Well ... day two of my writing marathon ... hmmm ... yesterday I told you about my frustrations re Flick'r and then I told you to go look out our pics from the Appalachian Trail ... and I think I even misspelled it yesterday. I will go look and fix what I can. But! I didn't tell you anything at all about our little hike on the trail.

We didn't go for a long hike. We went to go wander around, have a picnic, take some photos, and enjoy the color, and let Shelbie have some fun ...

The Metro North has a stop that literally sits right on the trail. You get out and get to decide ... continue in New York towards the west or hike out towards Connecticut to the east. On the way there, we asked the conductor if he'd ever been out on the trail ... of course not ... he's lived here all his life and never been out on the trail. It's a normal thing but ... Wrong! Anyway he said if it were him he'd head off toward Connecticut.

We got off the train and looked out towards Connecticut and there was no indication really of where to go on the trail ... it just kind of wandered off toward a thoroughfare. And the hills were far off. As we stepped down off the platform, we discovered that there were maps in a mailbox attached to the signpost for the train station. There were about 6 others who got off the train and wandered off in various directions ... maps in hand ... all looking as unsure as we. But we were sure we wanted a pic of the train station so we got that first. Then we went back to puzzling. And suddenly ... there was a man ... carrying a little tool box ... saying, "Hello, you look lost."

So we asked him which way and what he thought and did he have a favorite. He said both directions were beautiful and so we said, "We want to to up and soon." So he said to absolutely go west. We felt very blessed that he showed up just when he did because we were about to take off in the direction of Connecticut.

And so we took off. Pretty soon we figured out where he'd come from and why he was carrying a tool box. The trail starts out and crosses a finger of The Great Swamp and is made up of several combos of cinder blocks, planks, and wood pallets. There were several fresh patches in the planks and pallets. Do you know that a lot of trails are maintained by volunteers? Yep. I was very glad he'd been out before we went. I enjoyed having a more solid footing.

The Great Swamp is wet. It doesn't smell bad and it's not creepy. It's just wet and mushy. The ground around the edges of the swamp is very springy ... like walking on moss. I didn't walk in the swamp though. Shelbie did. She loved it. She didn't get too very muddy either.

When the swamp congregates in ponds and pools and small lakes, it is very beautiful. We hope to spend more time with the water areas when spring comes. Also, when spring comes we are taking a tent up on the trail. You can count on it.

As soon as we left the swamp we started a very gentle climb until we were near the top of the ridge then it got sort of steep for about 15 minutes. Then the top of the ridge was rather flat. The side of the hill (maybe a mountain ... but I don't recall them being called mountains ... they're very short mts if they are mts) we went up was covered in trees. The other side was farmland. And beyond the farms were more hills covered in color!

When we set out that morning, we felt very silly packing our winter coats – especially me since my mid-weight coat is still in Oregon and so I have been gifted with a down coat. Usually it is still too warm. We also took a little military poncho liner. They are very thin light-weight sheets of polyester fill covered in camo and they are very warm. I love mine ... I call him blankie ... shhh that's a secret. So I balled him up tight and stuck him in a spot in my backpack. I put him in case Shelbie should end up in some sort of situation.

But it turns out that blankie just made great ground cover for our picnic. And I also wore my coat during lunch up on the ridge and very much enjoyed it's thick downy-ness. Oh did I tell you? We got to the top of the ridge and sat down to feel very smug about (and grateful for) living in such a beautiful place. We said a prayer of thanks over lunch. And then ... just because it wasn't enough to be looking out onto such incredible color and enjoying such a peaceful, sunny, warm(ish) day, and each other's company and the company of our beautiful dog ... Valerie called. She finally has a real graphics design job. She starts next Monday. She's excited. She's nervous. She won't refuse your prayers.

Oh and while we're on the subject of new jobs ... my daughter-in-law Sam called a few days ago and she is also getting to start a new job. Very very good news all around.

So after dawdling over lunch for about an hour we went reluctantly back down the trail. It was just a perfectly breath-taking day. Slowly we all trickled back in to the train station and compared notes. There were no regrets – even though a few of us were moving a little slower than when we left. Shortly after reaching the station (let's just be honest here and say platform) we were wearing our coats and Billy's light jacket was on loan until the train showed up. We didn't feel quite as silly walking back home after we got off the train.

I have a favorite photo. You can go look at the albums. And please leave me notes somewhere as to which version of presentation you found easiest. The batch at Picasa has about five or six photos that the one at Flick'r doesn't ... but then once you get over to Flick'r you can see pics of a little hike we took in Duchess County. Usually I'd fill this post with links to the individual pics but I'm outta time!

We have often talked about wanting to go hike the Appalachian Trail. Now we live right beside it. We're going to find ways to take full advantage of that! And one more BTW: The trail is very easy and very well marked. We met up with at least one person every 20 minutes or so. I would feel comfortable going back with Shelbie to goof off one afternoon.

If you want to know more: The Appalachian Trail article at Wikipedia is a good starting point.

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