Large Fierce Mammal

Last Saturday, Mrs. LFM and I returned to the venue I wrote about in my 15 April 2010 article, Off the Beaten Path. This time it was just the two of us, which paid off because we were able to be more stealthy and therefore met up with some things we wouldn’t otherwise have seen.

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

The adventure started even before we hit the woods when, stopping at a local store to buy some supplies, Mrs. LFM spotted this translucent spider on her window as she got out of the car.

The hike to “Little Bluff” starts with approximately 3 kilometers of travel along the former rail line that has since been groomed into a trail system for hikers, bikers, and RV enthusiasts. The trail runs through several large bogs along the way, affording encounters with appropriately boggy flora and fauna. Case in point, the Blue Flag Iris:

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

Mrs. LFM looked so good shooting the Iris that I couldn’t resist capturing the moment myself …

LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

Not far beyond where these pictures were taken, my keen hunter’s eye spotted a female Eastern Painted Turtle preparing a nest to lay her eggs …

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

She had picked a precarious place to lay her eggs – only about a meter off to the side of a well travelled trail – but on our return we found her gone, having left a well covered and camouflaged nest in her wake.

We had no direct sightings of the larger mammals known to inhabit the area, most notably White Tailed Deer, Black Bear, and Coyote, but deer tracks were about, and the ever present Coyote scat. The trail was lined on both sides with what looks to be a promising Huckleberry crop though, so I’m sure at least a few representatives of the Bear population will make their way there in due course. We were happy to note that the huckleberry blossoms were humming with Bees, a critter we’ve noticed to be disturbingly rare in our back forty this spring.

Not far from where the events related in my recent poem, Connection, played out, Mrs. LFM photographed this basketlike Spider web, inhabited by an astoundingly small Spider considering the magnitude of its creation which was about 6 inches in diameter, and contained the remains of many successful kills. If you can identify this Spider by its handiwork, please do leave a comment …

Mrs. LFM photo. Click the picture to enlarge.

Here we are at the summit at last, and even though you can’t see them, trust me when I tell you that the Blackflies and Mosquitoes were nothing short of marvelous …

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

Divesting ourselves of our packs, I took a moment to reply to a text from the ever pesky Peter Thompson who kept lamenting the fact that we hadn’t invited him along. The WW2 era Pattern 37 webbing I’m wearing was in unissued condition when I bought it about 13 years ago, and according to the date stamps it’s 69 years old. That makes it a fair bit older than me, and amazingly, even older than Thompson …

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

In the spirit of Tyrion Lannister as expressed in  his famous quote from Game of Thrones, “I just want to stand on top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world,” I stood atop the 50 odd feet of cliff and paid my respects to the bottom of a most impressive crevasse …

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

Mrs. LFM kindly photographed my assemblage of customary bush tools, minus the Leatherman Charge XTi and Victorinox Swiss Army Knife that were still on my person when the picture was taken. Her own assortment was just as thorough, but still awaiting their Big Reveal. Left to Right: Jerry Fisk Bowie knife, Columbia River Knife and Tool Minimalist Bowie, Jerry Fisk field knife, and Peter Thompson hand axe. You might want to consult Master at Arms Jim Keating’s recent and entertaining read, You Can Tell a Lot About a Person by the Knife They Carry, to assist you in divining what this says about me …

Mrs. LFM photo - Click the picture to enlarge.

10 kilometers there and back again, and a spirit restoring day for us both.