Random Hiking Photos from 2008

Edge of the oncoming storm – Castle Rock State Park – 6/22/2008

LaSalle Canyon Waterfall – Starved Rock State Park – 9/14/2008

Hiking at Chain ‘O Lakes State Park

There is just something about walking a trail that I can’t put my finger on.  It gives you time to be in your thoughts; but rather than dwell on them, something about the steady movement in a single direction helps to… jumpstart things.  For someone with an intensely analytical mind like mine (i.e., I tend to dwell on things far more than I should), this is a great boon.

Yesterday was the most beautiful day yet this year.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky (though I would have welcomed some cumulus nimbus clouds, certainly).  The day was warm, but not humid, and there was a relaxing breeze.  I walked about six miles total (or so my GPS claims).

I can’t say that I was really digging Chain ‘O Lakes.  It’s very pretty, but it had this… dead energy.  Almost like a void, a sadness.  It could be because none of the plant life has regrown yet; it was a brutal winter.  But soemthing about the air smelt of longing, lonliness.