Loose Leaf Notes

What’s the difference between a walk and a hike? Is it just about what boots you wear?

Ours was more of a walk than a hike because we ambled and stopped frequently, Joe to seek out fallen limbs to balance over the rushing creek on and me to hunt for wildflowers. “A division of labor,” Joe said.

“I don’t understand walking sticks. It’s just something you have to carry,” I said after passing two hikers with them on the trail that was wide enough to pass without close contact. I liked the freedom I felt with only a small camera around my shoulder. Joe carried water and binoculars.

But the camera didn’t stay in its case for long. This trillium was the first wildflower we spotted.

We saw yellow trillium and these red ones.

I laughed at the fiddlehead ferns.

I was probably the most thrilled when we came upon a colony of Virginia bluebells.

I had never seen them before and there were several expansive swaths of them all along the trail.

At the Rock Caste Gorge primitive camp site, I was wild for the early dogwood blooms and felt as mesmerized as I was at Monet’s garden when we visited there in 2018. See HERE. 

We topped off our wildflower hike by spotting these fire pinks on the way out, reminding me of last year’s early June hike at The Saddle. See HERE.  /Our World Tuesday