Zen like a mountain pool

We knew we had a long way to go, but we didn't care. It was a beautiful, warm fall day. The kind that only come around a few days a year. The sunbeams and mountain pools were calling and we just had to linger. Like forest nymphs hidden in a leafy brooke.

Martha and I are doing a classic Blue Ridge hike through the Three Ridges Wilderness. Last night we camped by a roaring waterfall and later got distracted by this pool. In the afternoon we pushed on through oak and hickory forests sun-dappled, shading to russets and yellows. Then sweated our way up to the three consecutive saddles, the three ridges this hike is famous for.

We made it up the last great ridge top just in time to watch the sunset creep over the valleys below and highlight the leaves in dazzling colorful light. As the light faded we hiked on through the darkness camping our last night at a shelter on the Appalachian Trail where we met a colorful assortment of through-hikers from all walks of life. "So-bo's" - south bounders on the trail.

They were good company and made me want to just drop everything and follow them along the ridges south. Unencumbered and free. We ate what we had left for dinner - oatmeal and a half chocolate bar and slept deeply.