TAMARA KEITH, HOST:
Breather now, literally - we are taking you to New York's Adirondack Mountains. It's spring. Wild flowers are blooming. Birds are chirping. And North Country Public Radio's Emily Russell is taking it all in deeply, as she guides us uphill to a peaceful little place that's not too far, but takes some effort to get to. Come along.
EMILY RUSSELL, BYLINE: We're heading out on a trail run to Clements Pond. It's a little body of water about a mile and a half back in the woods. I'm out here with a few friends, including Diane Fish. This time of year, Fish keeps her eyes out for new signs of spring.
DIANE FISH: I love the wild flowers. Almost every week, there's something different. So today I saw some bloodroot not blooming. I haven't seen anything in here yet. I am not looking hard enough. I'm just trying to keep up (laughter).
RUSSELL: This trail does get steep in some sections, forcing us to slow our pace from running down to hiking. I'm out of breath at times. But the view makes it well worth the effort.
There's beautiful, big shelves of rock that kind of rise up from the forest floor. The base is covered in green, deep green moss.
In the trees above us, little green buds sprout out from the branches. At our feet below, there are all kinds of natural obstacles. Lisa Malmgren loves this about trail running, that it takes so much focus.
LISA MALMGREN: Every time you put your foot down, you're either stepping on something or over something or across something, whether it's a twig or root or leaves or mud or flowing water.
(SOUNDBITE OF STREAM FLOWING)
RUSSELL: There's a shallow stream that cuts through the trail a couple of times, the water a deep, dark blue. At times, we have to hop from rock to rock to cross the stream. Other times we balance on a big log. It's hard work, but Malmgren says there's something in sync about the work we're doing and the work the wilderness does in the spring.
MALMGREN: It feels like we're kind of coming back into our own and, like, back to life at the same time as the woods are, which is pretty cool. So it's just like as things are leafing out, like, I also feel like my fitness is getting better and the days are getting longer.
RUSSELL: As we climb higher, we see little pops of pink and white on the ground, the petals of the painted trillium wildflower.
MARGOT BROOKS: I love this time of year. It's so fleeting and ephemeral.
RUSSELL: That's Margot Brooks. She takes the lead on the final narrow section of trail. We pass a beaver dam on our right before walking out to the edge of Clements Pond. A spring chorus of frogs fills the air.
(SOUNDBITE OF FROGS PEEPING)
BROOKS: We're hearing some peeper song and the sun is starting to set, but it's just shining across the water, and there's some black fly activity, but they're not biting, which is nice.
RUSSELL: We linger a little longer. As we look out across the pond, a little fish jumps out of the water, sending ripples across the surface.
For NPR News, I'm Emily Russell in New York's Adirondack Mountains. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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