This is Nuts!

Got an earlier start this evening to enjoy the start of Fall, the waning daylight and the remains of the warm sunny day. Headed up out back around 5:20 and cruised through the Red Circle to the Green in roughly 20 minutes. The setting sun was already streaming down the great central valley. The plan was to continue to the Violet and turn right. I saw the Blue cross just after the scramble through the boulders, but I guess I missed that the Violet was right after it.

So we continued on and just before a Boy Scout bridge crossing a dried streambed, a trail wandered off to the right. "The path less taken" was calling me. It was flat and wide enough to drive a truck down. We plodded on until we reached a junction where one of the cross-country ski trails went left and roughly straight ahead. Sadie & I continued in the forward direction, still believing I had never reached the Violet and was between it and Blue. I was soon to learn the error of my ways.

After another unmarked trail split to the left we arrived at the Violet trail. Since that had been my original intention, we kept going forward and stayed to the right on Violet when the X-Ski trail went left, even though Sadie obviously prefered the other. I had not made note of how many X-Ski and unmarked trails there are in that area so I soon had another decision. An unmarked trail went right but this time I resisted my PLT (Path Less Taken) urges and stayed on Violet.

Very soon we reached the Red Square and turned right on it up a rock strewn hill. When it leveled off, we were in one of the many areas where large green ferns mingle with big gray rocks. These spots always remind me of the Yale Peabody Museum's great dinosaur mural, which was painted by the late Rudolph Zallinger, who used to live near us.

As we approached the Green trail, a couple was coming from our right on it with a dog. I had already put Sadie on the leash when I spotted them and she barked as I asked them from a distance which way they were headed. They continued on Green to the left and we turned right headed for home.

That section of the Green trail is very wide and an obvious trail goes straight. It is on the Giant trail map which I will link to below, as are pretty much all of the others I've mentioned above. But there was another one that wandered into the swamp and we almost took it but I was concerned which way it might turn, or that perhaps it was the one I know about and have taken before which would bring us away from home to the Blue.

So we wandered ahead on the Green under a canopy of huge Mountain Laurel, by the base of Hezekiah's Nob where the White trail abuts the Green and Red Square (see my Little Italy comment in a previous blog).

Now we were circling the big upper swamp in the high valley on the Giants belly. Ahead there was another Boy Scout bridge with an obvious short cut to the right through the now dry swamp. I opted to stay on the trail and use the bridge.

This has been an incredible year for acorns. There are so many in places that it's easy to do a "3 Stooges" marble routine, which I almost did at one point. As I stepped onto the bridge, I felt a sharp pain on the top of my head and a large acorn bounced off with a loud "crack"! What are the odds? And I've heard of 2 other guys who have been hit on the head this year also.

We walked along the Green trail in the fading light and arrived at the Red Circle at 6:35. We turned towards home and arrived just before 7 PM.