By: Emily Sunblade
Yesterday I took advantage of the great weather to find a tree I can go to a couple times to show the changing season over the next few weeks.
I left the newsroom around 5:30 in a hurry, concerned I only had two hours left of sunlight to get out into the Shawnee. Once I got past Carbondale I could see the sun was still fairly high in the sky and was more relieved as I made my way towards Cedar Lake. When I got to the trailhead, I parked my car quickly and rushed down a familiar trail, thinking there was no need to change from my sneakers to my hiking boots that I keep in the backseat of my car, since I probably wouldn’t be out of the car for very long. I was expecting to come upon a tree that would be perfect within a few hundred feet of the parking lot. As I got farther down the trail I realized that finding an isolated tree in the middle of the forest would be harder than I thought.
I took a quick look and saw that the tree line to the east seemed a bit thinner and headed off through the underbrush in that general direction. I came upon a clearing that had a large tree on the other side just on the edge of the lake so I wanted to get a little closer. One thing led to another and I ended up attempting to cross a marshy mud area in my new sneakers, cursing my impatience with my boots.
I finally got to the tree, only to find that a mass of tangled branches at the bottom would not make for a very picturesque portrayal. I turned and headed back towards the direction in which I thought was my car not only cursing my shoes but also that sunlight was fading and I still hadn’t found a good tree. On the way back I found myself in a creek bed that I eventually had to cross. I am out in the woods fairly often and crossing creeks isn’t a big deal for me, except I am usually wearing my nice waterproof boots. I took this picture in the midst of trying to find my way to the opposite side, probably while I could feel water slowly creeping into my socks. Eventually I got back to my car, made two more stops, found my tree and muddied my shoes a little more in the process. Needless to say, my new sneakers sat on my front step last night. Mission accomplished, lesson learned. Check.
