Day

We decide to hike up Day Mountain, or walk rather, since the small mountain is traversed by a carriage road to its modest summit. But first we followed a trail to reach the carriage road. The woods had that November emptiness. No leaves on the trees and no snow yet.

The smell of decomposing leaves filled the air in spots. A tree crossed the path. In one section the trail was wet. We crossed on rocks. Soon after we came upon the carriage road. The sky filled the emptiness above with clouds. The sun poked through every now and then.

The carriage road presents wonderful vistas of ocean, islands, and distant hills. Schoodic Peninsula and Frenchman Bay in the northeast to Camden Hills and Penobscot Bay in the southwest. Maybe thirty miles as the crow flies. And horizon out to sea.

We saw only footprints and not another soul. A hikers’ boot walking a dog's paws. A bicycle track. Deer prints jumping out of the woods, onto the road, and across. When we reached the summit, I ate an apple and she a banana.

Three crows were battling in the air above us. Two against one. An extended fight from one particularly persistent crow. They went their separate ways, and we returned the way we came, refreshed.