Change of Scenery

     We've been told that walking is the best exercise, especially for seniors. So I'm taking a page from DJan-ity's blog and offering a glimpse of a walk we took recently.    

In our neighborhood

     To be honest, my wife B does a lot more walking than I do. She takes a three-to-four-mile route around our neighborhood almost every day. I only walk three times a week -- and that's a good week. Sometimes it's only twice.

I found these fellows downtown

     I find walking kind of boring. I mean, it doesn't take a lot of concentration to put one foot in front of the other. And then what else do you do? Look at the scenery? I usually walk into town, a little over a mile, and it's basically the same scenery every time, even if I do vary the route a little bit on the way there or back. 

One large New Jersey leaf

     But sometimes B and I go farther afield. During the self-isolation of the last six months we've traveled to several nearby towns to walk around and see different sights. We've been to a few local parks. In the summer we drove over to Princeton University, and another day up to Lehigh University, to walk around a college campus.

The reservoir was low

    Some friends suggested we take a short trip over to a park they knew about in New Jersey. So on a warm and cloudy day last week we crossed the Delaware River and turned north up into the Jersey hills. Following their directions, we found Round Valley State Park which surrounds a reservoir outside the small town of Lebanon.

We started uphill. Can you tell?

     The several-thousand-acre park offers swimming, boating, even camping. But everything was closed down except the hiking trails.

Pine trees against a cloudy sky

     We drove in and parked. We walked along the shoreline, then climbed up a path into the trees. We saw a few people down by the water, and passed some other hikers on the trails. But not many, and most were wearing masks.

A shot of red

     It was a nice fall day, and by the time we circled around a small peninsula and got back to the parking lot we had covered about four miles.

The way home

     The outing was nothing spectacular, nothing challenging. But we got out in nature. We got our exercise. We got some fresh air. And now tomorrow, it's another walk into town.