Afternoon Symphony....of gnats!

As I left church today, I decided a hike was in order for the first Sunday of fall.  After lunch was cleaned up, and a few relaxing moments reading the paper I set off for Berry.  When you live in Rome, hiking means Berry.  I have numerous places I like to hike, but one of my favorites is the Longleaf Trail on the Mountain Campus.

Longleaf is before you get to the Old Mill.  It starts off easy enough, but then you turn the corner and it's quite a few switchbacks of steep climbing.  I usually take a few minutes to enjoy the solitude on one of the strategically placed benches along the trail.  The trail is usually well maintained, and well travelled.  But, since the April storms there are numerous trees down that you have to traverse. This just makes it interesting.

The end of the trail is the road that will take you to the Reservoir or the House of Dreams.  There are days when I just get to the top & turn around for the descent.  It's not a long trail, just steep!  Numerous days I take time to sit,  praise the Lord and pray.  Even though I'm not out more than an hour, when I finish this hike I always feel like I've been on a mini-retreat.  Being alone in the woods can do that for me!

Today, the sun was warm and the gnats were swarming.  That is my least favorite part of hiking - the bugs.  They love to buzz around my head, and I get to do a lot of swatting and blowing (growing up south of the Mason Dixon line, you get really good at blowing gnats!) They were especially persistent today, I couldn't lose them.  Buzzing gnats became the music of my journey.

When I got to the top of the trail today I decided to walk the road a bit, just because I was enjoying being outside (even with the bugs).  I eventually got to a another trail,  better known as a firebreak.  I suppose I feeling adventurous, because instead of going back my usual route I took this new trail.

I happened to check the time on my phone as I took this trail, because I know how long it takes to get back to the car on an ordinary day.  It seems silly now, but I was so proud that I took this unknown trail...unknown to me. I felt so bold!  The trail was full of rocks, which makes for difficult walking on the steep terrain.  I kept telling myself (yes, I talk to myself - out loud) to be careful!  There was one tree to climb over, but other than that it was an easy descent.

I had fun trying to guess where I was going to end up.  Would it be behind the Winshape cabins? Or would it be closer to Winshape Retreat?  Well, I came out just to the right of the water treatment plant - which means I was about 1/8 of a mile from my car.  Remember when I checked my time?  Well from my unplanned trip down the firebreak until I got back to my car...17 minutes.  Yep, I had a 17 minute adventure!! All 17 minutes were filled with the sound of gnats in my ear.  But it was a glorious time, and I can even thank God for the gnats.