Saturday, September 25, 2010

Summer in September!

 On Sunday Dan & I went ATVing up to Miracle Mountain, figuring we'd see some fall color- but thankfully, amazingly, it's still summer in our mountains, and it was 90 degrees and everything was gloriously green! Woot! As we often do, we ATVed from the Elkhorn Inn through Eckman, to Gary, and then through Elbert & Filbert, and then followed the signs up to Miracle Mountain... We found a babbling brook and a stand of cattails (I picked a bunch to make a fabulous "Martha-Stewart-Meets-Appalachia" arrangement back at the Inn), encountered masses of small orange butterflies and Monarchs, dealt with one really tricky place where we had to gun our ATVs up a rocky ledge in 1st gear... We stopped at Frog Rock and the heart-shaped Koi Pond on Miracle Mountain and enjoyed the frogs leaping into the pond... Then we continued riding up to the 1940s log cabin at the top of Miracle Mountain so we could see the glorious view...  Then we took the path off to the right of Miracle Mountain and continued on up and around to the very top of the mountain and found our "meadow on the mountain-top" and had our sexy-romantic picnic in the summer sunshine... and saw deer tracks! And then all too soon (like always...) it was time to pack up and go, and we rode our ATVs home, back to the Inn, in the deepening twilight... That "meadow on the mountain-top" is truly my "happy place" with Dan, and it truly feels like ours, and ours alone...  Hope you enjoy our little scrapbook!
McDowell County, WV


Elisse, ATVing!

Babbling Brook...


Coming into Gary...



Leaving Gary...





Outside of Gary...

Dan, ATVing!

"The road less traveled..."





Butterflies...


Butterflies on my boots...

Turn off to Miracle Mountain

Frog Rock!

Dan, Miracle Mountain

Heart-shaped Koi Pond, Miracle Mountain

Frog! At the Koi Pond, Miracle Mountain

1940s Log Cabin, Miracle Mountain

Miracle Mountain Cabin


Old McDowell County photos at Miracle Mountain Cabin

Painting at the Cabin at Miracle Mountain



Meadow on the Mountain-Top


Meadow on the Mountain-Top Picnic

Deer tracks!



Leaving Gary...


Elisse: Ready to Ride at the Elkhorn Inn,
in her Hunter Orange cashmere from www.uglysweatershop.com!