Tag Archives: Inner Peace

The First Hike Of December!!!!!

4 Replies

“While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best.”
-Tom Allen

The first hike of December!!!! As you probably can imagine, it was pretty cold when I started my hike this morning. Not frigidly cold (as it certainly could have been), but cold enough to where I couldn’t just where shorts and a t-shirt (my favorite hiking attire). At 22 degrees, this was one of the coldest mornings that I have hiked this year. With no wind blowing, although it was chilly, it made the hiking easy.

122017

A frosty way to start the day!

122016

122012

122003

2017 Mileage:

12/2/17-6.4-349.32

Another Beautiful Day, Another Great Hike…

6 Replies

003

It’s a rare day in late, late November when you can actually hike for a few hours in shorts and a t-shirt and not feel chilly at some point. Today, I decided to hold off starting my hike until around 10:30 am. My original thought was that it would be much warmer than the usual 6:00 am start which would make things a little more comfortable.

004

The one thing that I tend to forget when I start my hikes later, especially on days like today, are the number of people who come out to hike. Because I usually get out so early, I rarely see anyone with the exception of some trail runners. On my hike today it seemed like I was running into someone ever couple of minutes. I actually started wondering where they were all coming from…

All in all it was another excellent hike. I got to meet a couple of nice people and as usual they had some incredibly friendly dogs who were eager to make my acquaintance. I really should start taking picture of all of the dogs that I meet when I am hiking.

002

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

11/25/17-7.7-339.12

 

Transformation

3 Replies
“I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful — an endless prospect of magic and wonder.”
— Ansel Adams
“We must go and see for ourselves.”
— Jacques Cousteau

008

One of the things that I love most about fall hiking are the trees. No longer covered in leaves, the bare branches stand a lonely guard over the rest of the woods. I don’t know why, but I find that once they have been prepped for winter, they are truly fascinating. At dawn or under a clear blue sky, each branch, large and small, present themselves as the one true guardian of nature as it sinks into its winter slumber.

001

The transformation that has taken place in the woods at Ward Pound Ridge over the last month and a half has been incredible. My first exposure to these trails was late July, when summer was already in full swing. Now, as time passes and the leaves have fallen, the view changes almost daily.

004

003

006

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

11/24/17-4.1-331.42

Transformation

A Thanksgiving Hike

Leave a reply

WP_20171123_005

WP_20171123_006

Have you ever had a day when you were hiking where everything just clicked? Where each stride you took was effortless and you felt like you could hike forever? These days don’t happen very often, but when they do, watch out!

Luckily for me, today was one of those days. From the minute I started, I knew that I was going to be able to add a few miles on to what I had originally intended to do. My legs were loose, the air was a crisp 27 degrees and with no discernible breeze, the woods were silent.

2017 Mileage:

11/23/17-8.2-327.32

Winter Is On Its Way

Leave a reply

“Nature is not mute. It is man who is deaf.”

-Terence McKenna

Even though I don’t know anyone who had pink eye, I managed to get a rather nasty case of it in both of my eyes. After waking up with both of my eyes crusted shut, I made my way into work and after about an hour was banished by the school nurse to seek medical treatment.  A trip to my local urgent care confirmed the obvious…that I had pink eye in both eyes. The remedy? Eye drops every six hours for five days.

Since I couldn’t return to school and didn’t want to sit at home, I decided to…you guessed it, go hiking! The day was clear and the temperature hovered around fifty degrees. Even though a steady breeze made the relatively warm day for November seem just a little cooler, it was still a perfect day to be out in the woods.

Heading out to Ward Pound Ridge, I figured it would be smart to carry a whole bunch of paper towels to wipe my eyes if I needed to. Besides the gritty feeling I had in my eyes every time I blinked, I felt pretty good and was ready to move! Crusty eyes be damned!

