Sometimes a picture is not worth a thousand words.

Sometimes a thousand words cannot begin to paint a picture.

Providing the occasional work progress updates on High Bridge is a case of both statements being true.

The photos and words are like sitting around the table smelling Christmas dinner as the finishing touches are being applied in the kitchen.

There are hints in the scents of what the feast is going to taste like but you cannot chew on the hint and you cannot swallow the hint.

Twice we have been lucky enough to accept High Bridge Trail State Park's manager Eric Hougland's generous invitation to accompany him onto the in-progress bridge work to communicate that progress to our readers through words and pictures. Twice it has been like getting up from that Christmas Eve table, going into the kitchen and pulling a large piece of crispy skin off the goose and putting it in our mouth.

The hints and scents may make your mouth water but there is nothing like actually tasting the meal in your mouth.

When the bridge opens in early spring-winter weather permitting-everyone who has been longing to venture out on the state park's namesake will get up from the table and walk out across High Bridge's 2,400 feet for themselves.

And they will digest what they see, and hear and feel upon that height and they will do so in their own personal way.

The wait, becoming brief now, will be worth it.

-JKW-