Sunday December 12th 2021

The weather was in transition today. It started cloudy and a little foggy. It progressed to a sunny day before the next cold front arrived. Around 4PM thick dark clouds started to move into the area from the north and east. It looked like it was going to rain at any minute. So far the rain hasn’t arrived. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny again, but a few degrees cooler than the mid to upper eighties of the last few days.

There was the expected turn over off sites in the campground today. All of the weekend residents departed. By late in the day all of the sites were occupied once more. The new arrivals seem to be here for a longer period of time. Many of them put out Christmas decorations as part of setting up camp. The two week stay limit now includes the holiday weekend, so some of the new arrivals may be here through Christmas. I won’t know, I move on this Friday.

My exercise for the day was another hike. Once again I took a new turn and ended up in some areas I didn’t recognize. The forest service did a prescribed burn last spring that removed a lot of the underbrush and left many dead pine trees exposed. Some areas look rather bleak. I know I’ve hiked in the area I was in today, but I approached from the other direction. All of the intersections along the trails are numbered and have arrows pointing to other numbered intersections, so I wasn’t lost. I was just following a few paths that I probably haven’t been on before. Once again my hour long walk around Hammond Lake turned into a three hour hike over hills and around hidden ponds. It was fun and I got back before the dark clouds rolled in.

My camera was busy on the hike. Here are some of the images I captured.