Larry A. Smail's Blog

I haven’t added much in regards to entries here as of late.  Either the organization through who I use in my blogging efforts changed the formatting or something occurred with a new computer.

This past week I concluded two hiking adventures. the weather had changed some and a cooler temperature thrilled my needs to walk. For instance last Friday I went on an approximate eight mile hike with a starting temperature of forty-eight degrees.  Awww…comfortable walking conditions and less insect life to pester me.

  I began the morning jaunt as the fog was still heavy. I was fortunate enough to witness   the very early morning sun rising above the hilltops through the trees producing some orangish hues..  This made for some interesting photo opportunities.

  The state game lands I was walking this morning was not unknown to me, but I simply had never been on this section, so this was an exploratory venture. I had other reasons to really need to hike this morning. I had been going through some issues emotionally as of late. I have some friends with some health issues and I simply hate to have feelings of hopelessness especially with health issues I can’t fix on others. Also, with a doctor appointment coming up I was wondering what issues he might discover with me as I age. I was    troubled over such thoughts. The walk would do me much good.

    I walked a game land cut area while the heavy dew leeched into a small cut on one boot. I traveled across a large area until I came upon a township road splitting the game lands. I found some bear sign in the form of droppings. I was hoping to see such sign. Later I came upon some tracks of young bear of this year…a cub. Cubs mean bigger bears must be in the area, as well. Another sign I would find before exiting the woods was bear claw marks on utility posts and bear hair. Apparently, the bear had been using this pole to scratch its back on. the hairs were close to four feet high on the pole.

I saw several deer and squirrels while walking. I found a few turkey feathers, too.