You won't see hike shots of Walt and Pete, though--they needed to take the bus up, and the mountaintop chill (and the high winds) had them ready to hike back down by the time Laurie, Tamara, Mike, Casey, and I arrived. Fortunately Laurie and I got to make up the time with them elsewhere.

I shot something like five-dozen pictures up there with the digital camera alone (plus most of a roll with the manual); the ones I'll be posting here are among my favorites (but it was, as you can imagine, extremely hard to choose). But that day, on the peak of Sharp Top, it would have been impossible to take a bad picture.

"Thattaway?"

Mike and I start talking shop right from the very beginning.

Tamara on our first boulder.

Right after Casey joined us.

And the rock cried out, "No hiding place!"

Look closely, those are fawns watching us from a few feet away.
There's no hunting allowed up here, and people often feed the deer,
so they're extremely tame.

They even came out on the trail.

Laurie conquers the top!

Tamara and Laurie climb to the peak of the peak of Sharp Top.

Casey, Tamara, and Laurie. You can't tell it from here,
but it was extremely windy up top.

Mike takes control of Bedford County below.

Go on to Part 2.