Shunting The Shoulds

This year hubby and I are bound and determined to get out and take advantage of this absolutely best time of the year for hiking. For his forty-some year teaching career, we always felt we missed out on fully enjoying fall because it signaled the start of the school year and weekends were given to doing the maintenance and must dos around the homestead before winter set in.

But now we have no excuse for not getting out frequently in this prime hiking time. So balderdash, I say. Balderdash to all the lists of (never ending) jobs that should be done.

We went hiking this morning along a favorite and picturesque river near us.

There are several spots along the trail where you can see the water cascading down through the river gorge.

When we started out, especially down near the river, it was kinda chilly. But with the sun shining and the temperature rising, we were soon peeling off layers.

Looking down, down, down into the gorge.

Hubby on one of the sturdy bridges built over otherwise un-crossable areas.

Even though the river is extremely low because of our hot summer and lack of rainfall, there's still a lot of water pouring over these falls.

There are extensive trails (hiking, snowmobiling and cross country skiing) going off and away on both sides of the river (we went up one side and down the other) and we said we could literally spend every day until winter comes hiking, exploring and learning the whole area. Okay, so maybe we won't get back there every day. (The Responsibility Police would track us down, I just know.) But I sure wouldn't mind another hike or two in the area before the snow flies.