November 1, 2022. The leaves are down and it rained yesterday. But today was unseasonably warm and sunny, so Alice and I headed out to Lowell to hike the North Country Trail north to Fallasburg.
We arrived around 10, with numerous Halloween decorations posted from various houses. One house, next to the cemetery seemed to have skeletons climbing out of the ground, but we were not deterred. This would be our first substantial hike since returning from the Camino
We headed into the woods and the trail immediately began to climb to ascend a very high bluff overlooking the Flat River, and then follow the ridge of that bluff east and then north. The path was covered with leaf litter from recently downed leaves, sometimes making the path hard to find, and also hiding roots and rocks that caused us to stumble. The trekking poles caught our off balance more than once.
It’s this time of year that I have to pull back from the riot of colors and look for more subtle beauty. Instead of bright reds and yellows, there are more subtle tones of brown, gold, copper, and yet, the bright green mosses.
We kept to our pattern from Spain, to walk two hours before taking a break. The break time came just as we arrived at a picnic area at Fallasburg Park, so we stopped for a LaraBar and an orange and rested a few minutes. We headed back, taking another short break at the one hour mark. The full hike, 20 km ( 12.6 miles) took almost 5 hours, which we consider our normal distance and time before the Spanish merienda or late noonday meal. We stopped on our way home in Ada at Trattoria Nonna for two beautiful salads. Alas, no 3-course fixed price meal, but that is not a custom in the US.
We are adapting to being back to normal life.
I thought of you when driving past your street this afternoon and wondered if the hiking habits would persist.