I was up at 5:40 AM, got Lola fed, had some coffee, read the footy news, dumped out, and then had my aging, flaccid white-man ass on the trails by 6:50 AM. There was much rejoicing.
When I pulled into the lot, there was an unfamiliar Ford Transit in the lot, and as much as I tend to imagine people living in the park, this woman was TOTALLY living in the park—at least for the night. As indicated by her van filled with racks of clothing, various water jugs, and bedding. Oh well, like James Hetfield once crooned, “Where I lay my head is home.” She was packing up as I set off down the trail and gone when I finished. Safe travels, Parking Lot Sleeping Lady.
Speaking of living in the park…
I recently mentioned how The Guy My Imagination Thought Might Be Living at The Park told me about the plethora of turtles he saw laying eggs the other day, and how when I looked yesterday, all I saw were discarded shells from some critter’s all-you-can-eat turtle egg buffet.
Well, I did another shore walk today, and sure enough, there were a number of turtles making their way to the nest. It was like a D-Day landing of nesting turtles! I think I counted at least five map turtles and then saw one more just as I was finishing up.
Along with all those Map Turtles, I also saw a couple of Snapping Turtles a few miles into my hike. One was super buried and shy, but the other one was pretty photogenic and, for some reason, had a face that reminded me of a fat kid who just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. No fingers were lost in the capturing of these images.
What a cutie!
As I continued, I saw a deer or two and missed some bird shots, and then, as I made my way to the log that Sal A. Mander lives under, I went to roll it over with my foot and realized that there was a nice-sized Garter Snake was slithering on it. So, as a bonus, I got my first snake photo of the season.
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What’s she smuggling?
Soon, I was back to Escape II (Electric Boogaloo) with 7.12 in my feetz and a memory card filled with some shots I dug. But not before one more shot of another turtle with a jacked-up-looking shell making its way to nest and a shot of the ever-elusive Modern-Day Content Creator (Mondernous Creatous YouTubeous) filming something.
All in all, it was a good day of lumbering and a pretty odd day of unexpected sightings.
Lastly, I remember thinking how I hardly got any turtle shots at all last summer, and then I remembered that last June, I had a painful foot and a knee issue, AND I was refinishing our deck, so I took a TON of days off from lumbering and no doubt missed the nesting season. I’m glad to be making up for it this year.
Later.