Farewell to Quehanna's Foliage

We were in the Quehanna Wild Area on what just might have been my last camping trip of the fall season. The days are getting shorter now, and this coming weekend, we will "fall back" on the clocks.

The fall clock change is the time of year that we all dread, possibly nobody so much as that Tabbycat, who doesn't appreciate having his mealtimes and daily rituals trifled with! (Come to think of it, neither do I!)

You might think the reason we'd stop camping out this time of year is that it is getting too cold, but truth be told, the cold never bothered me. In fact, my personal record for camping out (and it was without a tent) is 7 degrees F, which I set in the Quehanna Wild Area probably 20 years ago in the middle of winter.

I do not expect to best that record, ever. And if you try winter camping yourself, please remember to drink plenty of fluids, as extremely cold air sucks the moisture right out of a person. So be sure to keep yourself well hydrated; actually, that's pretty good advice for any time of year.

However, the long nights DO bother me. Once it's dark already at 5 or 6 pm, that's a lot of "dark time" to fill up when camping out overnight. I can do it, but it gets tedious. I sit there in the dark, thinking of all the funner things I could be doing, if only I were home!

And so it was that we had the feeling of an impending ending of some kind. We were on a car camping trip (as opposed to an actual backpack) in Quehanna, and the moon show the night before had been just fantastic. I actually finally had to put a blanket over my head because the moon was so bright, it was hard to get to sleep.

The night was chilly and clear, with a low around 36 degrees F. As the moon set, though, the sky clouded over and the temperature rose a bit. So we got up in the morning, took our tents down, stowed our gear in the car, and went for one last hike.

This is the dirt road that we started our hike on. It is also the same road that we sat in the middle of, in our chairs, the night before for the moon show. You can see that it's not a very well traveled road, so we were not in any danger. If this road has a name, I have no idea what it is.

There is still some very nice foliage color in spots, mostly oranges and yellows, though overall it is starting to fade. I know that the next time I see Quehanna, it won't look at all like this. One of the things you learn about life is that both the good and the bad times pass. For better, or for worse, nothing stays the same.

So here is one last look back at Quehanna as we celebrate it in its autumn foliage splendor. Wasn't it lovely while it lasted!? Since we sat in the middle of this road to watch the moon, the song I picked to accompany this image is the Pretenders, with Middle of the Road.