Hike Into the Past- Ruffner Mountain

As a boy, I practically lived on Ruffner Mountain. In the days before cell phones- we would pack a brown bag lunch and walk off into the woods, only to return at dusk.

We had it all 'mapped out'- the limestone quarries, the iron ore mines, we knew how to get to..and climb the old fire tower.. and we knew that over the ridge was the Ruffner ball fields.

So it was good memories today, to go over to the Ruffner Mountain Park and hike some of those old trails.

The neighborhood is pretty rough now, though the parking on 81st street seemed fine.

We hiked to the quarry and them took the orange trail to the east trailhead and back.

I mapped from the quarry back, which was about 3 miles. Very tough terrain of up and down the ridge!

Some shots at the old quarry:

Here is the entrance on 81st St South.

Then the saddest part of the day was seeing how bad the old house was where I grew up in.
I guess I'm doing better at 50 than this old house is!

We had a good day on a cold spring break in B'ham.