Autumn Breeze

Maga11 and I got out in the wind for some local letterboxing yesterday. The couple of miles that we hiked and climbed included a historic home, creek side ramble, swamp view, and more than three vistas of central PA's rolling farmland in autumn.

The wind gusted more than 40 mph and was loud on the ridge top. We made our way along, enjoying the woodland and colorful leaves. Much of the trail had downed branches so our progress was not speedy. This allowed a lot of time for chatting and visiting. We talked about the couple of times this month she spent putting up hot peppers and how she was still coughing from the oils they had thrown into her sinuses and lungs.

We only saw three other people on the trail yesterday. One was a jogger who came upon us so quickly as we were stamping into one letterbox that we had no time to do anything but watch him run by. Who knows what he thought we were doing off trail.

Hickory nuts, puff balls and big old black walnuts also littered the path on our hike out and back. The walk was just wonderful as we took the descent slowly and carefully. We were glad to have parked well away from the black walnut tree in the parking area. It had been dropping its large heavy fruit the whole time we were hiking.

When all was done, we came away with three new letterboxes and a hitch hiker found. We celebrated with a pack of crackers before we went shopping at Wenger's. It easy enough to get carried away shopping in that store and best to not go in hungry.