Overnight Thursday presented a cool night, clear and comfortable. Bedtime reading for me is Robert Fowler's account of his abduction by al-Qaeda in Niger and his months of imprisonment. Makes for interesting reading, and elicits a certain amount of empathy for his plight and that of his fellow abductees, but I don't personally like the man's sour attitude expressed amply, about Canada's  government and his obvious resentments.

Sharing a 'double' size bed once again, with Riley's propensity to insist on sleeping horizontally rather than vertically beside me is no great fun. I tend to creep over to my husband's paltry side of the bed; he's larger than me, obviously needs more room for comfort and I tend to squeeze him, allowing Riley more room than he allows us to enjoy. Whose fault is that? Not toy-dog-sized Riley's. Oh Yeah.

After a leisurely breakfast and some sun-bathing, coffee-drinking laziness we decided to climb to the overlook at Welch-Dickey. The trail access parking lot areas were stuffed. We offered Riley water before setting out, changed into our hiking boots and set off, each of us carrying the equivalent of fanny packs and cameras and Riley's water bottle. He needs hydration, but we seldom feel the need for any on our treks.

Couldn't ask for a more beautiful day, sunny, slight breeze, and forecast for the mid-70s. We took the right-hand trail at the junction, came across the switchback to ford the mountain stream over boulders and set off. A challenge for Riley, intrigued by the prospect of a trail he surely does not entirely recall, though he did it last four years ago. Clear water gushing over rocks and boulders, a typical mountain stream, picturesque and musical. Lots of immature dogwood, as though newly colonized. Few conifers aside from the occasional pine well hidden by a screen of hardwoods: maple, beech, oak and yellow birch primarily, with some sumac and striped maple in the understory. The wind kept dislodging foliage, with leaves wafting down and acorns constantly dropping with an audible crack! on the forest floor. One series after another of rock 'steps' on the ascent, and ladders of tree roots.

Bluejays' calls pealed through the woods. Other climbers passed us time and again, sometimes stopping briefly to chat, but always exchanging cheerful greetings, expressions of thankfulness for the perfect weather. Most, we knew, would do the circuit and I envied them, fondly recalling so many of the highlights of the ascent, the col from Welch to Dickey, the added ascent to Dickey and all the geographic features so familiar over the years of climbing the double peaks in the past.

We took our time, waited for Riley, occasionally having to lift him over areas too much a challenge for an elderly toy poodle, but he's a determined, stoic and adept little hiker, scoping out quite efficiently any alternatives to the route useful to him. We finally reached the plateau where a wide rock-faced area leads to the overlook, and where the National Forest Service protects areas of tenderly sensitive alpine growth.

We stayed there awhile, nostalgic for the time past when we would forge on to the summit/s. We lingered, enjoying the views, the changing foliage, then headed back to the descent, retracing our steps, a much less time-consuming, but footing-sensitive descent. Where once this would have taken us perhaps an hour-and-a-half, we spent three and a half hours on this little expedition, and glad that we are still capable of at least doing that much. The last time we managed the circuit was when we were 72, taking our then-13-year-old granddaughter with us, and it took us an interminable five hours to complete the circuit. When, years earlier, we had enjoyed that mountain hike with our teen-age children, we could manage the 5.4-mile mountain hike in well under three hours.