Penobscot Mountain Ferns

I knew I'd be having a quieter, at-home sort of day tomorrow, so I motivated myself to leave the house fairly early for a hike. At this point hiking feels more like an avoidance behavior to push off the idea that the school year is coming and there is still a lot I need to do before I'll feel ready (as if I'll ever feel ready!) So I went off without a clear plan in mind and ended up hiking over Penobscot to Sargent Mountain Pond and coming back along the South Face trail over Cedar Swamp Mountain. This was a bigger hike than I was really up for, and it got hot even though I left early. After getting home I was pretty wiped out and took a nap in front of the fan, which is something I'm really going to miss when summer ends.

The ferns in the main image were actually at the bottom of a narrow crevice about six feet deep. Once I get on top of these open mountains I like to wander around and peer into things. The sun was already high enough to shine right down on these ferns, and the feather caught my eye.

The extra is from the shore of a small pond in a little notch between the two mountains. It's actually a photo of a frog, if you can see him. He was a pleasant companion during my breakfast snack.