Mini-adventures

I normally go hiking shortly after breakfast, and on this particular day I left later than normal.  That's the only thing I can think to attribute it to.  I walked along the usual path and something about thirty feet from the trail caught my eye . . . something glinting in the sunlight.  I left the trail and walked over to it. It was an old bottle.  Curious, I thought.  What is that doing there?  I walked a few steps up a small hill close to the bottle, and to my surprise, there was an old dump!  I LOVE old dumps!  This one was awesome . . . a lot of bottles . . . an old sink . . . a bedstead.  (At least that's how I remember it, as it's been awhile, now!)  Moki wanted to walk around to, but with all the broken glass around, I made him stay in one place, which he was not happy about at all.  I walked all around and through examining all the treasures.  There was a piece of concrete/cement (what's the difference?), about a foot and a half wide, with the date, 1953, on it!  How cool is that!?  I checked it all out, walked back to our usual trail, and we continued our walk, with me smiling ear to ear!

Snow.  So I went snowshoeing a few times.  The first time was with Bob, who was on cross country skis.  As you might imagine, I had to really push to keep up with him.  He said to go at my own pace, but then he would get miles ahead and if we can't talk, what's the use of going together.  So, I pushed.  Hard.  By the time we got to the regular trailhead (we have to park about a mile away now because they lock the gates after the first snow fall), I was already tired.  The beginning of the trail is uphill for a ways.  It's never bothered me before, because when we used to hike it, we could park right there at the trailhead.  But, now, I had already been pushing for a mile or so.  The first hill killed me so much that I yelled up to Bob to stop when he got to the top.  The top, to my perspective about ten or fifteen feet behind him, looked like it was another six feet.  But, when I got to what I thought was the top, Bob was way out in front of me, climbing yet another hill.  Meanwhile, ten minutes later, we finally got to the top.  I was wasted.  I plunged down into the snow to rest, and didn't get up until it started seeping into my jeans.  Well, Bob was disappointed when I said I was done, but he still had a long way to go and he wasn't going to turn around.  So, I somehow dragged myself back to the car . . . including the long uphill that I had to traverse to get to the car.  But, I survived . . . barely!!

So the next time, I just snowshoed out for about ten minutes and back again.  I did that twice on a trail that I didn't recognize.  After that, I wanted to find out where the trail went, so I kept following it and hoped it would lead in a circle and not out into who knows where.  After a while, I had a feeling that I knew where it was going, and thankfully, I did!  It met up with my normal hiking trail . . . so I knew exactly where I was.  Now, I have a nice little loop to walk or snowshoe.  When the snow is packed down, I can walk it without snowshoes, but with my little studs on.

So, all of the above was awhile ago . . . it hasn't snowed and I've been walking with the studs.  I can go farther that way.  It was only yesterday that I looked around to see the "diamond glints" on the snow.  I love them.  I can't tell you how much.  It's magical to me, totally magical.  And, they remind me of something else.  There was a poem that I read at my Mom's memorial service, and one of the lines was, "I am the diamond glints on snow."  So, when I see those diamond glints, it makes me think of my Mom . . . like she is there hiking with me.  Although . . . she wasn't really a hiker, so she wouldn't stay long!  Today,  I noticed some animal tracks that were cool, too.  Just little ones.  They had melted too much for me to try to identify the creature, but I like looking at them anyway.