Tangled

I finally ventured out for a hike this evening on the path across from our house here. What a mess this storm left! There are still a few stubborn patches of snow, and so many downed branches and uprooted trees.



It turned out to be a bit of an obstacle course, brushing up against branches and bark, crawling up and over, and sometimes sliding under fallen trunks. Finally I had to turn around and go back the other way at some point. Frustrating! Getting as far as I had was already a challenge...and messy. And after all the tick warnings, I'm now washing everything I was wearing.



If it hadn't been so pretty out, I would have been annoyed or even scared. I am a little weary of the bears this time of year, but still haven't spotted one. If you look closely in the picture above though, you can see a fairly impressive (albeit blurry in this shot) buck camouflaged in the branches.

It felt good to be outside and the colors are fabulous right now. Slowly the more and more of the leaves have made their way from the trees down to the trails. And in spite of all the wild weather this past week and the nuisance and hassle ahead with the clean up of it all, I love this time of year here.