day 3

As I was walking today, there was a lot of random thoughts about different leaves and how they remind me of pretty clothing--lace and pleats and youth. We walked by an SCA crew doing trail work, which made me really happy in a nostalgic sort of way. Followed the river down to Three Forks, where mountain fed streams come together and a mysterious mineral springs is marked on the map but not in person. I saw a tree frog today but not much else in the way of wildlife. There was a section of trail that went through a stand of old douglas fir, all broken off at ten feet up and slowly rotting away and the red heart of the tree showed. It was a solemn sort of graveyard of a forest, though not sad. These kids don't eat so much, probably because I am actually making them work. We may switch around our game plan for the last day's hike. I have to keep reminding myself to take it one day at a time not to think ahead too much--hours on the trail can go by really slowly sometimes. I love my chill campers and my gazelle of a co counselor, though I am anxious sometimes, wanting to know/keep his good opinion as a trip leader and a person. With Conrad it is sometimes hard to tell. The roar of distant airplanes reminds me that it is difficult to be totally cut off from real life no matter how we try.