Ghoulish greetings my friends! 🧛🏻♂️(Said in a classic Dracula voice)… I’m so sorry, wait actually no - I can’t help myself, I’m an unapologetic fun-loving nerd, lol! We are still having some rather spooky weather here in the Northeast - gray skies, spits of rain, and winds whipping all around! Hopefully anyone going out Trick or Treating tonight with their kids or just embracing the joy of being a kid themselves stays safe and has a wonderful time!
I know I say this approximately 9 times a year (albeit all for very specific reasons!), but I love this time of year! I grew up with a healthy love of the horror genre and fully embrace that to this day. I could right a whole book here on the various films, books, and video games that have brought me joy and helped shape who I am, but I’ll digress, and try to keep things more relevant, haha!
Halloween, now in middle-age adulthood, has come to represent to me the culmination of the month of October. It’s like taking everything I love about the Autumn season - the trees changing leaves, the crisp air, the delicious smells, the harvest, the horrors - and stirring it all into a Witches Cauldron for one big Monster Mash of a celebration!🧙♀️🍁🍄🌰🍂🧌🌕🐺🧟♂️🎃👻
And so, I just felt compelled to treat you all to a little piece of Autumn eye candy to enjoy throughout the All-Hallowtide Weekend we have upon us. Be sure to delve deep down to the bottom of this bag (aka this post) to enjoy a short, sweet treat…
“Morning with the Maples” - Shenandoah National Park, VA
“Shenandoah, my first National Park. And my first National Park backpacking experience way back in October of 2012, a couple years before I made my first pilgrimage to Vermont for the Fall Foliage. This Park holds a special place in my heart, and is arguably my favorite east of the Mississippi. Once I experienced Autumn in New England, and began coinciding Art Festivals along with being up there for the first part of October, it has become increasingly difficult to make it Shenandoah then in the latter part of the month after returning home. But on occasional years, I can pull it all off in one Monster of a month, if you will!
This was one such year, and although I don’t have this date handy off the top of my head, I’m going to say it is either 2014 or 2015 because I know it’s back from my Mamiya RB67 medium-format film days. I had actually hiked this trail (Meadow School Trail in the Central District) first in the Spring and realized the forest here is predominantly Sugar Maple, need I say more!!!
Up here in the Central District of Shenandoah, you are accessing trails from much higher elevation than many further Northern and Southern District Trails. And I have learned that means peak foliage up to a week or two earlier on average, occurring more in mid-October than late October. This particular year, I was fortunate enough to nail it! I’m talking about an “All Out Glowing Orange Color Assault On Your Senses!!!” I mean, and as you can see, basically EVERY leaf was screaming “CHECK ME OUT” all the way down to the forest floor!
It was simply magical! And oh the smell!!! Such glorious conditions abounded on this backpack… The air was clear and crisp, the ground was slightly damp and evoked the Earth and the Maple Leaves in every beautiful breath! (Yes, I wholeheartedly feel the smell of a predominant Maple Forest smells different - and what I associate with the Season - than an Oak Forest, let’s say, in the Fall). I recall the night prior to photographing this scene, having one of my first quintessential Autumn backpacking experiences…
‘It was in the cool dark of night that I sat in my Therma-Rest make-shift Airpad seat, tucked in my 20 degree sleeping bag with only the light of tea candle providing any visibility. As I sipped my Southern Tier Pumking Ale, out of nowhere the shrieks and yips and howls pierced the still of night! A pack of coyotes going crazy over something! And they were close! I even got a brief glance of one prancing by in the shadows of my headlamp and candlelight! It sent chills up my spine, in a beautifully eerie way that I will never forget. How fitting for the Season!’
I remember then in the morning, it was so difficult to pull myself away. My coffee and Mountain House Biscuits & Gravy were an absolute perfect match to the brisk morning. I truly felt the essence of this forest all around me for a few blissful hours and knew I had to still it on film, so that I could always come back to my bountiful ‘Morning with the Maples.’”
https://www.brandonklinewnp.com/printpurchasing/morning-with-the-maples
Side note on the above image and story - this forest also is home to one of the oldest, gnarliest Sugar Maples I have been graced to encounter out in the Wilderness. Tap to take a peak at this spooky beauty, if you dare! Mmmmmmmwwwaaaaaaaahhhhhaaahhhaaahhh…
Happy Halloween my friends, 🎃💀🎃👻🎃🧟♀️🎃
Brandon