Monday, February 11, 2008

Spot the Deer

You will need to click on the picture to enlarge it or you won't see much more than some leafless trees.

We decided to go on a hike Saturday afternoon. The weather was mild and we had not been on a hike for some time. There are numerous parks and wildlife type preserves within about a 1/2 hr drive for us - so lots of places we can choose from.

I, being the overprotective mother that I am, usually make sure to bring along hats and gloves for the children, even when they probably won't be needed. This time I didn't. I know I put them on the table or brought them outside and then changed my mind or forgot. I figured the kids and I all had hoods on our jackets and could use those if need be.

When we got to the parking lot of our hike destination - we saw a man in the parking lot putting another pair of sweats overtop of his sweats. That was not a good sign. I wasn't expecting it to be so beastly windy so close to the lake. I figured we'd be "in the woods" which usually isn't very windy - but a lot of the trail was through unprotected areas and the wind just kept a blowing.

My hood was the only one with a drawstring. I'm not sure why they bother to put hoods on kids' jackets that won't even stay up! The boy's jacket had velcro that should have made the hood snug up tightly under his chin but the velcro was defective. The girl's jacket just had a sort of gathered type hood that probably would have stayed on her head if she was sitting still watching tv inside the house - but didn't stand a chance in the gale outdoors. Actually the kid's didn't mind a bit that they had no hat or workable hood - it was me that kept fiddling with their hoods trying to make them stay up.

We figured we walked about 3.5 miles along the trail. Nearing the end of our walk we noticed a couple of people standing around looking up at the very steep, rocky area beside us. Then we saw about 3 deer dash across the trail...there were maybe 3 or 4 more who seemed afraid to take the plunge and kind of hung out at the top with "mom".

I decided to try and take a photo but due to the camouflage nature of the deer - I had a hard time even knowing if I had them in the view finder. I finally got this picture. See if you can spot the deer.

0 comments: