Finding "Peak"

Fall in the Happy Valley! This weekend, with the Columbus Day holiday, is an annual driving adventure. Without fail, our family takes a long drive (during which, ironically, we usually comment about the unseemly traffic) to search for that ever-elusive fall foliage "peak." Contrary to those generic foliage reports that are provided throughout the season, I have never considered "peak" to be an all-week kind of affair, but more often something experienced in the briefest of moments. You know it when you see it - that perfect balance of color, most leaves still on the trees, and a light ground cover of orange or yellow. On any given drive, you may see an assortment of "peaks" - in a pocket of trees along the road, framing the side of a hill, and reflected, shimmering, in a lake. Sadly, finding "peak" has been a hit or miss process these past few years, as locals will testify. You won't hear too much about it on the evening news, and I do feel bad for the tourists who are coming north for the first time and don't know what foliage can look like. But peak is not what it was five or six years ago, when the landscape was, year after year, a dependable spectacle of breathtakingly brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows. Our maples have been more muted in recent years, with many trees that once turned vivid colors providing only a hint of what used to be before their leaves just fade and drop. This year, however, has already proven more colorful than last, and I can't help but feel that familiar excitement as I anticipate our annual pilgrimage to the trees. Regardless of where we roam, the drive will culminate on the way home, right on our street, where we will look around as if for the first time and marvel that we ever went anywhere else, while the most beautiful views in the world (at this moment anyway!) are right outside our door.

Puffer's Pond, Amherst (on our street)