I haven’t gotten out into the woods for a real hike in many years. But I vowed to get back out there at least once before the winter sets in, and today was the right day. Nice warm weather, and for once all my chores were done before the weekend (thanks to having Thursday off from work). So I dragged the old backpack out from the closet and got some granola and headed up to Harriman State Park.

I wasn’t sure if I still had the hiking groove in me, but after a while it started coming back, despite my initial trepidations about the whole thing. Over all the day went quite well. I stayed out for 4 hours and 45 minutes, and only took a few brief rest stops. I got 5 miles in, and managed to get up and down all those rocky hillsides.

And for the effort, my legs are throbbing just a bit right now (it’s rather pleasant, actually). And I have a few digital pix from the venture. Here are two views of a somewhat Zen-like scene that I noticed, up on top of one of the hills. Once you start with Zen, you can take it most anywhere.