The View From “Up There”

“I want to go up there”, my 95 y/o friend would tell me, as we were in the car driving during the Fall when all of the leaves were changing color. “Where?” I would ask.

“Up there” she would say again. pointing to the mountains (okay – hills) that were usually right in front of us as we would drive. Drive to a haircut appointment, drive to pick up groceries, or to go out for lunch. “It must be really beautiful in the Fall” she would say.

She told me her son had driven her to top of these hills several months ago. “You could see everything,” she said. But it wasn’t during the Fall and as the leaves were now changing colors, I’m sure she was correct when she said it would be colorful.

So this turned into a mission for me. To find the road that went to the top of the mountains that overlooked our small town of Frederick, MD. So that when the Fall came and the foliage was at its peak, then maybe instead of celebrating her birthday at a noisy restaurant, we could “grab some sandwiches” and have a picnic.

It was a wonderful idea if only I could find the road to the top.

It would have been so great if you could just point your phone to the view and say “Hey Siri, how do I get to the top of those mountains so I can check out the view?” But – in the world of Siri, you have to know what you’re talking about and maybe it’s not a bad thing to actually use that “old skill” of actually looking at a map, or in this case, a trail guide.

I told a few of my other friends about this endeavor I was on to find the road that led to the place that overlooked our town. Sure enough, one day I was driving with another friend who said “I think I know the road the goes up there”. For the next hour we drove through a few different neighborhoods and then finally found the road that led us to Gambrill State Park.

Ever been there? No? You should go.

As you can tell by the photo above, we missed the foliage by about a week and a half. But next year – next year, we’ll be the group of folks hanging out at the overlook having a picnic.