The Path [Just] Taken

Brain cancer is...

 ...exploring.

Today we hiked "the loop," a family favorite trail through the nearby national forest.

As we walked, we talked about more than 40 years of happy memories of the loop.  We remembered Darrell carrying Baby Alex and Gordon carrying a picnic that the five of us enjoyed in the forest.  We remembered hiking with a succession of family dogs through the years, with our growing sons, Zach proposing to Summer, and Bennett and Christian climbing its rocks recently.

In all those years, we never varied from our known trail, despite the fact that several paths branch off from ours.  Never...until today.

Today we employed our 2020 Word of the Year, explore.  We set a trail marker and a timer and ventured cautiously onto another trail into the forest (above).  Maybe we won't wait another 40 years for our next exploration.

Nova:  As the next generation of loop hikers, please know you'll have a few options.  

Back on our trail, we caught this view and felt faraway indeed, with the mountain cloaked in clouds:

Happy Friday, Team D!

Today's Bloom

Until someone knows better, Darrell names this the "cotton candy vine bloom."
(Update 4/20/20:  Roene did some Internet sleuthing. We think Cotton Candy Vine is also called Wild Clematis.  Well done, Roene!)
 

Up Close

In a Trio

At a Cotton Candy Vine Party