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2001-04-29 - 3:06 a.m.

Hartshorne hilltop

Written from a hilltop, Hartshorne Woods, Monmouth County, NJ, April 27.

I stepped out of the office � a bureau near my house, a stop needed to take care of one small unfinished item from the night before � and walked to my car stepping onto a mulchy mound beneath a small tree, strolling across the grass median separating the rows of Detroit steel and rubber. In that step on the mulch, the soft imprint of my New Balance cross-trainers, I had a desire to walk in the woods. So instead of going home, I turned off the divided four-lane of strip malls and gas stations and traversed the roads of Middletown hill country to here, this wooded park on the cusp of the Highlands. The half-dozen cars in the parking lot nearly drove me away until I remembered most likely belonged to bikers (of the mountains). I wanted solitude.

I greeted a young mother and child with a smile and �good morning� at the trailhead, and passed a man and his dog at the trail juncture near the overlook. I walked through the forest alone on a warming spring morning, listening to the birds and the woods around me, the crunch of my feet on the dirt and leaves and twigs, the shuffling of my jeans, my sneakers� scrape along the rocks and roots, the jingling of my keys in my pocket. (I don�t like this bee that hovers and looks at me, then circles my head.) I hear a squirrel rustling off to my left and stop � all my noise silenced and I hear the rumble of cars on Route 36 below me, the roar of a plane above me, through the budding branches in the deep blue sky. The sun begins to warm my back and neck but then a breeze comes and feels cool on my perspiring skin. Though I woke up early and was tired, I�m energized and rejuvinated, happy for today and myself, longing to walk further and climb higher and lie on a rock in the sun on a remote hilltop, just as Keith did in last night�s �Survivor,� which helped inspire this little jaunt, hopefully a preview of Monday�s climb up near the Water Gap.

I spread my arms looking down at the forested hillside, wanting the wind to rush around me. I wanted to take off my shirt and feel the breeze cool me � I wanted to shed my clothes, to stand naked and free in nature.

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