Some of you may remember our Into The Woods post from July in which we profiled our friends, hikers Bugsy and Sweet Tooth, who spent a fun-filled night regaling us with stories from the Appalachian Trail.  Well, they’re baaaaack…

and they brought lots of pretty pictures of flowers!  Rather than try to attempt naming these beauties and given that we weren’t on the trail to see them first hand, we thought it might be nice to hear from Sweet Tooth (a.k.a. Guy Woods) in his own words.

“The photos are in chronological order, so you can see the seasons and landscapes changing.  The first photo, which was taken atop Springer Mountain the first day on the trail, shows bare branches covered in ice crystals (guess even Georgia had a cold winter this year!)  Initially, we saw mainly tiny wildflowers starkly set against the still bare forest floor.”

“As summer progressed everything became lusher, and the photos that look green are from Virginia northward.  Late summer saw a palette shift to the yellows and oranges of daisies and asters…

and then, as we entered New Hampshire and continued into Maine, we encountered windswept alpine tundra where the color was as likely to come from lichens and mosses as from the gorgeous and often tiny wildflowers tucked into sheltered crevices in the granite.”

“I started out putting captions on all the photos, but it seemed like they took something away from the natural beauty.  I decided I preferred them as I’d seen them in the wilderness, standing alone without any need for human commentary.”

“So much of what we now think of as nature turns out to be some type of a garden or landscape designed by a human hand.  Seeing nature in an unfiltered state was refreshing and inspiring for me, and I hope you find some inspiration in it as well.”

If you’ve liked what you read here, then perhaps you might like to see what Guy is up to these days… writing a blog, of course, for anyone trying to change careers, go on an adventure, or otherwise chase a dream.

Photos by Guy Woods (and his bride, Angela)