Distance: 4.0 miles Rating: 5/5
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Conditions: Mostly to partly cloudy. Moderate breeze through the pine tops becoming a little blustery at times. Moderate waves on the lake, but no whitecaps. Temps in upper 50's. Comfortable while hiking, but would be cool if you were not moving. No one else on trails. Trails in good condition. Lots of leaves down and had to watch your step on descents.
Thoughts/Observations:
Met Glenn at DQ on AL-14 and he rode with me to the trail head. Great day for hiking. Nice and cool (with the wind) but not cold enough to need a jacket or heavy clothing. First time I've hiked with my brother in several months - enjoyed it a great deal.
Many passarines (as usual) were busy in the forest. Observed crow and turkey vulture. Did not scare up any whitetail deer this time. Most of the deciduous leaves are on the ground but there was a little color still left in the forest. These stood out even more so amongst the green, brown, and gray of late Fall. A few hardy yellow wildflowers were still in bloom and posed nicely for my camera. The typical fluffy white or gray tufts of various grasses were also in abundance along the trails.
While hiking along the lake shore, we were treated to a sailing regatta. Seven or eight sailboats were playing about in the middle of the lake (including the one with the American flag sail). I stopped for a while to watch and snap pictures. I do so want to take sailing lessons one of these days. I still have a dream of sailing around the world -- or at least getting lost sailing to unknown tropical islands. Sounds crazy, I know, but it has been a dream of mine since childhood. (Anyone ever seen the original "Mysterious Island" or read "Swiss Family Robinson"?)
During the quiet stretches of our hike I recalled some of the Hike Saturday's we have held up here. They were so amazing. I hope I can still have times such as that with my friends up here or any where for that matter.
1 comment:
Nice description of the lovely hiking day :-)
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