May 25

Yesterday I started the hiking season at Laurel Summit. As I said yesterday, if I jog, I do not take walk breaks. If I can't go on, I will take a rest then resume jogging. I'll only walk if I can't go on physically. If I decide to walk, I do so ahead of time. I decided, since it was the beginning of hiking season, and it is still very wet, to do a road instead of a trail. I decided to do Edie Road from Laurel Summit. I didn't know the entire terrain, but since I was hiking down a mountain and back up, I didn't think jogging was a good idea, so I decided ahead of time this would be a walk. I have done Edie Road as far as Beam Run Road, and that portion is very steep. When I got up Linn Run Road past the Fish Run Trail access, it was a different climate. I finally pulled into the parking lot at Edie and Laurel Summit Road, about 2800 feet. I would say it was one month behind. It wasn't much cooler, but some of the trees were just starting to get leaves on them. The violets and dandelions are gone here, but the violets are in full bloom up there and the dandelions are just starting to bloom. The violets were gorgeous. They grow much bigger up there in great big clumps. They are more varied in color. There are violet ones, purple ones, lavendar ones, and such pale lavendar they are almost white. Edie Road is very steep. It leaves the Forbes State Forest after Beam Run Road. It's still all woods almost to the end. At the end, it comes out into a rural residential area in Somerset County, much like the area in Lambertsville near Shanksville where Flight 93 crashed. There are barns, houses, fields, horses. You get a beautiful view off into the valley and can see other mountains in the distance. I would say this area is still partway up the mountain. Edie Road ends up at a four-way crossroads, and the other roads have different names. A little brown dog came out from one of the houses and checked me out. He was afraid but let me pet him. He followed me to the crossroads and then back to the woods, then went home. Then I had to climb the mountain back to the car. I also fed the feral cat at Linn Run State Park cabins. It was hungry and very glad to see me.

I went back to the lot. Kimberly had mowed it and it was very beautiful. We built a fire and had supper. We left just before dark, because I wanted to see the Penguins, and Kimberly wanted to make sure she got the truck out. She had worked on the driveway. The Penguins were so awful, however, that I was sorry we hadn't stayed awhile. They lost 4-0 in game one of the Stanley Cup finals. Also, Kimberly wasn't too thrilled with the NASCAR race. The driver she loves to hate, Kyle Busch, won again.