Hiking the mountain
Thursday May 25 2023 I jumped out of bed promptly at 7am, I had developed a plan for today and wanted an early start. I plan on hiking to Natural Bridge this morning and will use two trails, Balanced Rock trail for the accent and the Original Trail for the decent. Both trails are in old growth forest with stunning geological features and sweeping views when you get to the top. Standing under the arch I chose the Balanced rock trail for my accent because there are 600 steps in it’s ¾ mile length. I have a much more challenging stair climb scheduled latter on this trip and wanted to test myself on this smaller climb. Just the way I like it! When I got to the beginning of the trail there was signage that the trail past Balanced rock was closed and you could not reach Natural Bridge. I started my assent thinking that was better than nothing. Because of the early morning and the fact that I was on a closed trail, I was the only moving presence in the forest. It was one of those rare exper