entering the regional park at 8 AM in the morning – the park runs for miles through the hills –  it’s a climb to get in and a climb to get out.

climbing the trail to the high country

fallen tree blocks the trail up – we have to climb around it to reach the trail on the other side.

on the high side of the fallen tree looking back

on the high trail far above a grade school in the valley below

the high trail

the high trail continues to climb

stopping to take in the vista

look closer – in the center of the photo is a distant pond and there are cattle near it – the first of three ponds we will see on this hike

if you click on the photo, that may cause it to expand and fill your screen – it works that way on my desktop

 the dark green that looks as if it were brush are huge, distant oak trees

 the camera’s battery was running low so I saved the last few shots for the ravine and creek in the low country far below the high trail

the second pond – the largest of the three

a set of stairs – look between the trees

what I call the low country is a ravine with a creek bed running through it – after a heavy rain, it is often flooded – this shot is near the exit and then we will start climbing again

the third pond as we continue to climb out of the valley toward the end of the hike

there are many oak trees of this size – soon we will be back to where we started

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of The Concubine Saga.

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

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