Unwinding With a Drive & Morning Walk at Wawayanda After a Brutal Weekend

This past weekend was one of what I refer to as "brutal weekends." That means that I have to work shifts across the board with both jobs, from Friday overnight, to Saturday morning to afternoon, to Saturday overnight, to Sunday morning to afternoon, to Sunday overnight. These weekends are exhausting, and admittedly, I tend to dread them.

Now that said, it was not so bad. In fact, Saturday flew by, as did most of Sunday.

Ironically, however, it was Sunday afternoon into early evening, at home, when all of this began to catch up with me. I was tired, even exhausted. But I woke up, and knew instinctively that sleep would not find me again on this evening.

Sigh.

I got up and watched what my girlfriend was watching on television, which wound up being the Tell-All. I ate a little bit - trying not to eat too much - and then got ready for work once the time came. But it seemed likely that I would feel exhausted during the Sunday overnight shift into Monday morning. Sure enough, it was.

So I needed to unwind a bit once I actually got out of there.

With the intention of heading north to visit my son early in the morning after leaving work, I got some coffee and then decided, kind of spur of the moment, to make the most of this free morning. With no shift scheduled for almost 40 hours, it felt like an opportunity to make the most of the free time. So I headed towards Wawayanda State Park, which is a rare treat for me to visit these days. This just felt like one of those mornings when I should go there, and so I did. 

First, I stopped at one of the reservoirs after seeing the beautiful early morning skies with pastel colors mirrored in the water's surface (see the picture below).

Then, I headed up to my old town of West Milford, with the intention of going "up the mountain" as they used to say in my old high school, which is how you can reach Wawayanda. In fact, I opted for a different rout, going via Clinton Road (the supposedly haunted road of West Milford, with even a movie once made about it) instead.

The park officially opens at 8am, but they open the gates (or perhaps keep them open) early. That was the case this morning, as well. So I got there before any kind of a rush, with just a few early morning visitors present. The temperatures were cool (the reading inside of the car had dipped down to the upper 50's Fahrenheit), which made it comfortable and optimum walking conditions. 

Usually, I go to the lake first, then towards the stream and the Iron Furnace, before circling back to the main road and, eventually, the parking lot where my car was parked. That is normally a walk of about two hours or so. 

However, I tried something different this time. For some reason, I decided to go the opposite way. As it turns out, this proved to be a blessing, because quite early in my walk, I suddenly saw a mother bear with four cubs walking out of the woods and crossing the street, to another patch of woods. 

Such a privilege!

If you look closely, you can see the shape of one of the four cubs that were racing to keep up with mom, and eventually raced past her. I cannot say for sure, but there may be two of the cubs visible behind the mother bear (they were on a slight incline, so they were a bit hidden, and I also did not get the cell phone out on time to take great pictures). But at least one of the cubs is definitely visible in this picture, although it is actually in front of the mother bear.