Appalachian Trail, Mt. Race, Southwest Massachusetts. Hiked up Mt. Race and on my way down noticed that the muggy weather was making the lichen “bloom.”
The foot traffic on the Appalachian Trail wipes out lichen but any rock outcropping that’s a bit off trail that isn’t walked on much tends to be loaded.
Most of my shots in this day’s collection didn’t work out very well: even stopped down, one has to be pretty square with the surface in order to get edge to edge focus and when I’m tired my ability to do this diminishes. Also, while a viewfinder is useful for some kinds of photography, doing this stuff at ground level would be very tough on one’s knees. In all honesty, the older I get the more I rely on a camera’s autofocus as I can’t see focus edge to edge anymore, not without glasses which I don’t carry on hikes.
Richard's Notes 
Very, very pleasing capture, Richard! I love lichen both in color and B&W.
Me too Jonne. And, there’s such a great variety of it. I wish I could ID the various kinds in images like this, although it might be best to leave them in color for that.