March was a much more pleasant month for hiking than February was, and that led to spending some good time outside, with some photos to share.

The first March hike I did was one I originally planned for the autumn, but I was still lacking ideas, so I decided to use it in early spring. It was a place I had visited before, both in the spring and autumn. I decided to start in the same place as the spring hike in the past, taking the shortest trail to the first rock formation.

I took a short break at the lookout on the top, but the view wasn’t that great, despite what the blue sky might suggest. The mountains in the background, despite not being far, were barely visible, and not at all through a phone camera.

I then continued onward to the second rock formation. Back in 2018, the place was being deforested to deal with bug infestation, and the rock formations were visible from some distance.

Now, 8 years later, the area is being overgrown by birch saplings, hiding the rock formations from view until you get closer…

After all the gloomy February days, I expected that this place would be quite busy, as it’s easily reached, but that wasn’t the case. The trails were mostly empty, aside from two groups I met when I got closer to the rocks to take more photos.

From there, I continued down the same trail as I did in 2018 for a time, until I reached a trail crossing on a large field, where I turned in a different direction to see new places. From there on, it was quite a pleasant walk through the woods, the midday warmth making it even better. Even here, it was clear that the woods in my country have the worst behind them, and reforestation is progressing nicely in most places.

As you can see on the photos above and below, the visibility didn’t reach far, so I just enjoyed the walk on a nice day, and weaved around the lower hills for a while longer before turning towards the train station and heading home.

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The next hike was done with the hiking club, but it was also a place I’ve known well. I visited this place in 2024 in quite a similar loop, though I did so later in the year – May, I believe – and what I remembered the most was that mosquitoes bothered the hell out of me.

This, fortunately, wasn’t a major risk this early in spring.

Accompanied by my sister and her friends, we took a lighter pace, taking the time to enjoy some early spring flowers. Aside from that, this trail didn’t have many lookouts, and in the few suitable places, it was facing the sunlight, which makes for poor photos. The silhouette of the castle was visible, but not much more.

During the easy walk, we talked about some potential plans for summer, though as many people know, it’s easy to plan, but once you try to coordinate several people to be free on the same day, plans readily start falling apart. So time will tell. I know there are a lot of places I could show them, if things go well.

We admired spring flowers some more, but they weren’t as frequent in the woods as I had hoped.

The sunny day made for a nice scenery at the lakes in the park, though, despite the fact that it wasn’t that warm.

As we neared our destination, I let my sister and her friends continue directly to the town where we were to finish, while I took a loop around to enjoy the day a bit more, especially as I still had a lot of energy. Which led me up and above the town, with limited views of the surrounding landscape.

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The third weekend of March was one I spent on a solo hike again. This was one I was a bit unsure about, as the evening and night before had a chance of rain showers, and the trail I chose led mostly through grassy lowlands that could easily turn muddy. Despite that, I decided that relaxing outdoors would be a good idea, even if there’s some mud in the way.

As in the week before, I tried to keep my eyes open for some spring flowers.

The air was foggy and damp after the night before, but it seemed the trail wasn’t too busy during the early spring, so it wasn’t as muddy as I feared. For the most part, I was enjoying the solitude with no one around.

And I was, as every spring, reminded how tricky it can be to take photos of those tiny flowers barely rising above ground.

Roughly halfway through, I stopped to glance at a series of small, shallow lakes built as a way to create a natural-like environment for amphibians and help with droughts, part of the efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change, which is always nice to see make it from theory to practice.

As well as an old cottage with a lake, formerly a water mill.

After getting out of the valley, I headed towards the lookout above, and decided to ascend it even though it was getting a bit cloudier.

The views weren’t the best, but I was glad to have some, so I didn’t regret it. The cold wind picking up, and the smell of bovine refuse used as fertilizer on the nearby fields didn’t have me staying for long, though.

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The last weekend of March had me on a trip to Prague, so a full hike wasn’t possible, but I managed to make some time to walk around after all the formalities were done with. Given that the dark still comes early, the first day didn’t give me many chances, as my phone isn’t equipped that well for nighttime photos.

But even a 90-minute walk at an easy pace was welcome after hours of sitting and dealing with formalities.

The second day, I was left with a bit over two hours before I would need to catch the train home, so I went to look for some nice places nearby.

And, aside from the natural aspects, I also admired the railroad built in the late 19th century in a terrain that isn’t always as gentle as one would expect in a large town.

At the same time, my part of the country has been experiencing heavy snowfall, which raised a lot of challenges in planning something for the first weekend of April, but that’s a story for another day.

Enjoy the spring, I’ll see you next time.