Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that I was able to celebrate with my dad on his 60th birthday. 

And that I had the chance to fly to Alaska with my aunt and support my sister in her very first professional theater performance in "The Odd Couple." 

This week I am thankful that, even though I live far away, my family is still so close. 

Capitol Peak

Today we conquered Capitol Peak.
"Conquered" is the wrong word because this particular hike was not only short and easy, but kind of disappointing.

We headed out to Capitol Forest this afternoon, following the C-Line not quite as far as I did for Fuzzy Top, taking a sharp right up the mountain onto the C-7000. This road was steep and windy, with several view points of deforestation. Eventually C-7000 merges with C-4000 into this large open road with ample room for parking.

Click for view of larger map

There is a gate leading to the Capitol Peak trail (complete with broken shards of glass, thanks friends of the forest), but the trail is just a gravel road, straight up to the summit (2659') about a quarter mile. It's steep enough to give you a great butt workout, but once you get there, it's just more deforestation viewpoints and a bunch of communication towers. I guess Capitol Peak isn't really a trail and instead more of a road leading to these stations. According to Summit Post, Capitol Peak has been used for technological purposes since the 1920s (lookout towers, radar stations and communication towers) due to its elevation amidst wide open ranges.

We decided to have fun anyway, though.