As much as I like to annoy my friends and family about going out in crappy weather, I do get it.  Not many people are interested in going out for a 4 hour hike when it is 35°, windy, and alternating between rain, sleet, snow and none of the above.  But I love it, and I doubt any of my colleagues at work were surprised when I told them I was taking the day off to go out and enjoy the lousy weather.

I did not have anything in particular in mind for this day, but from lots of prior visits in these conditions I knew there would be plenty of decaying wood just exploding with a variety of lichens and hardier fungi such as Witches Butter, set off against the muted brown and orange tones of the wet fallen leaves.  I was certainly not disappointed.

(Note that you can click on any image in this post to view it full size.)

As often happens, when I go out with no expectation on what I am hoping to see, I discovered something new and exciting.  This particular trail is really short, under a mile round trip, and I had been thinking I would likely hit another nearby trail after this one.  However one of the features of this trail is that much of it runs along to top of a dune ridge which falls off on one side down to an interdunal wetland.  This particular wetland has been in the process of being reclaimed from its prior use for residential development.  On this particular visit, looking down into this area I saw the remains of a road that used to run through it, and it was quite obvious that a lot of work had been done recently to clear out invasive trees, reeds and underbrush.  It was immediately obvious that this abandoned road will provide breath taking access to the heart of a newly restored marsh.  So I altered my plans and hiked down to and through this area to get a glimpse of what is to come.  I cannot wait to see how this old road looks in a few months when spring has fully sprung.

After wandering through the heart of some newly reclaimed marshland, I returned to the more well established trail system where nature has had more time to settle in and get comfortable.