hiking!

10/4/25

Today I went hiking with some friends at a nearby forest preseve. I drove half of the gang since we had too many people to fit in one car. I'm a pretty bad driver so I felt scared, but we left at 8 in the morning so the roads weren't too crowded. This was my second time taking the highway and I think I did pretty well, although I did drive at the speed limit which was much slower than the surrounding cars. Luckily, my friends didn't seem to mind.

The forest preserve sits right next to a large golf course. The trails are wide and many of them are paved, so we saw a lot of people walking their dogs and taking their morning runs. It was too hot, at least 75, which is a shame since it's October. The trees haven't completely turned yet but there was a nice crunch under our feet from the ones that have fallen.

The highlight of a our hike was seeing a deer up close! It must have been very used to people, because it wasn't scared by our presence in the slightest.

This was the first time I've ever taken a hike with friends. I had a lot of fun, and it's been great getting to know people from my graduate program better.