October 2013

As I begin my boardwalk hike (yes I’m in Huck Finn mode and, no, not the down the shore boardwalk), I pass a young girl with colorful fall leaves clutched to her chest – no doubt her prized possessions destined to be show-and-tell at school.

Scuttlebutt clouds beckon to me as they meander across the deep blue sky, turning wispy blue on the horizon. The aromas that rise from the swamp are no doubt stirred by the previous day’s rain, aromas distinctly related to Nature. I walk.

Shadows cast across the grasses, plants and flowers by the warm October sun as this hiker/observer treks slowly, savoring Mother Nature, hiking a trail that takes me back in time and catches me up to the present.

I pass a Civil War-style fence and hear the echoes of my footsteps as the platform beneath me becomes higher off the varied marshland terrain below. I walk. I see new fallen leaves gently pushed across Pochuck Swamp by the October breeze. Below, Eastern Painted turtles covered in duckweed sit on a log catching the last warming rays of sun before winter takes hold.