003

001

002

Overall it was a decent hike. I took it a lot slower than I normally would have, but that’s ok, just being able to clear my mind was good enough. As you can see by the pictures, the colors of fall are now gone and the long dark days of winter are almost here.

2017 Mileage:

11/21/17-5.2-319.12

 

 

Temporary

Leave a reply

Every  minute of every day passes most times without us even noticing the beauty that surrounds us. Unfortunately this beauty is just a snapshot, a moment in time that is temporary.

WP_20171104_010

Temporary

Start In The Dark, End In The…

Leave a reply

“Nature is not our enemy, to be raped and conquered. Nature is ourselves, to be cherished and explored.” 

-Terence McKenna

What a beautiful and exhilarating morning! I decided that on my hike today (11/4/17) I would test out the headlamp that I recently purchased (previous post). Starting out at just about 5:20 am, it was still fully dark and would remain so for almost the full duration of my hike. I also finally got the chilly morning that I have been waiting for! Even though the temperature was 35 degrees, it didn’t feel that cold and as I entered the woods, it was almost perfectly silent. The only sound that I could hear were my boots shuffling through the fallen leaves as I walked up the trail.

With the exception of the last 15 minutes of the hike, I used the headlamp to illuminate the ground as I walked. I thought at first that it would be difficult to see the trail in front of me, but the lamp proved to be very effective in making sure that I could see any rocks or roots that could prove to be an issue as I hiked.

The picture below, although it is a really crappy cell phone photo, shows you how well the trail was lit during this hike.

WP_20171104_005

As I made my way out of the woods, I saw the last of a huge moon setting and when I turned to the east, I was treated to a beautiful sunrise.

WP_20171104_014

WP_20171104_012

WP_20171104_010

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

11/4/17-5.3-313.92

Autumn Sunrise

2 Replies

“Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.”

-George Washington Carver

103117009

This is why we hike…

103117002

A Halloween sunrise!!!

103117001

The tree in the first picture taken a few minutes later.

Mornings like today are the reason why people love to hike. Just as the sun was coming up the temperature was a crisp 44 degrees and a slight breeze was making its way through the woods. You could still see the evidence of a really nasty rainstorm that had moved through the area all day Sunday into Monday morning. Tons of twigs, small limbs and fallen trees now litter the trail as compared to just a few days ago.

Besides the abundance of debris on the trail, the only difference as the days progress is the continued loss of leaves from the trees. Every hike that I do now in Ward Pound Ridge serves as an awakening to the coming winter months. The trees are much barer and the woods have opened up, telling an entirely different story than the one I have been used to all summer.

103117006

A happy place, either before or after a hike.

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

10/31/17-3.6-304.52

Work->Green Trail->Home

Leave a reply

“Walking is my main method of relaxation. I don’t go over my lines or try to solve the world’s problems, I just enjoy the scenery and the wildlife.”
-Kevin Whately

WP_20171019_006

The changing leaves as seen through my crappy cell phone camera!

I have found no better way to end a day than to get out and hike. This time of year is especially nice with the cooler temperatures and leaves falling out of the trees to just wander around the woods and think about absolutely…nothing. All I need is that couple of hours of movement to get the brain straight.

After work today (Thursday 10/19), I made my way to Ward Pound Ridge to hike the Green Trail. Today’s hike was made that much better by the total absence of any people. The only company I had this afternoon was the breeze blowing through the trees and an ocassional squirrel making its way from tree to tree.

WP_20171019_004

The sun setting in the woods about half of the way through the hike.

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

10/19/17-3.5-291.62

 

Sunday Morning Mindfulness

Leave a reply

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

~William Blake

Sunday mornings are always a good morning for hikes. This one was as well, but I was still a little tired from the 10 mile hike that I did late Friday so I knew I wouldn’t be doing a repeat! With that said, the Green Trail looked like the way to go. Three and a half miles was enough to get me in the proper frame of mind for the day!

Happy Hiking!!!

2017 Mileage:

10/15/17-3.5-288.12