The first place to see snow, and the last to feel the warmth of spring. Just as an old grandfather, it stands there watching over all it surveys.  And just as an old grandfather, we sometimes never notice it is there. It always seemed so far away. I remember Curtis Shawver telling me one time that he couldn't sleep one night and took a walk up and back. Of course I told him I didn't believe him. No one would walk up there, at night, by himself.  He said "If you don't believe me, ask my brother Cletis. I met him on the way back". Curtis Shawver was.......another story.

In all the time I spent roaming the mountain and hills around Alderson, I've only been to Keeney's twice. Both times as a kid. My folks took me up there by truck, which I barely remember, and the other time I walked up the mountain. That was quite an adventure for a little guy. Davy Fisher and I decided to make the trip, so we rode our bikes from Alderson, down the Hinton road, and turned up Eagle Branch Road to his grandmothers house.  We spent the night there so we could get an early start the next morning. We followed the road to where we came to a path that lead up the mountain. From there we started our climb.

The climb itself wasn't that eventful, but about half way up we stop at a cabin to talk to a lady and her kids. The kids ran when they saw us, and she said she hadn't been to town in a few years. I thought that was sort of strange.

As we continued, the climb seemed to go on forever. I was starting to think about getting home before night. I certainly didn't want to walk down the mountain in the dark (like Curt Shawver), and I expressed my concern to Davy. He said something about being a chicken, and we went on.

We saw a few snakes, but that was it until we reached the fire tower. There was no one there so we climbed up the ladder as far as  we could and noticed it was locked. I also noticed it wasn't that stable. It would sway a little as we climbed up. So I tried to get it to sway as much as I could. To my surprise, this scared Davy, and he begged me to stop. I remembered feeling very good about that. I was afraid of the trip up an back, but Davy was afraid of the swaying tower.  I guess that kind of evened things out. There wasn't much more to do, so we started back down the mountain. It was a much easier trip. Maybe, someday I'll go back up there. But I think I'll take the road.