Daytime high temperatures were unseasonably warm this week. Some of the flowers and trees are already blooming and with the exception of a stormy Sunday the skies have been blue and clear. It is one of my favorite times during the year. On Saturday, I went to a new area to hike in Duke Forest. This was actually my second new trail in the past few weeks, but this one was more enjoyable. I scouted a little online, checked some maps of the roads through the forest, and took off in my car. Had I done a little more research, I would have parked at a different entrance gate that would have trimmed the worse parts of the walk but I didn’t want to let perfect be the enemy of accomplished. For the first quarter mile or so of the hike there was quite a bit of road noise, but beyond that the walk was quiet save the crunch of gravel under my feet and the conversation of the few other hikers I came across. After winding along the gravel track for a while, I descended down a gentle slope to a bridge. I couldn’t resist a detour off of the gravel path and along a rougher trail beside the flowing creek when presented with the opportunity. It wasn’t the route I had originally mapped out, a route that would have taken me on a loop further north, but flowing water is nature therapy in the best way.

There were several bits of the creekside trail that required scrambling over rocks but there was no scree so the footing was always sure once you got through the fallen leaves. It wouldn’t be a walk that everyone could do though. At one point, there was a pair of Mallards foraging in the creek moving in the same direction as I was walking. Such was the terrain that we moved at roughly the same pace, not that I minded given the beauty of what was around me. It was a lovely scene with the creek set below some low rises maybe forty feet above the water on each side, plenty of tree cover, and sunlight sprinkling through to the floor. Overall, it was a very pleasant walk. I just wish I’d worn shorts.