Into the Light

I awoke in my tent to overcast skies in the Quehanna Wild Area, on the first Friday of the rest of my life. :-) This was the very first of my "Free Fridays" (or "Freedom Fridays") and I was determined to seize the day!

It soon became obvious that the cloudiness was not caused by real clouds, but by fog rising up out of the Valleys of the Susquehanna. The mornings have been very damp around here lately, and this was no exception.

I usually like to lollygag around in my tent in the morning, playing house. But when the light started to come, I could see mist in the distance, and I had to go and see. My husband was taking down his tent as I strolled down our country road and into the light.

The golden misty light was extraordinary, and I took way too many pictures. Though . . . is it really possible to have too many pictures of the golden mist? No, no, I think not.

At one point, I looked back and my husband was watching me and waving. He said I looked really cool against the mist, almost as though I were disappearing into the light.

And so I had my fun, and when I got back, it was time to start packing up my own gear, as we had plans to go hiking in several other places before heading home. And so we did. We hiked down a long woodsy corridor and it was lovely: yellow leaves above our heads, crispy brown ones beneath our feet.

Then we headed for one of my favorite places we hadn't been to in a while, Wykoff Run. And I must tell you that the foliage colors along Wykoff Run are the best I've seen so far. It was just one delight after another, and we oohed and aahed, but the road is winding, with many sharp corners, and there are very few places to stop for things like picture taking.

But there is a big pool with a waterfall in Wykoff Run that is awfully fun to stream-walk in. At certain times of year, it is almost deep enough to swim in. You may see a photo taken from the top of the rise in the extras; the waterfall is not visible in this shot, but the big pool is, at least partially.

In the early years, before we had air conditioning everywhere, of a hot summer's day, we'd go and soak our hot bodies in the cool, clear waters of Wykoff Run. These are happy memories of more innocent times.

And then it was time to pack it up and head for home, but my husband had one last stop in mind. There was a single graveled parking lot near a bridge. And that is where we stopped; he let me out to go walk back along the road we'd just traveled, to get a few foliage pictures.

When I came back ot the car, there was my husband standing in the middle of the road, and I wondered why. But then I learned what was going on. He was right in the middle of a reptile rescue! A tiny snake (which turned out to be a redbellied snake, about a foot long, which is as big as they get) had been lying in the road and my husband used a paper towel to push it out of the way of traffic.

As I arrived, he picked up a stick and gently used it to pick up and remove the reptile to a safer place at the edge of the woods. We both laughed out loud when I pointed to a nearby sign that proclaimed that area to be the M.K. Goddard/Wykoff Run Natural Area, a reptile and amphibian protection area!

There is always a soundtrack to our adventures, for music is important to us and we take it with us everywhere. This is a song that we listened to on this morning and I dedicate it to my husband, who is generally the one who orchestrates these wild adventures we go on.

Without him, we wouldn't have so many of these pictures I've taken in the middle of the woods, because some of these places, I surely would never go alone! He's the one who takes me there, he's my partner in crime, he's the one who stops and waits while I take the pictures, he is north on my compass and the star I navigate by. Here is R.E.M, with The One I Love.