I showed up at the Tuesday afternoon farmer's market right when it opened, and sure enough, the manager was there. He was fussing with something, so I kept walking, ogling a bin of artichokes and buying a bouquet of peach blossoms. (They could only enhance my appeal as a potential volunteer.) But when I returned, he was gone. The other staffer said he'd be back in 30 to 40 minutes, as if my peach blossoms could possibly wait. No matter: There's always this Saturday, and sooner or later I always get my man.
This morning, instead of swimming, I went on a long hike. (Six miles, two hours and twenty minutes, 2,000 feet in total elevation gain. The AllTrails app is amazing. And it makes it getting lost extremely difficult.) The bad news for my new hiking habit is that the next four days have rain in the forecast; the good news for you is that this is the last hiking post in a while.
For the nearly the entire first two hours, I didn't see anyone at all—although I did hear women talking. I kept thinking I'd catch up to them around the next bend. Eventually, I realized they were all the way across the valley.
The solitude was lovely. I like hiking with other people, but going it alone is meditative in a way that reminds me of swimming, with the bonus of being able to chatter way to yourself. And you can stop and obsess over whatever you want without feeling like an anchor. On every hike since the last storm, I've paused for at least one photo like this:
You don't take green like that for granted in the middle of a seven-year drought. Even the grass gives joy.
I love flowers, as I mentioned the other day, but you know what really turns me on these days? Leaves. I keep threatening to sign up for a watercolor class so that I can try to capture the shapes and colors of the leaves around here. Then huge leaves on this hike, in particular, really brought the urge out.
And then there are these odd plants at the spa ruins on the Hot Springs Trail. Adam and I had noticed them the other day, but today, I discovered a large grove further along. They have medieval leaves, spiky seed pods, and reddish bamboo-like trunks, and they were 12 feet tall, maybe taller.
It was the perfect hike in many ways—partly cloudy skies, cool temperatures, only a few other hikers, funky vegetation, varied terrain, and a big payoff at the half-way point.
AllTrails says I burned 1,170 calories. The deficit didn't last long, thanks to the leftovers from this bad boy. I lost control at Bettina the night before....
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