Near the top of the road to the parking lot we encountered one of Deena's law firm attorneys, Dan and his wife, who were biking up the very steep road. We had a nice visit.
At the beginning of the hike we ate a picnic lunch of Deena’s home-made, delicious, healthy, fresh food. After cleaning up the site we hiked north down, and down, and down a very steep, rocky trail. The path is well graded and well maintained so traversing it is not too tough, just committing – because returning to the parking lot requires hiking back up, and up, and up the same trail. Further up the trail we traversed some sections with long, steep rock inclines and no obvious steps, which were considerable tougher.
We saw some wonderful views of the Black Mountains in all directions. We passed a fair number of other hikers who were uniformly pleasant with whom to chat. We did not quite make it to Big Tom due to the ruggedness of the trail and the constant threat of bad weather with the danger of lightening. On the way back to the parking lot the rain finally caught up with us and we were happy to be prepared with rain suits. A good time was had by all!
