Today's trekking adventure took place at the Avalonia Land Conservancy's Hoffman Evergreen Preserve, and it involved a public walk led by your humble documentarian. Hoffman is a fun place: a 200-plus-acre natural history "theme park" whose evergreens, many of which are Hemlocks, were planted and maintained by the preserve's namesake, a gentleman who loved the boreal forests of Maine so much that he recreated them in Stonington. Because it was likely to be buggy in the woods, I packed my well-traveled long-sleeved shirt, but when I got ready to put it on, I noticed the hitchhiker. The shirt had been on the clothesline at home, and I had seen evidence of a large Orb-Weaving spider from its use of the line as an anchor point for an intricate web. Apparently, it was using the shirt as a day-time hiding place, and there she was—a beautiful Cat-faced Spider known to scientists as Araneus gemmoides. I don't really see the cat resemblance, but I know her from the criss-crossed white on the front of the abdomen and the joining zig-zags on the back. After the walk, I returned the pretty girl to the backyard. At last report, she was busy building a web... but she'll have to find somewhere else to shelter. I took the shirt inside.