Springing into the Next Season

First hike of the spring - and it was a beauty!

Chelsea stopped by at the house on her bike and said she was going to run some of the trails - like Red Circle up to Orange or Green out to Chestnut and back on Yellow. I told her I was going to take Sadie up to Chestnut and hike the Violet trail. I was very pleasantly surprised when I turned around after locking the van and Chelsea was smiling there. She had taken the Green out to Chestnut and just got there when I did.

I told her I doubted I would keep up but she told me she was fine with hiking, even at my pace. So we started out on Violet but as soon as I let Sadie off the leash, she took off to the left and we soon realized she was frolicking with a dog on a leash. Chelsea got to Sadie first and Sadie took a parting shot at the other dog before I reprimanded her and put her back on the leash.

We continued on the Violet and crossed the Red Square and the unmarked trail pretty shortly thereafter. The walk along the flatter north side was very pleasing. We talked about how many unmarked, horse and cross country trails there are in that area. Soon the trail headed uphill and I talked about how we had done a 10-mile Boy Scout hike and that was the last piece so I remembered there were some painful ups and downs.

I can't remember now if the Blue/Violet crossover trail came first but I think it did. I said that the waterfall running down the cliff to the right always made me think of Africa but that Chelsea would know more about that. Then there was a steep scramble up some rocks so I took Sadie off the leash for the last time so we could climb detached.

We scrambled up the rocks and along the ridge with views to our right. Soon there was another daunting rockpile ahead when I realized that the Violet trail turned to the left. I saw a red arrow on a tree below and discovered we had reached the Red Circle trail. Sadie for some reason had chosen the high ground so I had to call her down.

We turned left on the Red Circle and headed for home. All in all the trails weren't that wet or mushy but Chelsea said that parts of the Green had been pretty swampy. We passed Table Rock and I explained the name. At some point there was a guy walking behind us as I showed Chelsea the uppermost parts of Evan's Eagle project.

The guy headed past the Yellow trail so I decided to show Chelsea the shortcut and she said she would probably use that in the future.

It was a great hike and very peaceful. Except for the first encounter with the dog and the guy at the end, we saw nobody else. As much as I enjoy hiking alone with Sadie, Chelsea's company was a welcome surprise.

So begins my spring hiking, but it can't get much better than this.