Coop's Corner: Friday, The 2nd Day Of 4

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Friday, The 2nd Day Of 4 - 2020/11/06

Friday morning early, the moon so bright I got up and out without turning on a single auxiliary light source. In moonlight here, even before 6am with my phone camera using the slow shutter setting. I didn't need the light to walk about, find the picnic table, sit down at the picnic table or to start my coffee and oatmeal water.

In no hurry to get out on the bike, I went out for a dawn walk and to do some exploring. There were other plans for the rest of the morning, suiting up for some more bike miles would wait.

The tree in center image fell into the crook of an adjacent tree...it was never, ever going to tip over.

An abandoned picnic table, in fact, an entire abandoned campground loop. I have to speculate that it was either because of high water (beavers) or the many dying trees that seemed to be falling everywhere. The log benches in my campsite were from and were covering a couple of the stumps. The sun is just a glow on the horizon, not officially up yet.

You know how beavers are...patience is paramount. Wait, sitting often required and quiet is best, I know because I've done it. I've waited and watched numerous times and Friday was a perfect chance to do it once again. Later that same evening while sitting around the campfire there were two loud crashes in the dark. It might have been spooky for someone that didn't know the industrious swimmers were nearby but I had done my exploring and was wise to their industriousness.

An early swim

Friday morning's plan was to be a hike into the woods, the emphasis less on the hike and instead on rigging my hammock and tarp, loading, carrying and using my pack, its first trip. As mentioned in the last post, I camped at Perch lake and the Rainbow Lakes Wilderness Trail had a perfect access trailhead right across the road.

There was no real planned destination or distance, the goal just to do some walking and carrying of the pack, then pick a spot to setup my resting spot.

I didn't know going in but figured it out very quickly....the Anderson Grade had been one of the area's many narrow gauge railroad lines, all built to remove logs and send them to market.

I was proud of myself....

Delicate magic....

This USGS topo map from 1953 is part of my Avenza collection and was referred to a lot all weekend. Buro Lake is west of where the blue dot is, marking my lunch stop location. The old railroad grade is on the map as are many of the old abandoned (even in 1953) narrow gauge lines. The "Camp" up in the right corner is one of the CCC camps that I passed.

Back to camp...look at this...a week into November and I'm comfortable in my Tshirt; it was as warm and inviting as it looks.

Another little side Forest Road...another quiet little rustic boat launch.

The photo above was taken on the way out to the blue dot, the edge of the National Forest.. Someone's driveway continued east and there was a realtor sign...For Sale. So if you're looking for privacy...

This was at the blue dot while I was turning around....and in the process of slowly as in slow motion, laying the bike down. Left foot on slippery leaves into a muddy wheel rut. Foot slipped down....I pulled it back but not quite far enough to get the bike vertical. Repeat, maybe 10 times, patiently but to no avail because the slide that my heel-less boot was making was getting deeper and slipperier. Finally, I just let it gently down on the left side engine guard. It was an easy lift but for a long number of seconds, I'd have given a reasonable sum for some boots with heels.

When you get to Heaven's Video Store, look this one up.

A small trail off to the south, this amazing high bank above one of the branches of the White River.

Johnson Springs...

One of many trailheads into the Rainbow Lakes Wilderness Area. Some folks hiking to the interior, maybe a day hike, possibly an overnight. This fellow was in his hammock, almost too deep into the woods for me to see.

I love this autumn light but it makes for tough riding....shadows and glare all day due to the low sun angles, every direction but north.

This was the 2nd little track I took off the main fire road. The first one obviously an ATV trail, too wet for me on Friday. This one, other than a few errant branches, was fine until it dead-ended.

I followed these old boys for a few miles at 25mph, not a hardship in my mind. Later, they were at the pumps in Drummond and a hearty wave was had by all.

The only 'food' purchase I made while at camp.

Long shadows mid-afternoon....

Back at camp for dinner, a bit earlier than the evening before. This is a hot ham and cheese, some spicy mustard and the secret ingredient.....green bean casserole without the green beans.

Outstanding!!

Friday's road mileage...

And the topographic version....

8 comments:

motormikeNovember 15, 2020 at 6:48 AM
Beaver footage was great..
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mohessianNovember 15, 2020 at 11:29 AM
Yikes! Those 2 pictures and description of your hot ham and cheese, and my mouth fills with saliva! Nice job!
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redlegsridesNovember 15, 2020 at 5:56 PM
It is great, isn’t it, being alone in Nature....
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AnonymousNovember 15, 2020 at 9:07 PM
Great stuff. I'd forgotten how quiet it is in the fall. Thanks for the reminder. Watching your hammock video sent me searching for info. Found an "instructional" video offering 30 different approaches to getting into a hammock at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-BRi-2UT00

You've probably seen it.
Thanks, Scott
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)