Such a nice day today, had to get out this afternoon, so I looked up a difficulty level 2 and a terrain level 2. I just bought some really sweet New Balance hiking shoes and wanted to put them to the test. Let’s go! Well, the path started from a park trail, hum, seems relatively harmless right…..then why do I get the eerie feeling I’m starting down the yellow brick road?

The trail quickly turns into a muddly hike down winding paths with lots of locust tree spikes and thorns. I can only imagine how thick the brush here will be when summer’s in full swing. Ah, found the creek mentioned in the cache notes! Since it’s been warm quite a bit lately, there’s a nice flowing stream of icy cold water. And it’s wide:

So, I walk along the creek’s bank, heading east, to see if there’s a narrower area to cross at. Ah-ha! Boyscouts must have been thru here – there’s a nice little stone walkway to cross over….um, yeah, except for the ice covering them….

Let’s do it! Oh, me first?! Well, ok! Took a pause mid-stream to snap this pic of the NB’s in action:

Oh, I love my NB’s! Thanks to bon_shopper on eBay for a fantastic purchase! So I get all the way across and there’s this steep, muddy bank that I have to get up. From the stone. Did I mention it was steep? And muddy? I had to leap from the last stone and grab onto a branch and pull myself up. Guess what…the branch broke! I had it and it broke, so I baptized my NB’s in the creek. No big D, water was cold but I survived.

So I made it up the embankment and had to re-position the GPS. *insert more hiking here* 450 feet….300 feet….100 feet…..30 feet….there?!

Nice find! It was super hidden under the branch, tucked all the way down under the tree trunk. Of course, Captain Jack wanted a pic with it:

It was so beautiful out there. Funny how alive you can feel when surrounded by dead stuff. And yet, with all that deadness, there were still the sounds of life….the creek’s trickling water…the rustle of birds….the running hooves of deer….the call of the hawk….

I decided to take a little nap after that brisk hike and upon waking found Captain Jack with a camera in my face. Once a pirate always a pirate!

Here’s the sky view from my napping spot:

I couldn’t help but hear “Beautiful Day” by U2 in my head for the hike back to civilization.