Back to familiar ground.
I regarded home as a place I left behind in order to come back to it afterward.
— Ernest Hemingway
Meanwhile, back on the rail trail…
The weather became hot as forecasted. There were days when, if we got up at 5 or 6 AM, we were able to complete our usual jaunt before it got too bad. On those days, it would have been possible to continue on the Midstate Trail, but that would have meant we’d have to get up well before dawn to do it. Then there were a couple of strings of other days when the temperature never got low enough to even start a long walk anywhere nearby. The last heat bubble had heat indexes as high as 104℉ that lasted for days. And there were a few days of rain that we decided to avoid.
Today, the temperature is in the high 60s and we are out on the trail at 9 AM! What a joy to be able to sleep in a bit without broiling in our own skins. There is rain south of us, not even 30 miles away, heading east, but none here. Just cloudy skies. The ground is dry and people are out and about, enjoying a cool jaunt in Mother Nature. Even the birds are up and singing. My Merlin app hears two new species, a northern flicker and a chimney swift, as we start out.
Things are very green now. The damned burdock is more prolific at the beginning of the trail and I keep a look out for their big broad leaves. I do see some big leaves just off the tarmac, but I think they are mostly bitter dock, not burdock. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, because there’s a lot of it. The two look a lot alike, except the bitter dock’s leaves are a bit longer and pointy at the end. The proof will be when the burdock sprout their damn burrs, then I’ll know for sure what’s what. I bought a weed puller you can use while standing up, to help me remove any burdock I find, but, if what I think is bitter dock is really burdock, I have a lot of work ahead of me. I’ll have to wait until late summer to early fall, to know for sure.
The weather is good enough that there are a few bikes out on the path. That means Waldo is spending a lot of time stopping and looking behind us, just to make sure we’re not surprised by any. It also means that he spends a lot of time walking to my rear, then moving around me – always in a clockwise manner, of course. When a bike does come from behind, he either starts walking sideways next to me, so he can keep an eye on it, or he lies down and waits for it to pass. If one approaches from the front, he walks next to me, eyeing it suspiciously. He has never charged after a bike, or barked at one. Thank God.
We pass the spot where I raked the ground and tried to plant wildflowers, a year ago last spring. What had been a thick carpet of dead, brown leaves and branches, is now a dense growth of healthy, live, green leaves. Unfortunately, the leaves do not belong to any of the flowers I tried putting there. They’re all jewelweed and greater celandine, both native to this area. I guess clearing the ground provided the local species the chance to come in and take over and never gave the wildflowers a chance. At least it’s not all Japanese knotweed, which is invading a lot of the ground next to the trail elsewhere. Waldo doesn’t mind any of it – he’ll lift a leg on anything.
Near our turn-around point in Hudson, a well-known acquaintance of ours, with a dog, approaches us going the other way. She is a transplanted Swede who has been here, with her husband, for decades. They used to have a border collie companion, who they walked out here regularly. The dog died, but, after a less than a year, they adopted another border collie puppy, named Loki. Loki is about 5 months old now and full of insatiable border collie puppy energy. He’s pulling at the leash, trying to jump on me and doing his best to get a playful response from Waldo. Waldo lies down and patiently lets the puppy pounce on and paw at him and generally cause mayhem. The dog is well named – Loki is a trickster god in Norse mythology, known for his ability to instigate chaos. Seeing the two dogs next to each other, Loki at 5 months and Waldo at nearly 8 years, really brings home how much Waldo has changed. 7 and a half years ago, Waldo was Loki. His age is showing.
We say goodbye to Loki and our friend and finish our walk. It was really good to be back here, on home ground, after our forced hiatus. Now if global warming, El Niño and the weather gods will only abate the heat enough so we can continue to walk, even if it’s at dawn, until the cool of fall comes.
If not, we’ll do what we can.
The shade is nice.