I only hiked part of the Little North Santiam trail. There were a few social trails down to the water in the first stretch. Then I started climbing and climbing. It was steep too. I’m happy to say that I managed to get up to the top and back down. Then when I was on a flat section I felt some pain in one of my knees. I thought about it and decided that it would be a good decision to turn around. I felt that if the pain fully set in it would probably take me until midnight to climb back up and down that hill and get back to my car.

So now I had the luxury of time. I was able to take it slow(er), and I stopped plenty of times to just take in the scenery. I spent my time taking in everything you can imagine seeing in the forest. I even stopped and enjoyed the sunlight streaking through the canopy. I had plenty of time to think about a wide range of subjects. One was a poem by Terry Hertzler. The Night of the day that Davy Maxwell Died. “The sunrise filed me with joy. How strange. The sun.”

Oh and that picture taking thing that I seem to like to do – well let’s just say that unlike yesterday I had an embarrassment of riches. I only got shots in a few places during the first portion of the hike, but I had a near impossible time trying to decide which to upload today. I usually flip through them and note the files that I might wish to choose. Tonight I pretty much just used the dart board approach. Okay so maybe there weren’t really that many good shots. But after yesterday’s strikeout it seemed like quite a bounty.