My original plan was to head down to Sky Meadows State Park to challenge myself with some elevation variation. Then I saw that gas has jumped to $3.89 a gal and that intermittent thunder storms were predicted. Yeah, that’s what I want – spend a bunch of money on gas and climb up into an open meadow on a mountaintop during a thunderstorm. Um…not so much. But turned out the thunderstorms were just showers and there was a lull in them Sunday morning, so I dashed out the door and grabbed some time on the AT. Not much in the way of a challenge elevation-wise, but it'll do.
It was gray and occasionally showery, so not much good for views:
But the rain and warmth has brought green, green green:
And it's brought some fast-sprouting and interesting plants.
A bright fungus of some kind:
A patch of Indian Pipestem:
The new shoes did well, and my feet were definitely in much better shape at the end than they have been. A brisk 6.5 miles in and out of showers and then it was back to my garden to putter in the sun that emerged by early afternoon.
Dang. That sounds about like the perfect day! Except for that "gardening" bit at the end. I have determined that my thumbs are so far away from green that I can kill plastic plants.
ReplyDeleteLOL! My approach is to not replant anything I kill or that the deer will eat. Which is why I am encouraging the black-eyed susans to spred - tough and deer don't like their fuzzy leaves.
DeleteIt sounds like a good day to me! Congrats on the new hiking shoes - that definitely makes a difference. And your gas prices are within a nickel of ours; not exactly a source for celebration.
ReplyDeleteVery good day, and definitely better than the clean-out-under-stairs closet Saturday.
DeleteI think the gas jumped 20 cents overnight...
Great day, and NOT being footsore afterward is a BIG plus!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteNo blisters, either, which is a very good thing.
DeleteNice pics PH!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I keep putting off tossing the 4.3 MB camera I bought a decade ago - seems a waste - but my cell phone takes better ones.
DeleteCongratulations on the new hiking shoes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pictures
Thank you. Trying to make up for the ones that got sucked out by the mapping ap the last time...
DeleteI like the pics of the Black-Eyed Susans; they're a pretty flower. And for most people who aren't actually bashing over rocks and scree, trail shoes are perfectly acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI love my black-eyed susans - what you can't see is how well they are taking over a slope that is too steep to use a mower on.
DeleteThe banging of ankles on rock is my only concern - I have a dream of climbing Old Rag at least one more time and that would potentially be an ankle chewer.