Some of the delightful parts of the hike were planned.  Like the Maya Gold bar: organic, fairly-traded dark chocolate with orange and spices by Green & Black.  Or the visit by some of Concetta’s and Sue’s co-workers.

Other delightful parts of the hike were completely serendipitous.  In fact, there were many moments of serendipity and they seem to filter into my mind at odd times as I remember the hike.

Like Concetta’s godfather is my uncle.  And we share cousins.  I never knew that!

It was fun having three dogs accompany us for part of the hike.  They came out of the woods at one of the sections that crosses private land and took a liking to us.  They frolicked and ran ahead, leading the way down the trail as if they had done this a hundred times.  I wonder how many other hikers they have accompanied?

Eventually we got to a major road where two more dogs lived.  These two were much more vocal and not so happy to see us.  They chased two of our companions off, but this gorgeous dog stayed with us.  I named her “Dawg.”

Dawg continued with us all the way to the first leanto where she was content to lay in the sun and enjoy the gorgeous view of the pond:

The only time Dawg got riled up was when five mountain bikers came barreling down the hill at top speed.  She barked at them as they flew by.  Once they had moved on, we all settled down again to snacks, wine, and conversation.  It wasn’t long, though, before the bikers returned, one with a blown tube.  We offered him snacks while he repaired his tire, and to thank us, he piped us a tune. It was so delightful!

Before we would let the guys leave, we forced them to pose for a photo:

This serendipitous encounter with biking lads inspired us to want to be lasses.  And so we named our adventure group L.A.S.S.  It stands for Ladies Adventure and Social Society, of course!