December 17th, 2020

As evidenced by the photos above, you can se that Joy and I are getting pretty darned good at playing jump the puddle.  (that's Joy doing her Olympic level leap on the left and me trying to defy gravity on the right)

Our photo safari yesterday was, as you can plainly see, a rather wet one.  It did not stop us, clearly, but it did slow us down and added an extra mile or two.  Normally we learn at the end of our hikes that we've done 3 or 4 miles.  This one turned out to be nearly 6.  That's right.  We rocked it!

It wasn't intentional.  It just turned out that way. Mostly due to the amount of wet.  Obviously some of it, like the above, is easy to just hop over.  No big deal.  But there was some seriously mucky nasty stuff that we also tried to pick our way through.  The sort of muck that tries too suck the shoes right off your feet.   

Why don't we just avoid these sorts of trails, I hear you wondering?  Well it isn't like there are warnings.  There we are walking along a perfectly lovely dry dry tra la la la,  observing the beautiful forest around us, talking quietly and taking photos, when we 'round another curve and there it is, laying before us, yuckytrail.

And then we careful pick our way through.  Sometimes the driest part is on the right side of the trail, and then abruptly that totally changes and the driest part is on the left. So we somehow make our way to the left side, walking on the grassiest bits through the middle to get there.  Once in a while the best walking is straight down the middle. So you see, we stagger like drunks from side to side until we reach the next curve and 'round that one, suddenly the path is dry and grassy and perfect once again.

Mostly we move forward.  Even if it means, once again, engineering little bridges across the wider, deeper streams, finding alternate routes off-trail (which is always a little dangerous because it is so very easy to get completely lost just two trees away from the trail) or just slogging through.  But toward the end, we came across a big of water that qualified as a pond.
It just stretched out forever. Dang.  That time we double back.  And it way Way back too.  We think that we were very nearly at the end of the trail when we got there.  Turning back added at least a mile onto the hike.  Oh well.  It's part of the adventure!

Our feeling is if you are dirty, wet and tired at the end, it wasn't really a hike.

In spite of the wet trails and mucky stuff, we got some good photos.  It's been awhile since I had a lot of good bird photos so I hope you like those.  Here are some of them:

As you well know, I don't know the names of most of these birds but I like them just the same.  At first glance some of them might seem to be the same but I assure you that each of these guys was a completely different creature.  The only thing they have in common are feathers and flight.

Also came across some pretty greenery and a few flowers, some interesting vines and striking trees:

The day started out a little chilly so we were surprised to find a few butterflies.  Here they are with some other odds and ends:

So there you have it, a very mucky, very wet hike with loads of birds of all sorts, most of whom I do not know the name of.  If you want to know, I suppose you will have to ask Joy.  It was awesome, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Might need to work on my leaping skills a bit though before the next time.

OH!  And bonus shot.  I will leave you today with this one.  My favourite picture (so far) from the hike wasn't mine.  Joy kindly shared this one with me.  It's my hand, my camera, but Joy took the shot.  Here you go: