Thursday was the Fourth of July, so I had the day off. I started the day with a 10.5-mile run with Nate, down on the Towpath Trail; it was a very hot and humid, difficult run. After getting home and showering and eating breakfast, I took a nap.

The day was saved from being a total do-nothing day by a hike. The weather was calling for storms in the evening, so I wanted a shorter hike, so we headed off to see Blue Hen Falls, which is down in the Valley, near Boston Store.

Blue Hen Falls is very easy to walk to, on a well-maintained trail. It only took us ten or fifteen minutes to get there, and the falls are pretty. The are quite a bit smaller than Brandywine Falls, but it was a worthwhile hike. My hiking guide mentioned there was another set of falls called Buttermilk Falls further along the stream. It made the hike sound fairly easy, but warned we would have to ford the stream three times. That did not seem like a big deal since the stream is only a few inches deep. I wanted to go see it, and the guidebook said it would only take an hour total.

My first clue should have been the “End of Trail” sign at Blue Hen Falls. There was clearly a muddy trail past the sign, so we tromped on. The trail is not maintained at all – there were fallen trees across the trail, and there were muddy areas pretty often. Mer kept up her good humor, even through fording the stream twice. The only time she got cranky with me was when the trail split and we had two choices – a narrow and steep path overlooking the stream with a fall of several feet onto rock, or a steep muddy embankment that had no real fall. I choose the muddy embankment, and Mer did snap at me halfway up it when she was having trouble getting her footing. On the way back, we took the other path, and it was much easier – the roots provided good footholds.

Mer did recover her composure to the point where, when we crossed the last ford, she merely commented, “Oh, that’s my foot getting wet.” Happily, the falls were just beyond the last ford, and they were worth the hike. The were not particularly big, and they rode down a gentle rock face in a frothy white tumult. What was cool for me about Buttermilk Falls was how they kept changing depending on how close you were to them. They looked pretty steep and flowing hard when we stood a little ways back, but they became gentle and mesmerizing up close. They emptied into a pretty little pool, and the stream ran off over rock formations that were quite scenic. I really liked the area. Sadly, we did not stay so long as we might have liked, because it was raining lightly and I thought it might get quite heavy (it did not).

One odd thing, in the middle of the hike, in the middle of the woods – there were concrete supports on the bank of the stream, almost as if a bridge had once gone through there, but I saw no evidence of a road. Oh, and Mer got her other foot wet on the first ford on the way back, so there was symmetry at least.

I had to work on Friday, so we skipped the local fireworks, which all were around 9:30 or 10:00. Mer watched some from our front lawn, but I was driven off by some aggressive mosquitoes. I got ready for bed, and Mer joined me after the fireworks ended.