Spring came to visit

And I decided I would go up the mountain to visit the bog and see if it was waking up. I've visited the mountain in every season - deep winter, early spring and it's always been fine. But I've never attempted it in the midst of the freeze/thaw cycle and as I skidded and bounced along the unmaintained road through the state forest, I reconsidered the folly of not having told anyone where I was going. No guardrails, no other cars, no cell phone coverage - just my fingers gripped to the steering wheel creeping along at 2 miles per hour praying that the all wheel drive would keep me on the road.

Finally I was at the summit and could breathe again as I headed down the trail through the woods to the bog. At first the trail was a messy mix of a thin layer of snow interspersed with patches of deep mud and thick layers of rotting leaves. As it wove deeper into the forest, the snow pack deepened and soon the only sound I could hear was the crunch of my shoes breaking through the crust of the snow. There was one other set of old tracks heading in and every once in awhile, I could see where that person stepped off the trail and broke through the snow into a ditch filled with mucky, murky bog water. The walk did little to calm my nerves.

As I came to the platform leading out into the bog, my first reaction was absolute disappointment. Still asleep. Still frozen and silent. A pair of crows called to each other from the trees on the far edge of the water. I searched the sky in vain for the sight of a hawk and listened certain I would hear the songbirds chirping to each other in an early spring frenzy. Nothing but the repeated, obnoxious "caw caw" over and over again, causing my startled heart to begin pounding again with every discordant call. This was not peaceful or calming.

And then I forced myself to stop. To breathe. To just be in the place like I had been dozens of times before. It was then that I heard it. A creaking, distant cracking. The tiny gurgle of running water. The ice is melting. The bog is waking up. Spring is coming.

I took a gamble that the summit road would be better maintained from the logging trucks and state forest vehicles so I drove in that direction and was rewarded with clear roads the whole way to the highway. My car is completely covered in mud. But spring is coming to the mountain.