Walk During Peak Fall Color

We had so much to do and travels we had to make on Sunday, so we almost did the "responsible" thing and did not go to Backbone State Park this past Saturday.  After all, we had gone the prior weekend so Tammy could kayak and I could walk.  And, I know Tammy was a little worried about how her body would handle the hike since she hasn't been doing that much hiking of late.  That's what happens when you have limited time to get out in nature and you start using some of that time to be on the water instead of on the trail.

Also, we knew it would be a windy day and there was some discussion that maybe all of the Fall leaves would be removed from the trees by the time we got there.

Happily, we went and not only were the leaves there - I think it is safe to say that they were at their peak.

The sky was that gorgeous blue we sometimes get in an Iowa October.  And, the wind lifted some of the yellow leaves off of the trees and launched them into that blue sky.  I tried to capture what I was seeing with this image and it doesn't really do it justice.  Let me just say that it felt we were in a "snow" globe where we had leaves instead of snow floating around us for much of the walk.

The East Lake Trail provided a fair amount of shelter from the wind, but we were reminded that wind does dislodge walnuts and small branches along with the leaves.  While nothing landed too close to us, I was reminded that it is a good idea to pay attention to your surroundings.  It did nothing to put a damper on the walk and it actually had me looking at things from different angles even more often than I usually do.

And, as you know, that's not a bad idea as far as I am concerned.

Tammy remarked about some of the images I was able to capture on this walk, so I felt like it might be nice to put some of her selections in the blog.  I noticed that she favored photos that featured the water somewhere in the picture, but she also liked it when there was a nice range of color.  Some areas had predominantly yellow leaves, but it wasn't hard to compose pictures on the trail that would show reds, oranges, blues and greens to go with that yellow.

While the colors were better on this walk, I actually took many fewer pictures with the camera.  Part of the reason is obvious, I was not the only person walking this time around.  I had to consider Tammy's pace in addition to my own.  Also, there were many more people walking the trail this time around, which made the opportunities for nature-only photos less frequent.

On the flip, side, I was being a less experimental this time.  Instead, I went for the best natural scenery images I could frame in areas that were most compelling to me or Tammy.  It wasn't all that hard to know when something caught Tammy's attention because it is easier for her to keep moving once she starts walking.  So, if she stopped, there was likely something pretty nice to look at... or maybe she needed a rest.  But she did tend to rest in locations that had lots of nice things to collect images of on this walk.

I know I have mentioned this before, but I am often struck by the pleasant nature of the people we meet on the trail as we walk at Backbone.  Yes, it is true that sometimes there are folks that are a bit loud on the trail for our tastes.  And, yes, sometimes it feels like there are people who aren't truly observing and appreciating the beautiful world around them.  Still, they are almost always respectful of others, of the trail and the natural world around them.

I could detect some the effects of awe and wonder in people's kind greetings as we passed each other.  More than once I noticed a person who had stopped just off the edge of the trail - not just to let us pass - but also so they could just take time to look at something beautiful.  More often than not, we were the ones who stepped aside for others.  And when we did, people seemed to recognize what we were doing and they could appreciate it.

Now that the work week has started, we were both tempted to tell ourselves that maybe we should not have taken the time to go to Backbone and take this hike.  Except we knew that would be a lie.  It was very important that we did take this hike.  It was a fulfilling life event that was necessary for us to balance out the hard work, the stress, and the worry that has been pushing at us almost continuously of late.

This Fall, we can look at each other and instead of saying, "I wish we'd been able to go visit one of our favorite hiking spots during the peak of the Fall color this year," we can say we DID take that walk.  

And, why is that important?

It's important because for most of the years of our lives together we have expressed that regret.  Our lives as academics and farmers usually precludes the pursuit of the changing of the colors of the leaves.  We normally take the "responsible" route and deprive ourselves of some moments of joy because that's just how it has to be.  Or, we substitute a walk with a slightly altered driving route in the car - and we drive by the colors at speeds that are too fast to really get the full effect.

Now, to be perfectly fair, there are only so many days where the weather conditions are as appealing as they were this past Saturday.  Perhaps our regret some years is that there was not much choice for enjoying a quality Fall show.  It's not long ago that we slogged through some very wet September and October months that did not promote much of a show.

So, for this year, at this time, and in that place, we took the time to appreciate the world around us.  And we took in one of the greatest shows on Earth.  The perfect Fall day in Iowa.