We got in the car bundled up, cell phone flashlight ready, hats, gloves, water, snacks–ready for our night hike. Not going to lie, I’m a little bit scared of the dark. I mean, a night hike? That’s like the start of a really bad horror flick, “Two girls innocently and unknowingly hiked right into their death when the evil woodland creature attacked them from behind! He abducted, tortured…” Okay, done writing THAT story–on with what really happened…

Like most parks, trails and awesome things outdoors there was a sign at the trails head that said “Open from sunrise to sunset” I quickly stated in the obvious, “Dude, Nature doesn’t close!” She agreed and we found a spot to park the car and got our night hike on. Stepping out of the vehicle we quickly noted the moon and the unseasonable warm weather for November. The ginormous moon that had erupted from a blanket of clouds and shone down on us, literally lighting the path. We peeled off one of the 16 layers we were wearing, ditched the lights and went on our way.

As our pupils dilated and our feet maneuvered over rocks, roots and avoided mud puddles our senses heightened–I could hear better, I could smell the looming winter before us, but we could also see. Considering it was 10:30pm, that seemed odd. Color was dulled. In fact we both kept commented on the lack of color, but noticing the different shades of greys all around us It was as if we had jumped into a scary black and white film. A Film Noir, or and old Hitchcock that never got much press. This film would have been about the moon, the clouds, the cracking branches in the distance, the lack of stars but the incredible amount of light so late in the night. It was eery, eery but amazingly beautiful.

We didn’t talk a lot. We walked and listened. I touched tree trunks as I passed by them, I wanted to know if Nature feels different with the Full Moon shining so bright on two lost girls. As we found our way through the trees, over the rocks and roots and back to the car we emerged from a fog. Like we had experienced a new country or planet. Nature showed off for us, she let us breath with out aide of light pollution, she allowed us to absorb the essence of her with out the distraction of color, we connected to earth in a new way.

When the Moon beckons you have to listen and respond. Ignore the “Closed” sign because I think we all know that sometimes the best things happen after closing time.