RAs to Cheaha Mountain
August 8, 2009
On August 8, we had our traditional pancake breakfast with the boys and drove to Cheaha Mountain in Alabama.
We went to the top of Cheaha Mountain and found a place where the boys enjoyed climbing around on the rocks. The photo above is at the overlook near the peak. In back are Scott Kelley, Johnny Huffman, Stan and Buzz Rowland. The boys are Joshua Kelley, Hunter Rowland, Kaulin Brinson, Connor Smith and Austin Hughes.
We started with our traditional pancake breakfast. Johnny serves pancakes. Ricky Ridgway was invited as part of the men's Bible study, and we put him to work serving sausage.  |  |
  |  Stan drove us in the church van, and we were on top of Cheaha Mountain in about an hour and 45 minutes. We unload and head for the observation tower, which was constructed from stone by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the World War II era. |
The view from the top was neat, but I believe the boys found the climb up the interior stone staircase even more fascinating than the view.
We drove a short distance to a region of rocky outcroppings were the boys could climb, and that's what they really wanted to do.
We headed down the trail to the rocky point where we could look out over the wooded valley. |  |
 | The boys at the overlook. |
 | We took a break for water and apples and gave the boys a bit of time to play around on the rocks. They were pretty agile at exploring rocks without losing their apples. Below, Hunter is up the rock like a squirrel, but he never loses his grip on the apple. |
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Connor tops the big rock!
A short distance down the mountain from the overlook was a wonderful rock ledge with lots of rocky areas below it for the boys to explore. We just slowed down the schedule there to allow them to play for a while.   |   The boys found a crevice they could climb to get back up to the level of the top ledge. |
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 | We found yet another high rock to climb, which gave us a view of this whole rocky area. |
 The boys explored the underside of the walkway to the overlook.   | Our last climbing area for this excursion was out of a deep rock trench on the way back to the overlook.  We headed back toward the parking area on the wooden walkway. It had been a good exploration time for the boys. |
 The boys help carry the food and we set up for lunch at the picnic area at the lake at Cheaha Mountain State Park. |  |
 | We spent the rest of our time playing in the lake with the boys. |
| We had an active time of playing games and tossing the kids. It was an active recreation area with a diving platform off to the side of where we were playing. |  |
 | It was time to go, and Stan headed the van back down the pleasant Alabama forest road of the Taladega National Forest. We praised the Lord for another safe trip with the boys. |
| Visit with Sherry at Bent Tree |
2009