Traveling

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

J.R.R. Tolkien

November 17,2022

I’ve been traveling through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina this week. Seeing old friends and new places. I have limited access where I am, but I am excited to share some of the experiences I had and places I saw next week when I am back in civilization.

November 9 Moon Landing

The Company of other Creatures

Let us remember with humility the loneliness of being man in a universe we do not understand and the vulnerability of the human condition. The animals could do very well without us, but we cannot do without them.

Gerald Carson

November 9, 2022 - out on a limb

Hiking Alone in the Woods

(or - 6 Stops on Pokagon State Park’s Hell’s Point Challenge Hike)

#! Woodpecker hammered

in the dead wood

searching for bugs,

#2 Chipmunk shuffled

through the leaves,

chittering,

#3 Squirrel scrambled noisily

up a tree

stopping on a high branch

to eat,

#4 Ailing raccoon-

too ill to run away,

lay still on a log

eyeing me warily,

#5 Crow flew past,

pausing in the sweet gum

calling and drawing

my eye,

#6 Dragonfly

landed lightly on my shoulder.

and my lonely hike

was over.

November 9, 2022 - Something is wrong

The hike I went on was called “Hell’s Point Challenge”. It’s an 8+ mile hike through Pokagon State Park in Indiana. Along the way, you’re supposed to take a picture of each of 6 various sights in the park, a bridge, a spring, a lake, a wetland view, the dams and Hell’s Point itself. I did all that, but I was really thinking about all the animals i encountered on the hike, and how they make me feel connected to a place even more than the sights.

November 9, 2022 - Crow in Sweet Gum Tree

November 9, 2022 - Red Dragon

Couldn’t resist one last picture of a squirrel…it was so healthy and curious and literally standing up and looking right at me.

November 9, 2022 - A squirrel giving me a questioning look

November 6, 2022 - A lost goat stands precariously on a retaining wall over the collapsing bluff

November 6, 2022. A little black goat escaped from his owner and ended up over four miles from home, choosing a broken stairway and a collapsing retaining wall as her temporary shelter. Here she is standing on a wooden beam on the edge of the bluff. It doesn’t look so steep from this image, but the drop off from where she’s standing is significant. In the picture below, you can see that even she is wary of going straight down.

November 6, 2022 - Looking down at the bluff

---

November 6, 2022 - Safe and warm

I found the owner by using a couple of community groups on Facebook, but even he wasn’t sure how to retrieve her from the bluff. My neighbors and I, and the owner and a few of his friends all worked together to eventually steer her to a set of good stairs where we managed block her from the top and bottom and get a leash over her head, wrap her in a blanket and carry her to safety. I realized how much we all felt the need to save this sweet animal. How much it meant to us to get her back to her owner who was really upset over losing her. I love my neighbors for all the effort they put into this; but it makes me realize that the quote at the beginning of this post is really true. We need animals more than they need us.

I’m on the road now, and this is a somewhat hurried post; but the experience of “rescuing” the goat is what got me thinking about all of the animals I see and hear while I’m out hiking - not just the landscape views. I would really be a lonely hike in the woods without the other creatures.

Mind the Rain

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

Langston Hughes

10/26/22 - Rain clinging to a limb, reflecting the trees.

The tree in autumn

I feel

cold water

sliding

over my bare skin,

clinging briefly

to my outstretched limbs,

then falling -

soaking the earth

beneath me.

Nourishing

my roots.

I drink

deeply,

drunkenly,

falling asleep.

10/26/22 - Bare trees held by a raindrop.

All winter long

I rest,

naked and cold -

dreaming

of beautiful green garments

i will wear

in spring.

10/26/22 Clinging

The evergreen clings to the raindrops in its needles.

10/17/22 - Rain falling in the stream

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.

John Updike

10/26/22 - Acorn Cap

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.

Loren Eiseley

I stopped for the sky this morning. It was raining but the sun was shining in the east and the light was golden. Parked my car on the shoulder. to look and get a picture. The wet pavement reflected the whole sky - doubling the magic.

When I turned back to get in my truck - to the west - this is what I saw: