Warning: Conditions in the Backwoods Are Wet!

Friday arrived, and it was another lovely, sunny, spring-like day. It was the sort of day that if you didn't have it off, you'd sit at the window and pine. But we are free now, and so my husband and I packed up a few things - sandwiches and drinks, daysacks, chairs, hiking boots - and headed for the deep woods of Sproul State Forest.

There is a campsite there that we refer to as Pine Glen, and that's where we ended up spending most of the afternoon. We parked my Sonic at a parking lot along the road and walked back a graveled road pitted with mud and big puddles. There was a bit of snow and ice in the shadows, but not much of that is left.

I stumbled across an unusual find: some native ground bees, along the edge of our campsite, that I had not seen there before. "Does T. Tiger have his beekeeping hat?" my husband asked. No, no, of course, we never expected to need it in the deep woods! So T. Tiger watched the bees, but from a respectful distance. (Must one bring one's beekeeping hat EVERYwhere?)

We sat and listened to music and talked about everything, as we do, and I reflected upon the day, and upon our time there, deep in the woods. When we met, back in 1986, we had simple wants and needs: we needed to work to pay our bills, of course, but we wanted to spend as much time as possible together. He retired about five years ago; I did so at the end of 2020. And now, we get to spend as much time as we want, together!

There is a little pond in the woods above our campsite that comes and goes, like Brigadoon. It appears and disappears, and sometimes we find it, sometimes we don't. On this day, we did, and it was free of ice and snow, but I did not spot any newts or frogs. Soon, soon.

And then we hiked back out through a sunny, golden field, and there were big puddles everywhere, as you can see. So my advice to those heading there would be that conditions in the backwoods are variable, but be prepared for substantial puddles and an abundance of mud! Gore-Tex is my footwear of choice, to keep the tootsies dry.

It is my custom to include a soundtrack song to go with my story, and this time, I'll just use a song that we listened to while we were in Sproul. The Moody Blues were a favorite of an old friend of ours named Jeffrey, who is now departed. If they're good enough for him, they're good enough for me. Here are the Moody Blues, with I Know You're Out There Somewhere, from the album, The Best of the Moody Blues.