Mother's Day....in a marsh.

Happy Mother's Day!  And of course, what better way to celebrate then by going for a short and beautiful early morning hike by yourself into a swamp to fulfill a zero-day obligation.  Okay, so maybe that's completely nontraditional - but I did it anyway dammit!  Haha. 

Since I was slated to be at Mom's around 9am to cook breakfast for her (and the other vagrants mingling about), I had to get on the trail early.  The cache that was to be the Vivien Leigh to my Clark Gable, was Meandering Through the Marsh by Paleoman52.  The cache page boasted a three-quarter of a mile round trip hike down a rails-to-trails through a beautiful swamp.  How could I resist such temptation?

I hit the trail around 7:30-ish, with plenty of time to dawdle about taking pictures and doing the other nerdy things I do oh-so-well.  Everything I love about early morning hiking was in full force today.  The sun's rays were just starting to poke through the trees, the air was cool and crisp and there was a thin fog covering the world.  It was epic Szuchie hiking weather boys and girls.

The sun's rays streaming through the morning fog.

How much fun does this trail look?!?  :-)

Wait a minute! There's things here! There's rocks, there's trees, there's birds, there's squirrels.
Come on, we'll bless them all until we get vashnigyered.

Look closely for the wildlife kids.

I love early morning shadows.

Golden Rod leafing out.

The hike to the cache was awesome - and the swamp was spectacular.  What made it even more enjoyable, was the fact that the air was cool and therefore there were no bugs to be found.  Couldn't have planned that better if I say so myself!  After finding the cache, I really didn't want to leave this area as I was having myself such a good ole' time...so I decided to continue my hike until the trail left the swamp and entered into the woods. 

I really enjoyed this section of trail, and after maybe another half mile or so of hiking, I saw that my time here was starting to grow short.  So I spent a few minutes listening to the song birds, before doubling back to my SUVIE.  In total I did around a mile and a half - which was the perfect way to start a marvelous day filled with family and friends.