Although winter is not officially here yet, we are seeing signs that the transition to the season is well underway. The difference in the nature of the woods during past few weeks is stark. This is how a certain section of the trail looked two weeks ago.
This is how a section of the trail that we visited (a different one) looked yesterday morning.
It was still early in the morning when we got on the trail yesterday at Whites Ferry. It was quite cold outside, in the 30s. We are still getting used to the onset of these kinds of temperatures, fairly typical for this time of year at this time of the day. Fortunately, it was not windy. The sun was still struggling in and out of the clouds from its position low on the horizon when we arrived. There was little warmth from its presence. The weak rays of light barely reached us through the leafless trees.
The majesty of the towering Sycamore trees was once again revealed to us in its fullness: on the trail,
and across the river on the shores of the Potomac.
The perfect reflections on its calm and quiet waters further enhanced our views of the river, and uplifted us, on this beautiful morning.
For some reason, we encountered very few people on the trail yesterday. But we did see a few great blue herons. The herons were more skittish than I expected – like this one that we encountered early on in the walk.
Its eventually warmed up into the 50s, a more reasonable temperature to handle at this stage of our transition to winter.
The long walk that we took served well to compensate for the calories consumed during the Thanksgiving meal. It was a quiet and relaxed affair with just the family and a friend, with the kids putting in most of the effort in preparing the meal. We are thankful – for everything!
Splattered Brains 