I’ve been back in Maryland for almost five years, and I’ve lived close to Patapsco Valley State Park for all of those five years, but I’ve never actually visited. I decided to visit today. There weren’t many people around, and once I started walking on the trails, I didn’t see anyone. There were some moments where I couldn’t hear cars, planes or people. The only things I could hear were the birds chirping, the wind blowing, the leaves rustling and the dirt moving. It was a nice feeling, especially just being outside and enjoying the fresh air.

I hadn’t specifically planned on going to the Park today, so I didn’t have the proper footwear, but my sneakers did the job for where I went. After today’s visit, I plan on going again, so I will make sure to wear some trail shoes the next time, and I will also plan on walking for more than an hour, which is what I did today.

Spring is here, but the trees haven’t all been given the memo yet, so there was some nice scenery of leafless branches, and then there were some trees full of leaves, and some trees that were just starting to see signs of new life. I’m glad I went today, since it was colder, and there weren’t a noticeable amount of bugs around.

I started my walking by trying to get to some higher ground, which provided me with a nice view of trees upon trees upon trees.

Doing a 180 degree turn, and I went from seeing little or no leaves to some full trees.

I have no idea what the different types of trees are, what the different types of leaves are, or what the different types of flowers are. If I saw something that looked appealing to my eyes, I took a picture.

I went from seeing the nice shade of green to a nice pinkish hue.

I really liked this one. I don’t know what it looked like before this state or what it will look like after this state, but I’m glad I got to see how it looks at this moment.

For my first walk around the Park, this was really nice. I enjoyed not having a lot of people around. I don’t go out and about in nature all that often, but when I do, I would prefer that it be a more personal time for me. Not too many outside sounds, not too much commotion, just the essence of the moment with nature. The sights, the smells, the sounds, the feeling of the breeze as it hits my face.

It felt good to have a nice sense of calm and a momentary reminder that there is life outside of the bubble in which I live (figuratively speaking). It’s easy to stay positive in moments like this.