Through a Hollow, Darkly

On Saturday we had Kevin's parents over for dinner. I made the chicken gnocchi soup I tried last week (because as we were eating it that night, Kevin said his parents would love it and suggested we have them over).

When they got to our apartment, Kevin flipped through his home theater PC in search of something innocuous to put on while I put the finishing touches on the soup (and the garlic butter drop biscuits I baked).

Kevin, Riley, Catherine, and Ron got through about half the movie by the time I had dinner ready.

Then after dinner, we decided to finish the other half before digging into dessert. (Catherine had baked one of her famous crumb cakes.)

Catherine and Ron enjoyed catching up with Penny, and Kevin managed to snap these pictures of Riley and Lucky:

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day, and Riley, Kevin, and I were all in agreement that we should go to a park. We were about to settle for Five Mile Woods just down the road from us (which we actually still haven't been to), but then we changed our minds to Dark Hollow at the last second.

Halfway there, my car alerted me that it was time for an oil change... which was odd, since I just had my oil changed exactly one week ago and had only driven 500 miles since then. I decided I would let my engine cool off while we hiked, and then I would check the oil before we left.

Since some part of this park is inevitably always underwater, we weren't sure what we would find or how we would make out. But, now that Riley had a decent pair of hiking boots and wouldn't have to worry about ruining her good pair of sneakers, we would be able to tolerate more than we have in the past.

...Which was good, because things were pretty soggy:

But more importantly, spring is here! (Much to Kevin and Riley's dismay.)

As always, it was a long walk just to get to the power line field:

This was the first time this field was dead enough for us to feel safe venturing over to the creek without having to worry about coming out covered in ticks!

But eventually it was time to proceed onward.

We've never managed to get a photo that quite conveys how massive the hill at the end of the field is. But after climbing the obverse and coming back down this way back in the fall, we knew how taxing it would be. And we were not looking forward to it after more than three months of relative inactivity!

Also, there are two streams that cut through the field, which we always seem to forget about. We were able to cross the first without issue, but Kevin had to drag over a log to assist us with getting across the second:

And then, the ascent itself:

When we reached the summit, we took the opportunity for a much deserved water break:

A few more steps onward, and we were in territory we had never explored before!

Kevin said it would just be corn fields for the most part, but he came across someone else's route map sometime last year and knew from that person's data that the elevation would eventually drop off and take us back down to another part of the creek if we walked far enough.

So we pressed forward:

He pointed out the telltale split in the creek here and said we were at the top of the cliffside with all the gigantic boulders and rock slabs we've photographed countless times before:

And a few moments later, I commanded Riley to STOP! so I could point out the two foot garter snake she very nearly stepped on:

Not long thereafter, our altitude was decreasing quite steadily. And soon we were even with the creek again:

There's nothing quite like having an entire park to ourselves!

This was certainly worth the walk :)

Riley was determined to overturn every rock on this beach in search of salamanders and frogs:

Kevin helped her with a few of the bigger ones:

And she found a decent number of creatures (and other things):

Meanwhile Kevin found this blade of grass with some sort of insect eggs on it, and I found a bone:

I also took a bunch of ahtsy fahtsy photos:

Then we realized we'd been there more than three hours (and started to notice how much we were beginning to hurt!), so it was time to go.

We were way out in the sticks and had a substantial walk back to the car:

Two thirds of the way back, we heard a group of "kids" (maybe early twenties) on ATVs approaching from behind. We pretty much run into someone or another on dirt bikes or ATVs almost every time we're here, and we've never had a problem with anyone: Kevin just walks behind us to make sure they see us if they're coming in fast, and we step to the side to let them pass.

But these particular guys were definitely on the jerky side. They didn't bother slowing down as they passed us, and the one guy actually sped up even though his tires were inches from our feet! (He seemed to be trying to impress his girlfriend who was riding on the back of his quad).

They disappeared into the woods ahead of us, until we heard them returning a few minutes later. Of course, by that time we were back in the woods as well, where everything was super muddy. So we had to scramble to get far enough away so we wouldn't get soaked with the mud being flung off their tires as they came whipping back past us (again making no attempt to slow down at all).

And at that point Kevin's wrathful side came out. After spending the last three hours clearing virtually every branch and large rock off he found on every trail we had walked, he made sure to move every log he was able to maneuver between there and the parking lot back onto the middle of the trail as payback for the quadders' unwillingness to share the road with us for all of five seconds:

Back at the car, I found out that I was half a quart low on oil, so I called the mechanic who did my oil change last week and scheduled a follow up appointment for tomorrow afternoon. (And then I texted my boss to let him know I probably wouldn't be in tomorrow as a result.)

By this time we were all famished, so Kevin suggested a pizza place and cocktail bar called The Cage that his friend Lee recommended to us last year:

I got the thickest quesadillas I've ever seen (with a delicious chipotle dressing on the side).

Kevin got a brick oven meat lover's pizza.

And Riley went with tried and true chicken tenders and fries.

Everything was spectacular, and the bill was quite reasonable (under $50)!

We stopped at Kevin's parents' house for a bit on the way home, because Kevin hadn't checked in on his composting worms (in the basement) for a couple months and wanted to make sure they were chugging along okay.

Then the three of us stopped at Rita's and got some water ice for dessert when we made it back to Morrisville.

As for the rest of the week, I took the opportunity to get some things done around the house on Monday while I wasn't at work. (And it turned out the situation with my car was the result of a "new kid" who forgot to reset the computer and mistakenly shorted me on half a quart of oil after servicing my car last week.)

The rest of the week has been pretty low key. But all in all, it has certainly been better than the last two or three weeks were! And spending all day Sunday with Riley and Kevin was a much needed pleasant close to a rather dicey month :)

Plus with "April showers" on the horizon, who knows when Dark Hollow will even be traversable again!