Category: nature

Well, just a week after the gloomy hike, we got a sunny and gorgeous day. We could probably draw a metaphor for life from this, but just enjoy all the different blues instead:

You know things are dire when even a hike can’t help you entirely shake the existential dread. We never regret getting out, but there were very few moments where we stopped to enjoy the beauty and a lot more moments of wading through slush and post-holing into the snow.

But the air was clean and the forest smelled good, even if it was gray. And we weren’t on the internet for a couple hours!

Silver-white winters that melt into spring, these are a few of my favorite things

(That was in my head for the entirety of yesterday’s hike; now it can be in your head too.)

There hasn’t been been fresh snow in the mountains for a week or so but it’s been cold enough that the old snow has stayed on branches and collected frost, making some extraordinary crystals. I kept expecting the see the White Witch come around the corner in her sledge.

There was a little fresh snow from Saturday on the trail and it made everything look like it got dusted with powdered sugar. (Or maybe I’m just feeling like doing some holiday baking.) Either way, it was pretty.

I posted this first pic on Instagram and a friend from Vermont commented, “Snowliage!” A beautiful day AND I learned a new word? Win-win.

It was a cloudy day and the leaves were almost all off the trees, so maybe I can think of the canyon as sleeping for the next two years instead of inaccessible and about to be fundamentally changed?

I’m going to miss that stream at the top, but I have to remember the same water will be at the bottom, too.

Millcreek Canyon’s upper gate closes for the winter on November 1, but this time it’s going to stay closed for two years while the road gets widened. (I felt a little better about such a big construction project after I read the environmental assessment, but there’s no way around them taking out trees.)

Anyway, we’re trying to enjoy the last couple weekends at the top. It was a brisk 45 degrees up there yesterday but still so nice to be out.

If you’re between projects and have a lot of sick time that doesn’t roll over and your partner has a bonus day off, might I recommend calling out and heading to the mountains?

 

You can go to the trails that are packed on the weekends and only see a handful of people and just generally enjoy the trees and the clouds and the play of light and shadow. 10/10, strongly recommend.