The Shannon Shimmy

The question is not whether to dance... the question is where to do it.

As Hummingbird and I prepare for ShimmyMob this Saturday, on World Bellydance Day, we needed some in-person practice time before the big event.  Of course, if we can combine it with a hike, all the better! 

We quickly agreed to meet at Mt. Shannon, partly because we just love it, and partly because there are multiple reasonable places there to dance.  This time we also explored a camp road loop that extended our hike an extra mile, and gave us unique trail so we can "count" the hike.

The hike itself was typical Shannon.  Beautiful, as always.  Spring flowers and foliage popping out.  Nice all around, except for it now being black fly season.  And pollen making for a hazy view.  Well, you can't have everything I suppose.

The obligatory Shannon pano.

And the other one.

And viewpoint #3.

The summit was blanketed in lovely flowers.

We nixed the idea of dancing on the summit due to the bugs, hoping the beach would be a little better.  Unfortunately, we neglected to notice when we passed it earlier that the beach was roped off, so we ended up dancing on the lawn next to the beach.  The bugs most certainly were not better!  We got in some good practice, but eventually had to hightail it out of there before we got eaten alive.

It was still all worth it, and I hated to stop hiking for the day.  So, since I was geared up in an appropriate "tick country" outfit, I took the opportunity to stop by my land on the way home to walk some more and check my game camera.  I racked up another mile wandering around there, and was very tempted to do more, but alas, I did have other things to do, so couldn't stay out there all day.  Much as I would have liked to.  Perhaps that desire was partly in the name of procrastination.  But either way, it was a good morning of Nature Therapy.  And, shockingly, I didn't even pick up one tick.  But the black fly bites made up for that.

We've passed this I don't know how many times at the scout camp, and I'd never noticed it!

On my land, I found a very useful turkey feather for fanning away the bugs.

Hike 23. 5/11 Mt. Shannon road loop & west yellow, 2.7 mi, 1:15 hrs, 584 ft.
    & land walk, 1.1 mi, 36 min, 39 ft.