I have been on a bit of a hiking/walking spree. Last week I hiked nearly every day and I am not talking short ones. Sunday morning I woke up bright and early and went on a five-plus walk around a lake.
Monday I went with a friend on a jaunt where we parked a car in one spot and then drove to another and walked back to the first car. That I thought was the big one for the week.
I was wrong. Another friend was dying to get into the woods and I was hesitant because yesterday I felt a little, well, crippled, but I said I'd do a short one.
Short? Three hours and at least 8 miles, possibly nine miles later, I hobbled out of the woods and screamed NO MORE!
Well no, not really. I just said that I wasn't hiking tomorrow!
And I sit here and can feel my bones feel ... tired. It's not a bad feeling, and overall I feel pretty good. There's not much to complain about when you spend the better part of your day on a trail with colored leaves and blue sky and dogs running about and finally, FINALLY a destination made ... a pond in the middle of nowhere! Yes!
I feel a sense of urgency to be out in the woods as much as possible because the inevitable is right there ... so close you can smell it. What is it? The end of the beauty of fall. The leaves will all fall leaving bare and stark trees standing there naked and foolish and the path will soon be covered in ice and snow. And when I say you can smell it, I truly mean it. You can smell the leaves decomposing. It's not a bad smell, just one of those lingering reminders that nothing lasts.
Especially not a season in N.H.
I am leaving for Chicago on Thursday and am a bit panicked at the thought of returning on Monday to fall erased! Hopefully the leaves will stick around for another week at least so I can let my bones perk up for another marathon series of hike 'til you drop!
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