A Fall Hike On The Railroad Tracks.

It’s late October here in Northeastern Pennsylvania and, like most years,  that means there is plenty of fall colors still on the trees. It was a beautiful, cool,  but sunny day today so I left the office a little early to get a look at them. They don’t last long. 

I hiked out the local railroad track near my house and was lucky to catch a passing train.  I have  always been thrilled by the clanking of an approaching train. 

I was disappointed to see that the red maples that grow  along the tracks have already shed all of their leaves. I was away and missed their show this year. 

The birch and aspen still have most of their yellow and brown leaves and the red oaks, the last trees to change, are just about at their peak now. 

I hiked out the tracks and up the old tower line, the metal tower that I walked under since i was a child have be replaced by metals poles.  Still, I  reflected on many wonderful memories of all four seasons I spent out on this ridge.

I sat on a rock I have been sitting on since high school, and where I sat on a very similar day two years ago after we buried my dad.  Some of the last hikes i took with my dad were out on these tower lines and I sat and thought about those happy days. 

Many things along this hike have changed as have many things in my life since i first hiked out here as a child exploring these world for the first. time. But that is what life is about, adapting to the change we all will face. I sat and reflected for a bit and headed homeward under the  red and yellow leaves of the oak tree, glimmering in the sun. 

It wasn’t a long hike but anytime you can spend outdoors  in this almost magical time of year is time well spent. i’m hoping to spend a lot more time outside this weekend. Here is a link to some more photographs I took on my hike today. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-5/nggallery/blog-photos/fall-railroad-hike-october-23-2015

.I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne,