[Previous entry: "Sucker"] [Next entry: "Riding by Radio"]

02/28/2004: "Tramp Abroad"

Some days live up to the advertising. This is one. It was cold and clear when I went out this morning, but by ten o'clock or so it was warming up nicely. I looked at the map and saw a spot, not too far way, where I could leave my territory and enter unfamiliar country. Five or six miles from where I've lived for years, and I'd never been there. I went past the old crossroads in Mendham and headed up a steep hill. Old colonial houses clustered halfway up. Across the ridge, then down a winding, narrow road into a hollow, up hill and down, not a familiar sight to be seen. On my way back I stopped to see the falls, modest, well off the road, in a sparsely-used preserve. Boulders crowded the creek-bed, and an earthen dam, breached, crossed the stream. Once there had been a forge on this spot. The corner of a stone foundation peeked through the snow. I slipped back out of the valley and came home. What other surprises are right out there, almost within my grasp?