3
Though the next day was bright and sunny, the trip back up to the mountain was gloomy. Tony tried to get Amanda to talk with him about work, food, anything that would bring out a smile or at least a hint of one. She could only manage a few basic answers, and after an hour he finally gave up. They had to stop only once to gas up, and at that point they were about fifty miles from the head of the trail. Tony paid the cost inside the small, old-fashioned log convenience store.
There weren’t any other customers that day, not with the tourist season just about over. Tony opted to ask the storekeeper about the cabin. He was an older gentleman, about sixty years old, and had an open and frank manner about himself. The perfect man to tell him something about the area, down to the hoary
