The weather was gorgeous—warm enough for a light sweatshirt during the day and cold enough for a roaring campfire at night. While the foliage was past peak, the views were still amazing, and I went on my first night ride because our neighbor generously offered to watch my kids. (The night ride is becoming a campground tradition because only at the end of the season does it get dark enough to do while still getting off the trails early enough to respect the landowners.) Seeing the sunset from the top of a mountain—simply awesome. Even if I’d taken pictures, they couldn’t have done the views justice.

Another first—all four of my wheels leaving the ground at the same time. We were buzzing down the railbed at 30mph in the dark and apparently there’s a bump the guys like to jump. The husband remembered too late I was behind him and just went with it. I jumped my ATV! It was rather exhilarating. (Especially since I didn’t anticipate it, tense up, land badly and go tumbling with my machine off the side of the railbed, breaking every bone in my body and landing in the swamp to be eaten by alligators.) (Okay, it’s not a swamp, just wetlands. And we don’t have alligators, although during last year’s race across the railbed at night—sans wives—the guy leading did get thwacked by a bat. They’re still laughing at him.)

Anway, I’ll save the 986 boring pictures of trees I was compelled to take, but I’ll share these: