I bounced back quickly from Wednesday morning’s dirt road ride bonk-fest and was unusually geeked to get back in the woods on feetz with my camera today.

The first thing I noticed as I took off down the trails was my hips! I guess those hip-flexor muscles that I had built up over my years of cycling and then vanished over my years of lumbering got a wake-up call during my ride on Wednesday. Thankfully, they quickly warmed up and by my second mile I was fine and feeling spanky. Not spanky enough for 7 or 8 miles, but 5 or 6 were a definite maybe.

Early in the hike, I saw a group of deer with a couple of small bucks sporting some velvet, but the woods were too dark, and I had to drop my shutter speed so much that motion blur was unavoidable. Oh well, I have a feeling I’ll see more deer in the weeks to come.

A moth, ants, and a spider all in one shot if you look close.

Before I left for my hike today, I threw a 2x Hoya Magnification filter in my pack just in case I saw some insects or flowers to shoot. And, as luck would have it, I did during my third mile; a couple of different moths flitting around on some wildflowers near the Covered Bridge Trail (a Virginia Ctenucha and a Leconte’s Haploa).

The magnification filters are not perfect and not as good as a dedicated macro lens, but they weigh next to nothing and are an easy substitute when I want to travel light with just one lens, yet still get up close with the tiny critters.

In addition to the moths, I saw a Green-Striped Maple Worm that allegedly becomes a Rosy Maple Moth, which is one of the most “flamboyant” looking moths I’ve ever seen, looking like it just flew off the set of H.R. Pufnstuf. Of course, take all of this with a grain of me being a dumbass with access to The Google, so it might actually turn into a fruit bat or something.

I ended the lumber with 6.01 miles and look forward to more time in the woods tomorrow. Whether it’s on my feetz or on my bike remains to be seen.

Unrelated Side Note: Wifey’s Soobie had a slow leak in the rear tire (twas a screw) so I took it to the tire store today. While I was in there, a grandmother-type woman came in to drop a car off and looked to sit next to me in the waiting room. As she moved toward the chair, she said, “You don’t bite, do you?” To which I replied, “Not unless you pay.” Thankfully, she got a good chuckle out of it, and I didn’t get slapped across the face with a purse full of Werther’s candies and stolen restaurant jelly packs.

Later.