Last outside adventure

Today was our last outside rock climbing trip. We went back to a place that we have been before but I forgot the name of it. It was beautiful. Although I will agree that it is slowly getting almost too cold to climb outside. We drove about an hour through towns, woods and highways until we reached our destination. We parked our van at the bottom of the hill and started hiking higher up. The sun came out and at least warmed up the earth and rock at least a little so we would feel a bit more comfortable.

As always I paid specific attention to the leaves, to its texture and color. I never paid attention to the form of the leaves and although I know that some type of trees lose their leaves earlier or later than others, I never acknowledged the difference lying underneath my feet. This time I did. I saw the trees that still had some of their leaves and trees that were entirely bold and then looked at the ground to see the difference between the leaves on the ground and the ones still on the trees. 

I have been acknowledging the leaves lying on the ground for a pretty long time now and after a few weeks I can slowly see the effects of the decaying process on the leaves. Last week, when we were walking up to Rose Ledge, the leaves were very loud and crispy; today the leaves have become much quieter. They felt softer and I could in fact see them decaying on the ground. It was interesting because they actually started to rot. 

The climbs today were very balanced, we had two easier and two a bit more difficult ones. I made it up for the first time to all four of them so I think it was a nice way to end the season. Although the rock/gneiss was very cold, I felt like I got used to its cold and every time I had moved up the rock to a certain point, my fingers started getting warm on their own, as if they knew they had to make up for the coldness around them on their own. 

We stayed until it started getting dark and it was the first time I have heard the forest around us so loud. I have never paid attention to the noise around me but this time it was hard to ignore. On one end, I could hear something like an owl and on the other side dogs barking. Does that mean that the forest becomes alive at night? It made me feel differently, I definitely became more respectful towards the forest. Coming out of the woods, I suddenly realized how light it is compared to inside the woods. Even though all leaves are gone, the trees still prevent a lot of light from coming in, creating huge contrast in light inside the forest compared to outside the forest. Coming out of the forest, I really felt a little released. It was nice to be in there but it was also nice coming out.