Tag Archives: Hiking

Hope On The Winter Solstice

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It’s the Winter Solstice but it doesn’t feel like it. The sun is shining and the sky is blue. At about 30 degrees, it’s cool enough for a coat but I left my gloves behind when I fed the birds and took trash.

It’s the shortest day of the year but it barely feels like winter.

Don’t mind me. I’m in a snit because I planned to hike today but am stuck inside after an emergency tooth extraction this week. After years and thousands of dollars trying to salvage this molar, it developed some issues last week and before you could say the tooth fairy doesn’t care about adult teeth, I was being prepped for extraction.

So, today I’m home tidying the house, working on a puzzle and making some Christmas goodies. It all works out and it has been a nice day but I would much rather be on the trail right now. We were even going to a bookstore after!

A dear friend gave me the above pictured Christmas ornament yesterday. She’s had a rough couple of years due to illness but she has endured and recovered with such grace that I feel guilty complaining about my own problems.

This gift of hope she gave me will hang on my travel tree as a reminder that some journeys are through uncharted, challenging waters and sometimes through time rather than space.

I‘m proud of her bravery and am so fortunate to receive from her this gift of hope.

So I’m going to stop complaining, turn up the Christmas tunes and make some yummy goodies. Remember there’s always hope for brighter days.

Saturday Hike At Lake Hope

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Saturday’s hike was a literal breath of fresh air after a long, hot, stifling summer. The high at Lake Hope State Park was an unseasonable 79 degrees, a severe shift from the high nineties and humidity of just days earlier.

The mostly shaded trail was inviting. The aroma of pine intoxicating to the senses. A periodic light breeze felt luxurious.

The three mile hike over hilly terrain follows a trail covered in soft pine needles in places, dirt in many places and areas riddled with tree roots. The ground is important because you need to notice how the earth feels beneath your feet and to allow that connection to course up your legs, through your stomach, and up into to your heart, spirit and mind.

Hiking isn’t just moving forward. It’s an exercise of the senses so I always touch trees, breathe deeply and look all around.

Kayakers glided through the glassy open water but labored to cut through thick lily pads on the back side of the lake. A butterfly landed on the trail before taking off again, soaring ahead before stopping to wait as though to confirm that we were still coming.

We left the trail feeling rejuvenated and satisfied. Nature’s balm had again soothed our tired spirits. We were refreshed and ready to face another day.

I wish more people understood and appreciated the restorative qualities of nature. We need nature to survive- the sun and moon, clean water, soil, pollinators and fresh air are all vital to human survival. We need all of this and more.

We need quiet and we need someplace where we can simply exist with the glorious earth that gives us life. I am eternally grateful for this wisdom and for the places that make it possible to embrace nature.

A Hike Before The Heat Hits

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Summer doesn’t officially begin for a few days but we are expecting heat and humidity to hit southern Ohio today and settle in for at least a couple of weeks. Since it will soon be dangerously hot, I hated to enter summer hibernation without a really good hoke under my belt. I was grateful to make it out yesterday for close to six miles and for the unexpected joys this hike brought.

Looking up made me feel small. It usually does.

Looking down introduced us to a new friend. He seemed altogether unimpressed by us but we liked him.

And spots like this one offer a solid reminder that there’s nearly always a way through.

If you are fortunate enough to live in a place where there’s outdoor access and you are able to go out and enjoy it, do yourself a favor and go. The good nature will do for your body, mind and spirit is immeasurable.

Faces

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Some folks look for shapes in clouds. I search for faces in rocks.

This one isn’t just a face. It looks like an entire head with hair of ferns and moss. Can you see it? There’s a squinty eye, nose, cheek and a mouth fixed in a grimace just above a double chin. It reminds me a little of those modern 4D ultrasounds that give parents a better view of their child’s features.

Odd, I know.

This rock and many other fabulous sights can be found at Lake Katherine State Nature Preserve near Jackson, Ohio.

Thoughts From A Hike

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I hiked after work Thursday night. The trail was so busy that I immediately regretted being there and ended up hiking just 2.5 miles when I had planned for about twice that amount.

The few moments of solace were wonderful but those were rare and were overshadowed by people playing music on their phones and the fear that someone’s loosely supervised toddler would fly off a cliff.

Yet those quiet moments were ideal with plenty of birds and squirrels to keep me company and a beautiful forest to enjoy.

I was headed for the car when I encountered Betty, an older lady who was resting her bad knees while she waited for her husband to return. She seemed quite pleased to soak in her surroundings while the rest of the world was going by with phones in hand and seemingly ignoring the beauty of it all. In fact, it seemed time that they could have been power walking in a mall with just as easily was walking through these beautiful woods.

Betty and Joe were visiting to celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary and I learned when he returned that they both were as delightful as could be.

It brightened my day to chat with them for a few minutes and I left the park feeling a little better about the world.

Life is harder when you feel out of step with the world around you and I should know because I’m completely out of step with nearly everyone around me. Finding a kindred spirit feels like a breath of fresh air in a hot room.

Speaking of fresh air – if you have a chance to breathe fresh air and bask in the beauty of the world from beneath a canopy of trees, do it. And pay attention. Turn off the music, lower your voice, turn down the thoughts racing through your mind and pay attention. Use all your senses to see, smell, hear and feel the sensation of being surrounded by wild beauty.

You may find that it’s the very best kind of addictive behavior.

Pleasure In The Pathless Woods

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There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:

I love not Man the less, but Nature more,

From these our interviews, in which I steal

From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage