Natural high

It's ridiculous to drive an hour each way just to find a pleasant place to go for a walk, but that's what we did yesterday. I've been working on steeling myself for the struggles ahead by filling my senses with beauty, so yesterday we drove to Black Hand Gorge, a state nature preserve featuring a paved bike path that stretches for seven miles along the lovely Licking River.

We visited there years ago when both of our kids were still at home, hauling four bikes an hour north to ride the full length of the trail. But we haven't really used our bikes since we moved out to the woods where the roads are steep and curvy and largely unpaved, so the bikes are in bad repair.

This time we used our feet instead. It's a level path (which is great because I'm still struggling on uphills) that runs through shady woods and large rock outcrops, with the river on one side and abandoned quarries filled with water and lilies on the other. A few canoes and kayaks slipped past on the river and we encountered about a half dozen bikers and walkers on the path, but mostly it was calm and quiet and full of peaceful green beauty, like the rotting log covered with brilliant orange fungus and the doe and two fawns splashing through the lily pads in one of the ponds.

We walked to the two-mile marker, took a little rest near a rock that looks like a beaver swimming downstream, and then walked back. Baby steps. That's how we'll get through the next few months.