Listening to the birds chirping and the wind blowing through the leaves on the trees while I took in the view from the mountain top was something I’d been waiting to experience again for months. As we started the four-wheeler’s back up and rode down the mountainside, I felt at peace with everything going on in my life. When we got to the bottom of the mountain we drove down the one lane road at about 40 miles per hour, the wind blowing through our hair and our eyes slowly starting to water. The woods on both sides of the road was so green and I could see the sun peeking through the treetops. 

We pulled over and parked once we got to the bridge at the end of the lane, then ran down to the creek. As the mud squished between my toes I grabbed my best friend Maddie’s hand and we stepped into the cold creek. Eventually, we both dunked our heads under the cold water and swam around for a little. We walked across the creek to the hammock that’s hanging between two large locust trees and fell onto it. We laid there for a while and talked about all kinds of things. When we got back on the four-wheelers’ we started back down the lane so we could ride on the mountain for a little.

Once we got down to the cabin after riding, we grabbed the fishing rods and tackle box then headed back down the wooded lane. As we turned off the road and started riding up the mountain on a dirt trail that overlooked the farms and mountains, I couldn’t believe how amazing the view was. We got to the top and just stopped for a few moments to take it all in. We started heading down the other side of the mountain on a stone trail, when two doe jumped out in front of us and seemed to lead us the rest of the way down. As we reached the bottom I could see the bridge where we fish at and the small waterfall right behind it. We drove over the bridge and splashed through the mud puddles on the other side before parking.

As soon as we stepped onto the bridge and put bait on our hooks, we cast our lines in the water. It wasn’t long before I already had a bite, I reeled the line in and saw that I had caught a nice size rainbow trout. As I pulled the hook out of his lip, I walked down to the edge of the water and slowly put him back in. It took him a little but he eventually swam away. After Maddie had caught a few, we decided to head back to the cabin. As we were driving back, we stopped and took a hike up a hill on a trail which had tall grass on each side of it. When you got to the top you could see the other mountains in the distance and the sky was bright blue with giant fluffy white clouds.
Later that evening, we drove up the mountainside to a shale cliff and parked both four-wheeler’s close to the edge. We placed pillows over the handle bars and laid down, then took in the view that was in front of us. You could see for miles and on each side of the valley in the distance there were mountains full of beautiful green trees. The sun was slowly setting and there was a yellow hue peeping through the clouds. I laid there for a minute with my eyes closed and just thanked the lord for giving me the life he did. When I opened my eyes, the sky had turned a beautiful orange yellow and in about ten minutes the sun had fully set. We started the four-wheeler’s and headed down the mountainside.

When we got back to the cabin, we grabbed some wood off the wood pile and some newspaper off the porch. We balled up the newspaper and put some logs on top then lit it with a lighter. Once the fire took hold we went and got sticks along with a bag of marshmallows. As we sat there on logs and toasted marshmallows, I took in the smell of the campfire and everyone laughing while we told stories.

I’ll never forget the views I saw as I spent the day riding four-wheeler with my best friend and the amount of thankfulness I felt for being able to experience things like these. After this day, I knew that I should be more appreciative of the life I have and start living it to the fullest.