The First Hike of Spring!

Last Sunday was a winter hike.  Today was a spring hike.  Clearly.  For example, I saw two butterflies today.  How many did I see last weekend?  Zero!  Quod erat demonstratum.  Etcetera.

What's that you say?  Butterflies aren't enough for you -- you want more proof of spring?

Well, for starters, the sun was shining brightly.  And there was a spring in my step, and -- OK, OK, I admit it.  There was a LOT of snow.  Had to wear hat and gloves a good part of the day.  Sheesh.  You sticklers!

View from the train.  I didn't hike there.  Not enough snow.

Crocuses!  Yay!  It's SPRING!!!  This was on Main Street.

Yeah, this was the actual trail.

They don't really encourage us
to explore that structure.

But look - there are GREEN LEAVES!  For realz!

The blue-blazed Notch Trail (some parts were a bit steeper and slippery) 

Semi-random cairns atop a fallen tree; note that the roots pulled up some stones of their own as well.

Buddha?

I think there's a turn coming up!!!

I liked the lines in this picture

Today's route: Undercliff (Y) to Nelsonville (G) to Notch (B) to Brook (R) to Cornish (B).   It was probably about 5.5 miles all told, including the walk to and from the train station.  Highest elevation 1100 ft.  (As opposed to last weekend's ascent of the lofty Mt. Taurus at a towering 1400 ft!)

I'd seen signs for a "Maple Syrup Festival" earlier, but had not paid a lot of attention.  Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be at Little Stony Point right across the street from the end of the trail!  Why, yes, I'll be happy to join you!!  I think they were giving out free pancakes, but I just enjoyed the concert and watched the little kids running around.  So cute!*  And I even bought some maple syrup to show my support.

Afterward, I had a light lunch at the Brasserie: a green salad with goat cheese, pistachios and beets, and a glass of white wine.  And a delicious crème brûlée for dessert.  :)

(The sign on the post says: "C'EST ICI")

But it might be nice to try McGuire's some time:

Since it was Palm Sunday, I figured I'd try stopping by the Redeemer downtown service on my way home.  It was held in the Salvation Army worship space, which I'd never visited before.

The ceiling was pretty cool

All in all, this was quite a productive (and Tolkien-heavy) weekend.  I finally finished and submitted my second book review to Mythprint, so we'll see if they like it.  Yesterday, I alternated reading Book 4 of LOTR and Christopher Tolkien's "The Return of the Shadow" (the history of writing The Fellowship of the Ring), while today I read Book 5 of LOTR on the train and listened to Dr Flieger's LOTR lectures as I hiked.  For some reason, I've been finding it very hard to pay attention to the lectures live (it's so tempting to make comments to friends or surf the web while I "listen"), but when I'm hiking I'm all ears!

What else?  I'm wondering if I should switch to an evening workout - right after work - and see how that affects my sleep patterns.  Also wondering if I should move to North Carolina.  Or New Hampshire.  Or ... oh, anywhere but here!  But NC is tempting because of the Runner Peeps group which gives me the illusion that I would have an instant social life just by showing up.



FN* Although there was one little blond boy in a green sweater who was a bit aggressive, really.  He kept pushing over or pulling down other kids -- it looked like anyone he thought he could bring down, he did.  (You could see him sizing up one kid and deciding not to do anything.)  The others didn't seem to mind, they were smiling and laughing and having fun anyway.  But he was really deliberate about it; and there was one little girl he seemed to have chosen as a special target.  And I couldn't help noticing that none of the other kids were pushing each other down.