Hiking After Sandy

I had not gone hiking in more than two weeks. After a record streak of consecutive days hiking stretching back to my return from vacation in late August, suddenly, there had been no hiking whatsoever in over two weeks.

That had happened for a few reasons. First of all, I grew sick, and that weakened my resolve. A couple of days later, it was Hurricane Sandy, and the aftermath. Then the long gas lines made me hesitant about using the car for anything but necessary drives. Finally, the winter snow storm a few days ago.

But this weekend was gorgeous, and I had some time on my hands. Plus, I was definitely beginning to feel antsy, as well as guilty.

It was time.

So yesterday, I drove out to Sourland, and expected some downed trees, of course. Just not the sheer number of trees downed by the storm. So many of them were full-sized, beautiful, adult trees, to boot! Some were huge (at least by northeast standards).

It normally take me less than an hour to do the trail, which is a kind of a loop around a hill. Yesterday, it took far longer. Also, it took much more effort than it normally does. At many points, there was, in effect, no trail. Huge trees had fallen and, at points, not just blocked the way across a narrow stretch of the trail, but down the length of the trail, blocking off access and forcing the hiker to go around and make one's own way through thick shrubs and boulders (many of which were sharp, and felt unnatural to walk along).

The trail seemed unrecognizable, at least at times. Perhaps it was all of those fallen trees. Or perhaps it was that this was, in effect, my first real glimpse of the place while stripped of the rich foliage of the trees. It was much more of a winter landscape than I had seen before.

Yet, this offered a very decent view of the surrounding area, with fields and hills and residential areas. It was actually quite nice.

By the time it was over, my legs and arms felt more tired than normal. Of course, that had more to do with the level of work it took to do this trail, most likely, although not having gone hiking, or really done much exercising at all, likely contributed to the extra effort. But I felt pretty good, it was a beautiful day, and I decided to take advantage of it a little more. The sun was to my back, and felt warm. The geese nearby eyed me suspiciously, but after a while, they seemed to grow comfortable enough to forget my presence altogether.

That was when I snuck up to one of them, strangled it's awkward, scrawny little neck, and then beat it within an inch of it's life.

Just kidding.

All in all, it felt good to go hiking again. It won't be two weeks before the next hike, I can likely assure at least that much!