March 24
    To Gowanda for hike –
     Determine to follow creek bank from railroad bridge instead of going by road.
     After my long absence from these scenes, the wonder and delight of nature pours down upon me like a benediction – I am conscious of my Creator –
     A gray day-half sunlight at times.  Strange startling shapes of the remains of the early March snowstorm are scattered in the depressions of north sides of hills-
     The vivid quickening of spring has not yet colored the trees –
     While pushing thru a sapling thicket on the cliff overlooking the “Forks” the cry of a bluebird came to me – I paused – the roar of the stream below – a stray wind swept suddenly thru the brush with a soft rustling –
     Eastward along the cliff’s edge into new territory –
     A succession of hills, and woods – the water –fall – In the dense woods there is no bare ground and I sometimes am up to my knees in snow – The snow has melted underneath, leaving a vacuum between it and the ground.  At times my step causes whole sections of it to fall with a rapid swishing sound, which startled me the first time it occurred-