Delayed Autumnal Walk

Taking a walk or a hike in the autumn time is by far one of my favorite things to do. You have so much opportunity to explore, and perfect weather in which to do so!

The little man and I were at a fishing spot last fall and we weren't really having a whole lot of luck sadly. We took a break, went back to the car and got some snacks. I knew that it was too early to call it a day, at least for being outside, and saw there was a trail nearby that I saw some people taking their dogs on a walk down so I decided, with the little mans approval, to take a walk down the trail and see what we find! It ended up being a really beautiful spot, full of lots of natural beauty!

The little man is certainly all boy and that's a wonderful thing in today's age. He loves to be outside, getting in the dirt, hiking and all of those really important things that many kids are losing touch with. The sad part is most kids have an innate desire to go and do these things but sadly lack a lot of the people around them to go out and do them! I really have a lot of fun when we go on these adventures, because I see a lot of myself in my younger years in him with this.

I was always in the woods behind my parents house as a kid, even to the point where it may not have been the best idea doing it at the age I was but regardless those were key formative years for me. I don't think I'd let him go off and explore on his own the way I did until he's a fair bit older but I can instead make sure to be there with him to show him the beauty of nature and watch him soak it all in.

This place here was a really awesome spot to go, the river was almost always in sight from the trail and I love getting onto those types of hiking paths. I certainly appreciate when you are out on a trail that's winding through various terrain but I think there's something primal about being able to follow a river like this upward and further into the reservation. I am going to go back to this area with him soon to do some additional fishing and see if we can finally snag some of the sought-after trout that love this region but the other thing I want to do, if we don't get any trout, is to go upstream some more and keep the hiking going!

The trail goes on for quite a ways, though a big portion of it does go by the river which is my favorite but it eventually gets cut off by a fence. I think they are doing work in the area to try and fix a bunch of stuff, so off to the right from where this picture was taken was the area that is fenced off. In order for us to continue, we had to double back about a quarter mile and get on the other side of the fence. We certainly could have done it but to me it wasn't worth it at that point, we were just going to head back and call it a day.

I am amazed by the beauty of the region though! There were absolutely all of the beautiful trees and colors that I was looking to capture on our trip to the mountains that we took earlier in the season. Yeah it was great to go to the mountains but we were there for the colors! We didn't get as many colors as we did on this short jaunt here hahaha. I think that's how it happens sometimes, you plan on doing something like autumn color viewing and then when you are at a spot close to home, you randomly stumble on far more beautiful coloring than you would have if you booked a detailed trip! Ah well, such is life. There were these little nested nooks all over the place along the riverside trail! I am definitely going to schedule another hike next fall to this beautiful area so we can get more time out there, and some additional foliage pictures!