Springtime Is Springing Out All Over!

Now that the weather has started to turn springlike, we have been trying to get out in the woods as much as possible. With stunning weather expected for Thursday, we scheduled an impromptu vacation day and packed up our daysacks for a long walk in the woods near Cherry Run, up one of the smaller tributaries of Fishing Creek.

The water was running a bit high, but that's how it's supposed to be in springtime, of course. Spring was springing out all over! The first mile or so of the walk was probably the prettiest, photography-wise, as every little bend in the creek produced a mini waterfall.

We met our first serpent of the year, a delightful little garter snake a bit more than a foot long, that we almost stepped on because it was sunning itself or napping on the path. In the interests of snake safety, I got a little stick and gently lifted the cute (and harmless) little fellow to a safer spot on the hillside. The little dude gave me a quick "snakey-lick" flicker of its tongue before settling happily into its new sun spot.

We walked four to five miles up the hill and then took a break and sat by the creek before walking back down, in what turned out to be a nine- or ten-mile (around 15 km) day. I seized the opportunity to get in my first wade of the year, doffing my wool socks and Danner Gore-Tex boots at the furthest point of our hike, and sinking my hot, sweaty, tired, sore feet into the icy cold mountain water. My feet turned bright pink and became instantly numb, which may just have been the very best thing I could have done for them in the shape they were in. (An overnight backpack trip and a very long day hike in the same week!) After the wade, my feet felt much better: comfortable and refreshed.

The hike back down was easy, and much quicker than the hike uphill. The sun had shifted; by late afternoon, it bathed the hollow in bright light. As I looked down the hill, the stream looked like a silver ribbon of light, shiny as mercury. Interesting how the water holds the light from the sky and reflects it like a mirror. It's not news to me that it does this - I've been walking up and down these woods and waters since I was a toddler - but to actually watch it shine and shimmer was visual poetry. There is a character in a series of books that I like by Terry Brooks (the Shannara series - and yes, I thoroughly recommend them all) called the King of the Silver River. He would have loved it here.

The song to accompany this image, I chose to celebrate my first wade of springtime. The dip in icy cold mountain water cooled and healed my tired and aching feet, leaving them . . . comfortably numb. The song is a favorite, and this version was performed at the 12-12-12 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated some of our mid-Atlantic beaches. The performance is a heartfelt rendition: Eddie Vedder's voice gives me goosebumps, and Roger Waters is clearly having the time of his life. Eddie Vedder and Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd, with Comfortably Numb.

When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
And I have become
Comfortably numb.