You see some pretty amazing things when you are sitting in your Jeep waiting for your daughter’s hockey practice to finish. Today, I was looking at the clouds while a nice tasty Eyes played in the background on the Grateful Dead channel and of course I started taking some photos. This is the result. What happens tomorrow?? More rain!
“Take only memories, leave only footsteps.”
-Chief Seattle
With spring upon us it can only be assumed that I would make a trip to Anthony’s Nose. For mid April (4/10/17), the weather was perfect and the trail was as beautiful as you would imagine it would be. What also made this hike special was my fifteen (almost sixteen) year old daughter asked if she could come hiking with me. I almost fell over with surprise. Because of hockey, “I’m tired,” and “I have too much school work,” she really hasn’t been out with me much the last couple of years so this was really nice.
One quick side note-As we sat at the top taking pictures, several people made their way from the trail to the view-point. As one group sat and ate a snack, three young ladies arrived and started taking pictures of each over looking the Bear Mt. Bridge. Normally I wouldn’t even give this a second thought, but when they started giving each other directions such as, “lift you leg,” “turn to your left” and “fix your hair,” I literally began to laugh out loud. Even my daughter, who is obviously much closer in age to them as I am, found this amusing as well.
Please don’t get me wrong, I take pictures while I am hiking all of the time. You have seen many of them here on this blog. But posing for pictures like you are on a model shoot to me is over the line. And…after ten minutes of posing for pictures, one of the young ladies turned, posed and then said to her friends, “Is this hikey enough?” Oh boy…
I have no idea why this bothers me so much.
Anyway, here are pictures of yet another hike to Anthony’s Nose.
A brook at the beginning of the hike.
A small pond filled with fresh rain and melted snow.
A freight train heading north on the Hudson River.
Perkins Memorial Tower at the top of Bear Mt., approximately 300 feet higher than Anthony’s Nose.
Old glory standing stiffly, crimson white and indigo.
A wide shot of Bear Mt. as seen from the Nose.
Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it.
-Jerry Garcia
Ideally the point of music is community, not the player. Musicians are simply channels to link the audience to the music and to each other.
-Trey Anastasio
Wrapped in a shroud of psychedelic wonderment,
The music washes over the senses, dripping lyrical sweetness.
Each musical trajectory soothes, shifts and drifts, melting
The false perception of what we believe.
Each reality in its beginning, each note building and climbing,
Waves, rolling and splashing, being absorbed as one, by all.
Musical movement, slow and meandering, snakes through the mind,
Flashing lights corrupt lucid thought, unencumbered by the blizzard
Sweeping in and around the soul. Auditory and visual bliss are within reach, for now.
I usually don’t do this, but I have to tell you about a vendor who deserves a huge shout out. I have to tell you, I really do enjoy burning incense. It helps calm me and makes my house smell great! With that said, I even have different flavors of incense for the many different types of music that I listen to. I have bought incense from him on several occasions and the incense that he sells is of the highest quality. It has a nice even lengthy burn and hasn’t ever crumbled. The owner is very cool so if you get a chance and like to burn incense, please visit:
You won’t regret it!!!!!
Now with that out of the way, I guess this is the week of flea markets. Last weekend I visited the Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market in New Milford, CT. This week, I made the trek to the Stormville Flea Market in Stormville, NY. Held six times a year on a small local airport surrounded by the hills of the Hudson Valley, the series of Flea Markets at the airport begin in April with Springtime in the country and end in November with Christmas in November.
Arriving at just about twenty of eight, a local police officer waved us in the main gate and we followed the slow procession of cars over a muddy road onto grass and then into a field where I parked the car and headed towards the vendor area.
Approaching the first rows of vendors is always interesting. Even if you have only been once before, it is difficult to forget the people who come to Stormville to sell whatever it is that they have to sell. The smell of breakfast sandwiches and incense calmly pass over you as you make your way down the line of brightly painted spots indicating where each vendor has set up to try to get you to buy something from them.
