Wednesday's Digressions

This track from the wily and elusive whitetail deer is from a deer that  I promise is not as big as his track might fool you into thinking- it was distorted by the mud.

Somebody is getting miffed at my photographical antics.

Need more lens! A majestic prairie dog stands guard.

A neat self contained set up. The tank being set in the ground allows the bison to drink more naturally .

Left to see dirty rodents and acorns

You could plainly see where the deer who slipped and slid up this small incline changed direction on the run and wheeled  left into the brush. The tracks were only hours old. Hikers out earlier than us probably spooked and barely missed seeing him.

Erosion is a big problem on the Fort Worth Nature Center trails

• Kate Bush Army Dreamers
• If your shopping and the person with you or the voice in your head says, Sure, we have plenty! to the question of, do we have toilet paper, paper towels or trash bags (choose one or all 3) don't take their word for it and buy 1 of each. They never go bad and you'll always need them.
• When I see a theoretical physicist in an interview style interaction on a documentary talking about the Big Bang I feel like I'm talking to a member of a religion other than my own that I suspect is actually a cult- however benign and whatever good points they may have in some ways.
• An odd flashback from day before yesterday I'm still trying to sort out: Years ago (probably dangerously close to 20) my buddy and I were out in West Texas shooting our guns. I set a grapefruit sized rock on top of another and using his .223 shot it from about 40-50 feet. It exploded with a loud bang and pieces of it whizzed and cracked by heads sounding for all the world like close calls from rifle fire being directed at us. I have no answer for what caused it but it was attention getting enough he still occasionally randomly says, Do you remember that time you shot that rock...? I had shot a gazillion rocks before that day. Normally, they just disintegrate and fall around where the rock started and some sometimes pieces might spray out in a fan downrange but that thing literally exploded.
• The ENO hammock shelter came in day before yesterday. It looks good and seems lighter than the reported weight. We may or may not go out tonight and use it. We also received the compasses I ordered. My Silva Trekker looks and feel really good. With a brief search I couldn't find orienteering maps for the places we frequent but they're bound to be out there. I am no doubt rusty but being able to navigate cross country with a map and compass is a very satisfying feeling. I started Zac with just looking for North with his compass. He kept it around his neck and periodically stopped and check it. He would then confidently point a direct out and say, That way is North.
• We saw two black headed vultures eating a whitetail buck. It was a cool sight but man I wish I would have had more lens.
• That country music singer lady Mindy McCready apparently killed herself. I hope no one is surprised. Besides the fact she was being investigated for killing a boyfriend she always looked incredibly sad and troubled- like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Turner Falls Take Two

Early AM at the Blue Hole. All these small mouth bass were oriented downstream and slightly in toward the bank they were near when I approached. The ones who are out of phase to the others moved only due to my presence.

Parasitic mistletoe infestation

Generations of hikers have referred to this rock as the Dragon's Tooth.

I was kidding about that last bit of lore but this really is Mormon Tea

Raccoons often eat on a log that has fallen over a creek. Their dooky then fills a rotted out knot hole. I'm not sure if this is intentional or just coincidence

Zac called this machete his big pocketknife

DPs made more delicious and nutritious by soaking in the creek overnight

View from the back porch

Zac begins his assault on the mountain behind the cabin. When he left he said, Dad, I'm going to climb the mountain behind the cabin. How many kids in the history of ever have said that?

His bid for the summit was thwarted by an injury. He booped his head on an overhang. Here he begins his descent free without ropes or support of any kind dispirited but not defeated. He will return next climbing season.

I think Mr Scuba Diver looked like more of a tool than he realized

Rat that did his macabre dance with death and met his demise in one of the water filled rock features. The water here is probably 2-3 feet deep and only discolored by the tannin from the leaves

Gravel pit cause by softer stone being swirled against harder stone over eons of time

Water skimmer skiing over Rat Fink's dead body

Yep, that is my boot as I traverse a very shaky cedar log over just nearly frozen water

I've mentioned that our south of the border friends had found TF. Spanish language graffiti  and food and drink garbage are everywhere.

I don't know what this is I found it near Honey Creek.

Sunset over a farm house on the way home. I think it was near Valley View

• OK, I'm reluctantly trying this again.
• There is a cactus splinter in my right pinky  that I had no idea was there until just now. 
• My vision is blurry and I have a bit of a headache and I don't know why. I've tried a warm, relaxing bath, counting to ten and counting my blessings in case it is a symptom of elevated BP to no avail.
• The cabin was OK. The biggest downside was the drunk couple next door doing it until the wee hours of the morning. I finally drowned her squeals out by turning the TV and ceiling fan on and turning the heater fan on high. Friend-girl slept through their antics so I gave her a play by play the next morning with a passable imitation of her sound effects. As you could guess we bumped into them everywhere we went the next day. He would turn red and mumble and she would look at everything but us and pull furiously at her cigarette and Keystone Light when we would see them and offer a greeting. I'm not sure if they just knew we had to hear their antics and after they sobered up were embarrassed or if they heard my interpretive reenactment of their escapades through the cabin wall the next morning.
• Another slight drawback- the satellite service had one usable station and eleventy billion channels of infomercials and cooking shows- ridiculous.
• I caught a crawdad. In it's torpid state I must have assumed I could get away with handling it lackadaisically  That is how the crayfish laughs at you man. It pinched the fire out of me. I jumped around in a circle hollering, Son of a ... and God... while Zac and friend-girl back away from me with their mouths hanging open looking at me like I was a crazy person. After a minute or two it drew up, lost it's color gasped a few times and seemed to expire. When I threw it back in the water after several seconds it came to and went about it's crawdad business. I don't know what mechanism causes that to happen but they do seem to rapidly expire when in a torpid state they're removed from cold water. I have seen it happen multiple times.
• We went to two areas I've never been before. An interesting thing I noted was how the nature of trails change the further way from the park proper we got. The trails seemed more rational- you may arguably take a step or two extra here and there but they were less strenuous and safer. They were obviously made by people who knew more about hiking than most of the visitors to the park.
• Me to friend-girl: Take your Keurig if you want. She: Really?! Me: Well, yeah, we'll be in a cabin miles from town and confidence is high we'll be wanting a cup of coffee in the morning. She: You're right that's a great idea! Want me to bring a toaster? Me: nothing but a blank, dumb look... She: Oh, uh- wow, where did that even come from? Is that the dumbest question you've ever been asked? Me: Nah, I've been asked lots of dumber questions lots of times. Why just last year a girl asked if she should pack an aquarium and two or three others have offered to bring vacuum cleaners.
• I must look competent in that environment, 2 or 3 people asked me directions or other questions.
• I can spot a veteran from a mile off and can usually tell very quickly if they were Army or Marines and if they were support or combat arms troops. The first time it happened if we hung out you would tell me I'm retarded and there is no way a person could know all that. Then I'd be proven correct enough times and you would understand it is just another one of my superpowers.
• Wish you were there. Thanks for reading.