After Dad left for dancing tonight, I decided to take a quick trip out to the John Muir Memorial County Park, about 20 min out further in the country from Dad's house. I planned as far ahead as to bring some bug spray, but didn't bring tennis shoes (I was wearing flip flops and a dress since it was 90 degrees out!) so I wasn't able to hike the whole trail. The park is located on a small lake that John Muir apparently spent his youth living on, and you can see more about it here.
When I got there and parked the place was deserted, and I started along a trail that headed down towards the lake. I hadn't looked at the trail map beforehand so I didn't know the best place to begin, and this seemed good.
As a followed the neatly cared-for trail around, I noticed that all it seemed to do was wind back around to the parking lot. I thought to myself, "This can't be it! Muir was supposed to be the father of national parks, and all he got is this stupid short trail?" But then I saw a sign a ways down and realized I was wrong. I hadn't even gotten on the actual trail yet, this was just a nice "warm up" area where the elderly might take a short stroll. The real trail is much more like a hiking trail, and my sandaled feet weren't prepared after being pampered with the neatly trimmed grass.
I followed this trail along, over a small bridge, and around the lake and a smaller pond. It then led into a more wooded area, and as I was headed there a lady came walking from the other direction with a small group of dogs. It was startling since I didn't think anyone else was out there but me. She pulled her dogs into a small nook and I smiled at her. The dogs were all staring at me, and as I passed, she said, "we are working on our manners..." and suddenly all three dogs went wild and tried to attack me. Their cords were held tight so they didn't manage to get near me at all, but clearly they were not used to being around other people.
Once I got into the thicker trees, the smells and sounds were overwhelming. There were all kinds of animals chirping and squeaking and rustling out of sight, and the various wild plants held a floral aroma. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing, until I started to encounter more flies and other bugs the deeper I got into the woods. I was really hoping to see some wildlife (besides squirrels and robins...maybe a deer?) and luckily a tiny red squirrel scampered in front of me and up a tree with a nut. I managed to get a few slightly blurry photos of him, but for some reason there was a mosquito intent on landing on my one open eye while I tried to photograph the squirrel.
I decided to turn back and come another day when I was better dressed for the occasion. Disappointed I didn't see a deer (I had seen THREE on my drive over!) I quickly made my way out of the trees and back into the meadow. As I pondered how to capture deer photos, I came upon the turn to the small bridge I had crossed earlier. My flip flops were flippity flopping, and suddenly A DEER! scurried away through the brush! He was too quick for me to see clearly and the brush was thick there, but it was definitely a deer! I have decided that I need to wear quieter shoes, because I could have creeped up on him otherwise and stolen a photo.
Anyways, my plan is to go back sometime when Travis is visiting, and hopefully I will have a photo of a deer to show by then!
No comments:
Post a Comment