If you aren’t looking for anything specific, you could easily spend hours just walking up and down the aisles and buying things that you may need or want. In my case, it was neither.
As with most flea markets, it is always interesting to see the huge difference between the often sundry items that are offered as compared to the those that considered antiques or collectibles. And believe me, some of the things that you see are just, odd.
Moving down one of the antique aisles, I noticed a large group congregating around one vendor. As I got closer, I saw television cameras and HGTV’s Lara Spencer doing her thing. Pretty interesting stuff.
As usual, a great way to spend a morning!!!!!
“Nothing left to do but but smile.”
-Jerry Garcia
“Whatever you do, take care of your shoes.”
–Trey Anastasio
Today was a long day at work. Leaving work, I just wanted to get home and not do anything. But as I pulled up my driveway, I saw a manila envelope stuck between the windshield wiper and the windshield of my wife’s car and I knew that my day was going to get better. My updated hiking maps had arrived!!! I’m going to put on a Phish show and start planning hikes for the summer. Life is good…
“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.”
-John Burroughs
“Music to me is the air that I breathe, it’s the blood that pumps through my veins that keeps me alive.”
-Billie Joe Armstrong
I love music. I always have and always will. Music has been there for me through all of the good, bad and indifferent times over the course of my life. The lyrics I have memorized and the melodies I love to hear play over and over again on a constant loop like my own personal soundtrack. This is twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
As the years have passed, I have found that my musical tastes have mellowed along with my demeanor. Gone (hopefully) are the days of constant anger and aggression, replaced in part by a sense of well being brought on by making certain positive life choices and then implementing them to see what direction they take me in.
Now, while I still listen to the bands that I did when I was younger (Ozzy, Mettalica, Black Sabbath), today I am drawn more to the likes of the Grateful Dead, Phish, the String Cheese Incident as well as old classic rock favorites such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. When I really feel a need to decompress after a particularly trying day, I’ll put on Bach, Enya or perhaps George Winston.
Each of these artists, depending on my mood and frame of mind, allows me to transcend my personal reality and as a result, I do not have to dwell on whatever that particular day has brought to me. It is my goal to not live in the past, but instead do the best I can with the present so it can enlighten my future.
Although I do not usually listen to music while I am hiking, I will pull out the ipod when I reach a viewpoint or stop to take a rest. The music I listen to when I am hiking are the woods themselves. The soft crunch and swishing of the leaves as I walk along the trail puts me at ease, the same way that music does. The best thing about this is that when you allow yourself to hear the music of the woods, the song never ends! Even hiking in the rain provides a melody all its own that can’t be denied. I like to think of days like this as being under the influence of Mother Nature.
So where does that leave us? Whenever I go out into the woods I do so with a purpose. While hiking for the sake of hiking is ok, you can make a choice to bring each and every hike to a different level after answering a few questions.
First, what brings you to the trail? Thinking about why you are heading out and what you would like to accomplish by being out in the woods. Are you just trying to clear your mind after a bad day? Are you looking for answers to a problem? Whatever the case may be, clear your mind of everything else and get out there. The rest will take care of itself.
Second, think about where you are hiking. It may not seem that important, but subconsciously the hike you choose to do on any particular day reflects the frame of mind that you are in at that time. I know that when I really need to clear my mind, I pick a hike that I know will be challenging. I pick a hike that I know will force me to take full account of what I am doing. I am hiking!!!
Third, getting outside, embracing nature and taking advantage of that time and what the outdoors has to offer is very therapeutic and transformative. When you are hiking, either with friends or alone, take the time with your thoughts so you can really embrace each moment. You can think and focus on what you need to configure your own revitalization and rejuvenation.
So take the music that is the soundtrack of your life and your love of the woods and savor those memories. Take the time to file each of them away in your heart instead of just in your mind. That is what makes not only hiking, but your life, special.
The Zen Hiker 