A Walk In The Woods

Posted by Russ Devan (New Hanover, United States) on 20 August 2008 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

Another image from our hike along Kittatinny Ridge at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. I borrowed the name for this image from the book by Bill Bryson. This was taken along the Skyline Trail which travels along the top of the mountain ridge. At various points along the ridge where there are breaks in the tree cover, you can literally look out over the valley and see for tens of miles. After the thunderstorm cleared out, we had very clear conditions and we could see quite a long way.

If you take the Skyline Trail, be prepared for a LOT of rock scrambling for about two miles and some hand-over-hand, vertical rock climbing. Many of the boulders are truck-sized and house-sized and made for a great challenge. However, because of the thunderstorm that had drenched the area, the rocks were wet and slippery and especially treacherous. Ben ended up with two good-sized cuts on his legs from a couple of slips on the sharp rocks. I managed to emerge unscathed, but my knees joints took quite a pounding that day. I ended up taking quite a lot of Vitamin I (ibuprofen) the next few days as a result.

"The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both."
- Zen Buddhist Text

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