Yes, one knitter. Me. One of my labmates is finishing up here and going back to China next week, so a few of us went on one last lab hike before he leaves. We went to Hickory Run State Park, where a different group of us had gone a couple of years ago. We took a different trail this time, because I wanted to not have to wade through a stream, and because we wanted to visit the boulder field, no matter which part of the woods we walked through.
The woods were lovely. It had been far, far too long since I’d been in the woods.
Lots of the tree stumps were covered with moss and lichen–I love the way the lichen makes some of them look like teensy stone cities.
I have to say, though, that I’m not sure the trail (the Boulder Field Trail, which I would not call difficult) was all that much drier than the ones we took last time–those were dry, except for the stream. This one, well, the puddles you can see are the trail. And we still had to cross three streams, though they were leapable and didn’t require taking off of shoes.
We made it to the boulder field, though, where we had lunch and hung out for a bit. Then, my companions headed off for the other end of the boulder field, and I stayed behind to enjoy the warm sunshine and the cool breezes and the not feeling like I was slowing everyone down. (I am not a fast hiker. Especially in gorgeous woods. Especially in old running shoes, which really aren’t great hiking shoes but which I still think were the best of my options. Fortunately, they were gracious about the number of times they stopped to wait for me–the trail took me an hour and a half each way, and probably would’ve taken them closer to an hour.)
While I sat in the sun, I knit:
Springtime Bandit grew a lot today, between the drive up, the break after lunch, and the drive back.
My feet are faintly sore, mostly from the weird angle of my running shoes (I do most of my running barefoot these days, on my elliptical machine), but I had a wonderful time. It was actually kinda nice to get to hike apart from my labmates for a while (several whiles)–it was quiet, and peaceful, and the only reminder of nearby civilization was the whisper of the highway.
an ent knits 
April 4, 2010 at 19:32
Other than the sore feet, it sounds and looks like it was a lovely day!
April 5, 2010 at 10:41
the only time i’ve joined Mike in orienteering was at Hickory Run and we ended up having to cross a stream, too. but, for us it was more a matter of someone not orienting one’s self to the map well. same someone also later got us horribly lost and he fell in a bog. then we stopped in Jim Thorpe and he ate the fondue-for-two as if it were a snack.