The Old, Abandoned Trail

One day while I was tromping through the woods, I came across this sign, "Trail not maintained for public use." Hmmm, what did that mean?  I figured that there was something important enough for someone to have built a trail there in the first place, even if no one was using it now.

So I did what anyone else would do and kept going.

Actually Henry took the lead, clearing the trail and ensuring my safety. Okay, probably not, but at least he was getting some exercise. 

The trail was really an old road, wide and easy to follow. My curiosity grew. A road meant that there might be something important ahead.

And then I saw this log off to the side of the old road, a rough-cut old log. It reminded me of a Lincoln log like the ones I used to play with in my grandma's basement. After we got done making all sorts of neat houses, we had fun catapulting the little lincoln logs all across the basement. She's probably still finding them in the corners.

On the other side of the old road was an honest to goodness Lincoln log cabin. The ends of the logs were notched so they would fit together. It was extremely cool. As you can see by the tree growing in the cabin, the roof fell in a really long time ago.

The scenery was nice, but why did someone build a home here? The answer was just a little further up the road. A big pile of dirt, a tailings pile, alerted me to a nearby mine. It turns out that they used to mine silver up this canyon. I'm always amazed at the really remote places people lived in the old days. Today modern vehicles shorten distances, but it still took nearly an hour to get to where I started hiking. In the old days, it would easily have been at least half a day in a wagon. These people were tough, not being able to pop into a convenience store to get some milk or eggs or ice cream when they ran out.

Seeing the old cabin made me appreciate what I usually take for granted. Maybe it's good to take the road less traveled every once in awhile.