Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Our October Hike, Part 3.
Hi everyone, we’re back with the continuation of our autumn hike from this morning, which was continued from yesterday morning. Anyway, let’s get started and see what fun we end up having…
Dad and I stood there looking over the edge of this rocky hill. “You go first”, said Dad. Naturally. If Dad decides to fall he will flatten me. Oh well. Down I ventured. Really wasn’t so bad. Until we came to one part about half way down. “This part might be a bit tricky”, I said. “Impossible”, said Dad, “we’ll have to go back and find a different way”. “We can do it”, I continued, “right over here”. We looked. “Maybe”, said Dad, “you go first”. Naturally. “If you start to fall just grab that little tree over there”, I said.
“That little tree is going to stop me?”, he questioned. “Sure, it’s probably rooted good”, I said. Anyway, down I went. Slipped on some moss. Went down fast. Grabbed little tree. Pulled little tree out by the roots. Kept going down. Grabbed a larger tree and stopped. “See, nothing to it”, I yelled to Dad. He just looked. Dad started down slowly. I think he slipped on the same piece of moss. Down he came. Rather fast. I moved out of the way and yelled, “grab that tree”. Guess he didn’t hear me.
The look on his face as he slid past me. Priceless. Too bad I didn’t have a camera. Dad was on his stomach now. Bad choice. Now he can’t see where he’s going. His arms were swinging all over the place. Probably trying to grab onto something. Then somehow he got himself turned around and he was going sideways. Oh, oh. Wham! I finally made it down to where he was. “Good thing your back pack cushioned you when you hit that tree”, I said. Dad looked a bit dazed.
“At least we’re nearly at the bottom now”, I continued. Dad just looked. Once at the bottom there was this creek. “Looked smaller from up there”, I said. “Right”, said Dad. “There’s an old log across the creek we can use”, I said. Dad looked at it. “Looks solid enough”, he said, “you go first”. Naturally. The creek was only about 6 feet wide and the water didn’t look deep anyway. That pileated woodpecker followed us and was hammering away at the base of another tree. A little squirrel was scurrying around looking for his food as well. Then he spotted us and quickly ran up a tree and chattered.
I was a bit nervous about this old log. “Get going”, said Dad, “it’s safe”. He had a smile on his face as he said that. Off I went. No problem. Dad made it across as well. Amazing. He actually didn’t get wet this time. Once across we then had to climb another hill to get up to the tracks. Only about 20 feet, but very steep. Dad started to slip. But he managed to grab a small shrub. “AAAAAAAA!!!!!”, he yelled. Guess he grabbed a rose bush. Those wild rose bushes are just absolutely covered with small thorns. Not fun. After arriving onto the tracks we walked just a bit more up onto a small rocky hill. It was in the sun, facing south, a nice warm spot to have a snack and nice, hot coffee!
Hmm, guess we will have to continue this tomorrow, it’s a little longer than I thought. Have a great day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Sunday’s Sunshine! #30
Good morning everyone and happy Sunday! It’s a cool and, um, well, dark morning here today. Yep, I’m early today so it’s still dark out there. Therefore there’s no action at the feeders yet and there’s no food out there yet either. I don’t go out while it’s still dark, not with bears still roaming around. One of these days they will finally decide to hibernate and it will be safe to go out. And freeze. Which is also not very healthy. But it’s healthier than meeting a bear. The feeders were very busy all day yesterday.
I think those grosbeaks are fattening themselves up to travel somewhere else before winter hits. I also discovered yesterday that there are definitely 4 white-breasted nuthatches and 7 purple finches (there may even be 9 of them, but I’m not positive about that). Ricky is still here too, he’s staying kind of late. I told him again yesterday to be careful not to stay too long. I like having him around, but I don’t want him to freeze. Well, maybe we should have part 2 of our autumn hike with dad and I which I started yesterday. Just a short part, then part 3 will come out this afternoon. So here we go…
Then we heard the sound of a train in the distance. “Almost there”, I called out to Dad who had fallen back a bit. I decided to wait for him to catch up. “Over this way,” I pointed, and off I went through some undergrowth. Dad followed. Suddenly Dad yelled. He claimed I let go of a branch which hit him in the face, knocking his hat and glasses off. “You shouldn’t follow so close,” I reminded him. “Bonehead”, he said. Well, at least he’s enjoying himself. “I’ll help you look for your glasses”, I said. “NO!”, said Dad. How odd. He bent over to pick up his glasses. I went over to pick up his hat. “AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!”, yelled Dad.
I turned around. Dad was lying on the ground. “Getting tired?”, I asked. He said I pushed him when I went to retrieve his hat. I think he tripped and didn’t want to admit it. Remember, he was very accident prone. “There it is”, I pointed. “There is what?”, asked Dad, “I don’t see anything”. “Down there”, I said. About 100 feet down this rock hill was the train we heard. “We just need to go down this hill and across that little creek and we’re almost there”, said I. “Almost?”, questioned Dad. “Well, we have to walk down the tracks a bit to the town site”, I replied. Dad just looked down this hill. “Rather steep”, he said. “We should be able to do it okay”, I said. “It’ll be worse coming back up”, Dad added. “Minor detail”, I said…
Can we make it or do we give up? We’ll find out in the next part this afternoon. Until then, have a sunny Sunday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
