We don’t take every official holiday. It’s part of the reality of running your own business. But I took off last Friday for the observed Fourth of July holiday. It was such a different sort of day that it offered a wonderful refresher even if it left me physically drained.

I set out on a long commute about the time the sun rose. Well, it would be more of a super-commute if anyone made it regularly as I drove nearly two hours to Pilot Mountain State Park. It is a distinctive stone pillar topped by trees now, the result of a mountain that has eroded much more slowly than its surroundings. You can see it for miles and miles.

With temperatures spiking above 100 degrees with some humidity thrown in, I limited activity to the morning. I did the same Saturday and Sunday as well. As a result, I took the lazy approach and drove to the top of the ridge instead of hiking up from the bottom. I chose this in order to get some diversity in my trail miles, but the trail along the Yadkin River in a different part of the park was a disappointment relative to the trails along the Eno closer to home.

Atop the ridge, there is first a short little trail to a promontory to observe the mountain. Then I walked along the trail at the base of the exposed rock. It isn’t a long trail, not quite a mile, but it is always imposing standing under a sheer rock face. The views looking out over the Yadkin Valley are really something too, even if the far vistas were shrouded even under clear blue skies. Once I completed the circuit, I extended the walk by walking down the ridge a little to an area where groups of people were climbing the rock face (you cannot climb the main mountain itself). I picked a few wild blackberries along the way and stopped to eat them in the shade amidst the cooing of pigeons nesting in the cliffs. Then I scrambled up a gully and connected with the main trail up to the top of the ridge and completed by little figure eight. I was off the mountain before eleven and then drove to the second part of the itinerary that proved less exciting.

I did not visit any of the wineries in the area on this trip, but I did stop for lunch at a good little diner in the town of Pilot Mountain for a nice country breakfast style meal. There are many more places to explore in this state, but I’m satisfied that I did this one justice.