April Fools

We gathered in the trailhead parking lot on May Valley Road, ready to start a circumnavigation of Squak Mt. But first, I offered to distribute some extra weight into everyone's pack. After all, it's spring and this is a training hike of sorts, so I took out an iron, a can of nearly-full paint and a textbook, and asked who wanted which item. And the answer to my query surprised me, as someone in the group asked how much each item weighed because you can't just indiscriminately add weight, you have to do it incrementally. That's when it was revealed that the questioner and another hiker already had extra weight in their packs because they were training for a backpack and a climb. Now who's the April Fool?

Since that went over like a can of paint over a waterfall, the leader Nicole and I (her mentor) decided it was time to start hiking. She showed everyone the route on her detailed map, then bid them a good hike as they all filed up the trail in an apparent hurry. Um, Nicole, we didn't talk about this segment of the April Fool's joke; we are going to hike with them, aren't we? Yes, we did start hiking, trailing the group which had taken off quickly, in pursuit of their training goals.

the group snakes uphill

While the forecast was for rain showers, we were pretty lucky fools, as we endured about 1 minute of small hail after lunch and then some steady, but manageable rain for about 10 minutes later in the day. When we returned to our cars, the skies opened up even more, having spared us from the worst while on the trail.

One April Fool (me) even spotted a Trillium, the harbinger of spring and after photographing it, nearly crushed it while being thrown off balance. Luckily for everyone's sake, I was able to regain my composure and can say that we have indeed entered the season of Spring... no foolin'.

first sighting of Trillium