Finally, some prime hiking weather! Last evening cool winds from WNW broke the heat of the past few days and brought welcome rain! What else could I do but get up before dawn and head out there for a hike?
It was 67 degrees, calm, foggy and overcast when I left; lots of iced coffee and lemonade prepared last night accompanying. Didn’t encounter any deer on the drive, but bunnies were everywhere! Fog, grading into heavy mist, alternating with patches of rain as I drove, and it was the same when I pulled into the Amphitheater parking lot in the park.
It was too humid for even the lightest jacket; I set out on the Old Settler’s trail with only a hat and water bottle. My feet crunching on the gravelly sand path was the only sound besides bird calls (the odd quietness sometimes found in the fog); an occasional light breeze would whisper through the treetops and bring down a spatter of drops from the leaves.
The still, moist air picked up and held the forest scents; piney here and there, or a patch of wildflowers; sometimes just a clean wet wood smell. Air, freshly washed, from the north woods and plains!
Tricky footing here and there, wet leaves over mud can suddenly slip without warning but I was picking my footsteps with care.
Downhill and up, down and up; up some more, down again … there isn’t much level ground on this trail! Bridge over a little stream, banks full with the night’s runoff. The red pine plantings smelled incredible. Up, up, up.
In my mind the log-and-rock stairway to the other trailhead is the halfway point. Skirting the bluff below the ridge line the trail wanders along, trending downward, to another little bridge over a tiny but rushing creek and then starts going gently up again.
As cool as it was, exercise in 100% humidity plus occasional light rain have me completely wet but not uncomfortable; a sensation almost like swimming … as I passed by the bench at my favorite overlook it was raining fairly briskly, so I didn’t stop. A few minutes later I was back at the car, changing into a dry t-shirt while recounting in my mind all that I had just experienced.
Iced coffee! Lemonade! Time to drive home with a head full of memories.
Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp! More about radio next week, after Field Day!
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