After an uneventful and rainy weekend, I was looking forward to getting back in the woods early Monday morning. And, as you might expect, that’s just what I did.

The temp was a perfect 55˚ at the start, and the pre-dawn sky was inching its way towards being cloudless and blue.

For the first few miles, I wasn’t seeing many critters, other than two weary human campers making their way out of the woods to move on to wherever dudes that camp in the woods go at 6:30 AM on a Monday morning.

I did a 6-mile loop, but I mixed up the order and direction of some of my normal trails, and the “newness” was a nice way to start the week. It was like switching hands, if you know what I mean.

Around three miles in, I ran into a photogenic Eastern Towhee who was kind enough to pose for me on a discarded fencepost near some private property that butts up against the park borders.

I took a couple shots and moved on, hoping for more cooperative critters in the miles ahead.

Sadly, the critters didn’t get the memo, and I didn’t have much more luck until about mile 5 when I ran into a deer grazing in the woods that was either A. blind, B. an idiot, or C. just didn’t care, because it would look at me, duck its head, then go right back to grazing like I wasn’t even there.

Whatever the reason, it allowed me to get a portrait, and combined with the rising sun and dark woods, made for one of the better ones I’ve taken in recent months.

After the shit month that was July, I was stoked that my first lumber of August was a good one. Looking forward to more in the days ahead.

Later.