When I arrived at my chosen trailhead on this mid November morning, the “steam” vapor was still rising at 10:30 a.m. I was eagerly looking forward to exploring an unknown path; I’d actually checked this spot out on an earlier trip but only managed to get a short way before time forced me to turn back. Today I had plenty of time and I set out enthusiastically, stopping to shoot whatever caught my eye. And of course, a lot of things did.

And then, after happily meandering for about an hour, I suddenly came upon a sign that looked… very familiar. Turns out I was back on the Ecological Staircase Trail — and had been for some time. My starting point had been at the end of a short spur that joined up to EST and I had managed to completely miss that little detail! At first I felt a little disappointed, and slightly foolish, figuring I’d been shooting pictures of the exact same things as last year. But in fact, this was only my second visit to this beautiful trail, and since I’d started this hike a bit later, I was seeing a slightly different aspect to the forest. And after all, is the forest ever exactly the same? In the end, it was a memorable experience, perhaps similar but not identical to my earlier visit, and I’m more than ready to have another go at this trail in the future.

Only one of many banana slugs I saw on this walk