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| From Sticks Branches Logs and Trees |
I can't even tell where the dang beavers live, there are so many trees down everywhere and the water level is so dynamic, they may have multiple homes. All I know is, for a stretch of river pretty much every single tree looks something like this.
Busy as a beaver, indeed... Hard to tell from these photos, but I tried to capture a representation of how many trees are down back there, almost every single one brought down by these crazy critters. Kind of hard to see, but it is quite amazing to go through this part of the woods and see the magnitude of their work.
On this particular ride, we also saw at least 30 deer. I say that with confidence because we saw two separate deer gangs, one was cruising down the river and you declared that you were going to go swimming with them. I did not let you out of your seat for that one...
When we'd gotten past them, we were still in Beaver Woods and you gave me a live demonstration of what YOU would have done if those beavers were out here trying to chop down more trees...
Finding another felled tree, you demonstrated exactly how they chew through them.
We also found the one tree in the area which was most certainly not felled by beavers. Woah... I was going to tell you a giant bent it over, but decided not to freak you out since we are, after all, way deep in the middle of the woods.
Then, of course, it was time for throwing sticks. As summer has progressed into fall, you've gotten much more ambitious about the sticks you think you can get into the river.
But back to the deer. There was that herd, I mean gang, cruising down the river, and there was also a multiple-family group out for a walk and a picnic in the woods, we ended up right in the middle of them and for some reason they were ALL named Maya.
We even ran into a few Big Boy deer on the way out, this one was kind enough to move aside for us, as we turned the corner he was standing in the middle of the trail. As we came closer, he started scratching his antlers on a little tree, and you went wild with delight as you thought he was knocking the tree over for the beavers.
At your Favorite Log, where we always stop, you've also gotten a little more adventurous about finding things to climb on. You decided you would cross these three logs, and as you were coming back you yelled out to me something that honestly made me Laugh Out Loud... "DAD! I'M IN A HAND-HOLDING SITUATION!!"
You love climbing on these things, and it is so perfect. Since the beavers generally go for small-to-medium sized trees, and since there are so many of them, there are a plethora of 'balance beams' for you to practice on, and I don't have to worry about snakes, spiders, or bats since they are generally a bit off the ground, and since it is the flood plain no poison ivy or poison oak. Sweet!
One of these days I'm going to take Mom's fancy camera out here, I really want to take some cool pictures of this bridge in the late afternoon sun.
On the way home, we passed a 'fest'. This is what you call any gathering of people, from an art show to a street fair to a rib cookoff, which is what we found ourselves in the middle of.
Why do you look a little perturbed? There is a bounce house at the fest, but it costs money to bounce and I didn't bring any. For the next two weeks you have reminded me every time we've ridden - "don't forget to bring money in case there is a bounce at a fest!!!!". There was actually another fest the next weekend in the same spot (Octoberfest, this time around), but that time we had money but no bounces. You were not impressed with that fest.
The last time we were riding the trails, it was earlier so there weren't very many deer. On the way out, we stopped for a moment and I told you to keep an eye out for any deer, and if you saw any, to let me know. Your response was "ok.... There's one!" I follow where you are pointing, and there is Maya The Deer standing quietly just beside us!
I'll be sad when the deer are gone, and when it gets too cold to go offroading with you.
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