my backyard mountain

I live very close to the bottom of one of the more popular "mountains" here.

I put mountains in quotation marks because they look more like very large hills, but that's just because the Alleghenies are so old that they have been worn down through time!

I've been DYING to go hiking again ever since the leaves started changing more, and was so sad when the stupid snowstorm ruined what I still believe was the peak weekend for these color explosions :(

It's still gorgeous out though; I am going to blame central PA for my new-found autumn-love because I have NEVER seen such a mindblowing display of leaves, even though I practically grew up in a forest in IL.

I think the mountains make it more extreme. More trees! And also a view from a greater perspective, living in a bowl-shaped valley.

One Illinois or Mississippi River bluff vs. an entire mountain range...yeah. 

I don't know how to describe it, except for an explosion.

(You can get the idea, I've definitely posted enough pictures!)

Here is the view of my mountain I get from the parking lot every afternoon (since I have given up riding my bike in the chilly/nasty weather; such a lazy bikewimp alas.)

GLORIOUS!

Since Sunday was bright and sunny (RARE, believe me) I knew I wouldn't be able to focus until I got some outdoors-time SO off to the mountain I went!

(At first I felt like I was crossing some inviolable safety line; do not hike by yourself, do not go into the woods alone etc. but once I got to the trailhead I realized you will never be hiking by yourself when it is a gorgeous fall day! sooo many annoying couples blecgh.)

I will be hiking/trailrunning more FOR SURE! It was soooo much fun. And gorgeous.  Redgold leaves, in the canopy, blanketing the rocks, glowing in the sunlight mmmm.  Camouflagued with the hair.

I was so excited, haha :)

But honestly, is there anything more perfect than a glowing gold forest on a sunny day???

(Not to THIS Professional Treehugger in training!)

Being by myself let my mind wander and let me appreciate simply existing

Here's the stereotypical overlook of campus:

I liked the mountain/field overlooks better:

(and check it out, Papa and Ben...they have put up these sweet maps at every single station so you actually know where you are haha)

Of course, before I knew of this improvement I had already prepared myself by bringing my OWN official map

that was even better

because it depicted the unmarked do not go there confusing trails that intersect the real trail alot

(AND had topo lines)

lalala, running through the sunny forest :)

I followed the outer blue trail, running (/jogging) the flat non-superrocky parts.

It's evidently 6 miles but it felt like 3??? I was out for a little less than 2 hours but it flew

I was thanking the hip god the entire way for letting me do this without ANY pain or even tiredness!

(Maybe I was too hyped up on coffee and excitement)

I could DEFINITELY become addicted to trailrunning.

(But not the extreme kind where your toenails fall off)

It is fun.

the end

note from Nicole

Aww my little sister wrote me an email and it is adorable! I could definitely not type this well when I was 8 years old (but I didn't play online games with chat-boxes either...we didn't even have a computer in the classroom ugh I'm ancient.)

ANEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I got my Halloweener costume just a few days ago. I got it from walmart. I'm being Cleopatra. I have a white dress with a sparkly belt with a thing hanging off the belt and a headpiece with a red gem on it and a thing that goes around my neck that kind of hangs on my sholders with a big red gem on it with small blue and green gems in a pattern in diaganle rows about an inch away from the big red gem. Today the catties got in a fight much bigger than the big red gems. HANS COOULD HEAR IT FROM HIS ROOM AND IT WAS IN THE FAMILY ROOM! When me and mama got there they were going under the table! they were tumbling everywhere! when papa broke up the fight Peekie's tail looked hillarius! Itwas all poofed up! Bye I'm done with this note!
 

I am starting to look forward to the holiday season, chilling at home with my family.

Sometimes I miss them :)

brain hurts.

It's Friday again.

The rain is back.

I have a headache.

Today was a crrrazy non-stop day.

I didn't even have time to make coffee this morning,

which is definitely the root cause of the headache.

I made about 23498734 cookies last night for the Geography Dept. coffee hour reception today, which was good because a man from The Nature Conservancy was the speaker; and I have pipe dreams of perhaps working for TNC someday. Maybe. Haven't really thought about the implications, just say it alot. (like I used to "say" I was going to be a pediatrician...)

And therefore have eaten way too many cookies in the past 24 hours.

I also learned a lot today; starting my weekly half semester mini-seminar "research perspectives in human geography"

woah! human geog is deep, dark, and complicated!!

Did you ever think about how we view poverty as an issue that can only be solved through economic means, but then map "poor" areas of cities based on where people live (or spend their income) instead of where they are actually earning their "poverty-level" incomes?

We often associate poor areas with race, because it seems like lots of black people live in areas we associate as being "low income." But where people work is where the low-income happens, and there is actually no correlation between place of work and race, household size, etc.

So, by trying to solve the issue of poverty by searching for "root causes" and making maps of poor neighborhoods is useless and only prolongs the problem.

More money or jobs will not help people who are only yearning for dignity, health, and a safe community.

Therefore, looking at the problem in terms of "welfare solutions" is pointless.

Even more disturbing are government programs that are trying to create jobs and economic development to bring people to "middle class" level. If middle class is defined as a household income of at least $40,000, HALF OF ALL U.S. HOUSEHOLDS are operating below middle class.

It would take $1,000,000,000,000 PER YEAR to bring that many people up to the defined "mid class level".

Perhaps we should try to make ways of getting the most quality out of income, instead of obsessing over the quantity.  Start community gardens, car-pool, design more comfortable and safe living environments.

These are "discourse" based ideas...or how we view relationships between words and the things they represent. (i.e. "car" can connote luxury, success, sex appeal, pollution etc). We see problems based on only one chosen relationship.

Earlier I said the root cause of my headache was coffee deprivation.

But if we try to find the root cause of climate change, or poverty, or world hunger,

we will only prolong the problem.

because root causes actually do not exist

I have learned about all this from a small Indian man named Lucky Yapa, who exclaims "....my young flends!"(friends) a lot as he lectures. 

photo