Timeless Treasures: Hiking

My husband, Bill, and I found ourselves on the trails again this beautiful Sunday. Continuing our New England Trail hike, we added another nine miles onto our Connecticut traverse map, hiking to the south from Route 6, toward a lookout known as Rattlesnake Mountain. We encountered varied terrain with steep up hills and short rock scrambles, and other areas of gentle slope and a soft pine needle carpet.

Beyond the look out and past the radio towers we found ourselves as the pinnacle of our hike – the highest elevation for our day, adeptly named Pinnacle Rock. This rocky ledge is a perfect spot for a snack and to watch the rock climbers, waving “hi” and thumbs up as they complete their challenge.

Just beyond, we found a quiet area and the home of a gentle tree swing. A welcome time of play and respite as we begin our first long descent of the day.

Hiking in the Fall presents some challenges. While it’s a beautiful time to watch the season change, the falling leaves and “Marbles of Treachery” (acorns) made proper footing challenging in this section, reminiscent of cartoon characters running over marbles scattered across a smooth floor. Slowly and steadily (and rather clumsily), we carried on via the trail to Route 372.

There is something refreshing about making a pit stop in the middle of a long hike, an opportunity to make a D&D run, replacing some of our well-spent calories with glazed and butternut goodness, but I digress. Donuts make road walking sections of the trail infinitely more enjoyable.

Following the trail back up into the woods, we found this section rather unremarkable, and in the ordinary, we found a time of quiet peace and reflection. We kept a keen eye up for the blue blazes along the lesser traveled paths, along which we found evidence of pileated woodpeckers, squirrels and numerous chipmunks. Once on the Crescent Lake park property, the trail morphed into more technical areas, some steeper inclines and views of the beautiful lake below. A lovely way to end our Sunday adventure.

Time spent on the trail provides a time away from the stressors of the week. We are constantly bombarded with news, drama, media. On the trails, it’s me and my favorite person sharing stories, smiles, fist bumps. There is another world we so often forget is waiting to be discovered and appreciated, and it’s as much an external appreciation as it is refreshment and recovery for our internal dialogue. A glorious chance to play carefree like we did when we were children.

Henry David Thoreau said: “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” Could anything be more true?