BROWN AND GRAY

A few weeks ago I talked about the change of the seasons with the brightly colored leaves and how Mother Nature painted everything up. Well...that's all over now and things are that mixture of browns and grays that gives the woods a kind of drabby look.

I took a hike yesterday on one of the trails I travel on a pretty regular basis and it was much quieter than usual. I guess the birds didn't event like the color of the woods because they were pretty quiet as well. About 2 1/2 miles into the walk I finally saw a squirrel, or else he saw me first and he ran across the ground to a big wild cherry tree and rocketed up it till he got to a knot hole that he dove into, kicking out leaves from the nest he had built inside. I didn't see another furry critter for the next three miles just before I got to the shelter that overlooks a small river 300 feet below. Two deer bounced away from me across a small ridge. I don't know if it was my odor or just my looks they didn't like. Might have been the bright yellow jacket I had on. I did find a creekbed that brightened one area up quite a bit. Heavy rains the few days before had washed away the sandstone gravel to expose some bright white bedrock below it. It was easy to spot as the sun bounced off of it. The few puddles of water in the creekbed was like mirrors with the trees above reflecting off of them. At least not everything was all drabby.


One thing all the rain did do was bring the water table up. In the summer water sources are hard to find on this particular trail but in the spring, winter, and fall they are in abundance. A couple of the springs were gushing with water and some of the other streams had a good supply to filter from. I had brought water with me but there was plenty of extra around in case there had been any kind of emergency. I always carry my filter with me just for that purpose. I was going to do 11 miles on this day but a sore knee and a muscle pull made me cut it a bit short. I'm not that far from the 400 mile mark and I know I can get it done. I'm thinking maybe of doing a big hike on New Year's Eve. That would be a great way of ending the old year, by maxing out the 400...then I can get ready to do even more next year.