Woods in sunset, moonlight

A day in the woods. The noise from I-95 was never quite gone but we were far enough away from roads and trails to experience real peace. We heard woodpeckers, winter wrens, chickadees, red nuthatches. We heard a deer exhale loudly. When dark fell, we saw hundreds and hundreds of winter moths, and in the light from our flash lights, we caught several deer's eyes around us.

I wish I had taken a picture of the giant pine tree that we ended up climbing, or the enormous red oak that we were considering as well. Rarely trees in the wild get to such dimensions.

The hike went through rolling terrain on not very wellknown paths. Musclewood, Hornbeam tree, was everywhere as well as birches and oaks.

High bush blueberries were old and tall.

Sun was already low at three pm. I was pleased, hoping for a sunset climb.

And I was not disappointed!

My usual tree climbing face: the widest grin possible.

This enormous tree had a view in every direction. Looking East, Boston skyscrapers in a gentle glow.

Last of the oaks still in foliage

The sunset almost had a tropical feel.

Following every change in scenery

Finally the conclusion in pink.

After that dark quickly came. We were prepared for descent with our headlamps in place. To keep our senses in tune with nature, we only turned on the lights when we hooked and unhooked our carabiners.

Safely on the ground, we were guided by the shining moon.

In the glow of our headlamps the woods looked different. Here is a young cherry trunk.

Yellow birch. In the background the lights from the highway.

And the strangest of all, the musclewood again.

And I just had to include this at the end: the prettiest guy, my very own resident house finch in the reddest of red.