It amazes me how every hike I go on becomes an adventure. Here is today’s….
Dot and I went on a trail we used to favorite before we started keeping mostly to the road. It was so good to be on a trail again. My hike last Friday with the dogs made me really want to get back to trails hikes over the road walk/hikes (even though the roads are dirt and also on the mountain).
This trail goes up through a pine forest, meanders back down to a stream, goes past a large pond (named Echo Lake, but it’s really a pond, and my dogs had the mud/muck on them today to prove it), up another steeper trail to a meadow (called High Meadow) with a newly installed bench for taking in the view. That’s our turn around point.
On the way back, as we approached the entrance to the pine forest near the end of our hike we could hear a crashing in the woods.
“Oh my,” I said, “can that be a squirrel, it sure sounds noisier?”
“Oh my,” I thought, “that isn’t a bear or other large creature, is it?”
As we got closer, we realized there was something falling from the trees. I was thinking it was pretty big and loud for acorns. Then we realized it was pine cones falling from a single pine tree. Only green ones, not open, mature brown ones. They were heavy little buggers, like little green bombs.
Seriously, it seemed like something up there, or the tree itself, was bombing the trail below.
“We’re going to have to run,” I told Dot. “Those are going to hurt if they land on us.”
She and Koda watched until a pine cone fell and ran. Phew. Safety.
I watched as another pine cone fell and Columbus and I booked it past the tree. Safe, too.
It was like being in Oz, where the trees start chucking their apples at Dorothy and company.
Dot, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Princeton anymore….