I love living in the mountains of eastern Kentucky because as far as scenic beauty it has a lot to offer. There is no better way to take in this scenic beauty than to climb to the top of one of these mountains and gaze out over the land and everything below. This is something my brother and I enjoy doing. This past weekend we did just that, but what started as a scouting trip for raspberries and blackberries turned into a long hike for him, a nice bicycle ride for me (after I mastered the technique for negotiating fallen tree limbs), and an all around long trip for our dog.

My family owns a decent amount of land behind our home that is pretty much unusable because it is a mountainside, a beautiful mountainside, but an unusable, beautiful mountainside. Mom and dad wish a majority of it was flat so we could plant a garden on it since we’re going to all have to go back living like in the pioneer days by growing our own food due the fact that it is getting unaffordable now. However, the mountainside isn’t flat, which means no garden for mom and dad, but it provides all kinds of possibilities for my brother and me to explore and not to mention some good raspberries. Ask my dog about that. She was picking them off the vine and eating them faster than my brother and me.

As I said before, my brother and I went scouting for raspberries and blackberries this past weekend and ended up taking a pretty good trip through the hills. We found enough raspberries to make a cobbler, and in case you are wondering yes, it was good, and we also learned that even though a few of the blackberries might look ripe, they are not ready to be picked. They could stand a couple more days on the vine.

We have taken little hikes like this before. For example, a few weeks ago during the spell of 90 degree days, my brother thought it would be a good idea to walk to the top of the same mountain. During my lifetime, I’ve had the opportunity to explore a majority of the mountain but there where some portions that I had never seen with one of those portions being the peak. I thought I had been to the top of the mountain, but as my brother showed me, I had been no where close.

Since the land had been mined in the past, the 1960’s I was told, there is a road that goes to a high wall so my brother and I drove as far as we could, got out and started our trek up the mountain. At first it wasn’t too bad, the incline was gradual and there was plenty of vegetation and trees and many signs of wildlife. After a short walk we came to a huge tree that almost blocked our path and did block my view of what lay ahead. My brother said, “Around that tree is where it gets fun,” so I looked around the tree and saw nothing but a path surrounded by other trees that went straight up the hill and when I say straight up, I mean it was so steep that a mountain goat would be proud to put his hooves on it and call it home. After walking for what felt like forever and making about 50 stops to rest we climbed up to an opening in the trees and looked out where we could see for miles. From that one location we could see three phone towers and hundreds of mountain tops rolling in the distance. I didn’t know there was such a view near my home because after all that same mountain had been mined in the past. The difference between my mountain top and the others that are left after mining today is the mountaintop my brother and I were standing on wasn’t properly reclaimed and the high wall was left. I wish it had been reclaimed properly because it was a tough climb to the top of that hill and I consider myself to be in decent shape. It would have also made for a much easier bicycle ride. But regardless of how it was reclaimed, I’ve been to the top of my mountain and it was there.