Autumn Comes To The Glen
I spent a lot of time in three of my favorite places in the first autumn of my retirement - The Pinelands, Hawk Mountain, and Ricketts Glen. I visited Ricketts Glen four times in October and early November! Some might say that is a bit excessive, but in my defense I only went there twice for photography days. The other trips were with family and with friends who hadn't ever been there. So in a way, I was doing a public service on two of the trips! :)
It was a colorful autumn in the mountains of PA, and Ricketts Glen was no exception. Each week showed dramatic changes in color, and with the repeated trips, I got to know which sections of the mountains changed colors first and which ones lagged behind. It's amazing what you observe and learn when you spend a lot of time in an area.
On the day I made the image above, it didn't start out so great. I was my usual excited self as I arrived at the trailhead and I loaded everything into the backpack and started hiking. I was fifteen minutes up the trail...easing into the day and calming down my excitement... when I realized I didn't quite pack everything - I left my water bottles in the Jeep. I hate going backwards, but I definitely needed water for the day.
After getting my water and slamming the Jeep door shut, I started off again. I hadn't gone far when I came to a section that looked really nice... but it wasn't a waterfall... and I was now behind schedule! Then I realized I don't have a schedule anymore! I could explore this one section all day long and come back again tomorrow if I wanted to. So I crossed the creek and spent time in this beautiful small area of color, with amazing old growth trees - some standing and some fallen. The size of the trees made it feel a bit prehistoric - like I was seeing a part of Ricketts Glen that existed many many years ago.
I took some photos, had a refreshing drink of water, and then slowly walked up the trail for the rest of the day.