A short day trip to Manton

I was up in the mountains one morning when my boyfriend's mom Kris asked if I wanted to go for a ride with her. I thought it would be fun to so I agreed.

Kris drove to Rock Creek Road. She was telling me stories about how she and her dog Lilly used to go for walks in the area. As we went down the road we looked at the areas that had recently been logged. There were also areas that were not logged and were dense forests.

As we drove along we saw a hawk. He flew over us and we were able to watch him as he flew from one tree to another. I was finally able to get a quick picture of him, but he was very far away.

The road took us down in elevation and the forested areas opened up. We could see the scared trees from the Manton Fire that happened in 2012. Vast areas were tree less and many areas had snags that stood out solitarily in a field.

Grasses and brush were now growing on the once scorched

landscape. It's amazing to me how the land heals with time. It reminds me that I too need time to heal whenever I get sick.

Further down we found raspberries and blackberries growing along a trickling creek. There were signs that this creek usually had a better flow, but it had been stifled by the drought.

Finally we go to a low enought elevation where the blackberries were ripe. Kris and I snacked on them. We also picked many others to take home with us. By the time we were done picking berries I had purple hands and purple spots on my capris. I had scratches on my hands, arms and bare legs from the blackberry thorns. I wished I had been prepared to go berry picking, but this was spontineity at it's best.

When we were done with blackberry picking, we continued our journey down to the town of Manton where we stopped to get some snacks for our lunch. The store owner was gracious enough to refill my bottle with ice cold water.

This quick little outing was such fun. I dozed during our drive back home. It's nice to be able to on short little outing like this, even though they can exhaust me quickly. It was a great day and I want to go back and get more berries in a few weeks. Perhaps next time we can get enough berries to make jam.

I hope my fellow Zebras can go and get some vine fresh blackberries too. Many hugs.