I absolutely love this time of year. While the weather has been gradually shifting towards spring for months, suddenly it seems like everything is blooming and growing. Everywhere, instead of bare branches, there's new green growth. The walks I took through our neighborhood on the long, warm, sunny days were significantly slowed by my constant pauses to snap photos of many of my favorite blooms. The dogwood are blooming! Along with lilacs, dogwood are my favorite flowers. Lilacs, I love for their smell, but dogwood I love for their sturdy, large flowers in bright pink, white, and sometimes even pale green. They're everywhere this week.
This week, I also finally found my favorite sign of spring - skunk cabbage! Most hikers consider trillium to be the harbinger of spring in the forest, but the tiny white blooms can be easy to miss. The smell of skunk cabbage, however, is impossible to miss. You don't even have to see it to know it's there! Both skunk cabbage and trillium were sprouting up all over the trail along Boulder River, where we hiked on Sunday. Our hike started off cold and overcast, and for the entire hike in, it felt like the clouds wouldn't break up at all. However, while we sat in our hammocks eating lunch, reading, and enjoying the soothing sound of water rushing over rock, we saw tiny a patch of blue sky. By the time we we hiking back out, the sun was shining, and the clouds were forgotten.
Starting another Alpine Trails Book Club book on the trail!
Sweet little pine cone that looks tiny even in my small hand
Trail lunch: gorp with a few hunks of jerky thrown in
Post-hike dinner: cold beer and an incredible new food truck
