Trail Journal 04.21.05

Late evening on Bald Mountain.  Last rays of the setting sun highlight the bare trees.  Had a clear day across Big Bald.  Thunderstorms were in the distance but none nearby.  The rumbling thunder and stiff wind kept me moving.  I did not linger.  The sky was dark to the sourth, giving the land a stark silhouetted look.  The bald itself is open and grassy.  The trail leading to and from is thickly carpeted with a small white flower, its petals spread wide.  Now in the evening they are closed for the night.  I am sitting on the trail just south of the shelter.  The forest is open.  Great logs in various states of decay lie scattered across the forest floor.  Some are mere mounds, almost completely absorbed into the earth.  Others are moss-covered skeletons.  Moss is everywhere, on the decaying logs, on the ground, on tree bark.