Where Are My Teeth?

A walk in the woods

I hadn't gone for a walk in a while -- gluing and spraying the cabinets has been taking up much of my fair-weather time -- but today was so beautiful I had to go out. T-shirt weather, with red and brown leaves carpeting the ground and plenty more aloft.

So on the way back from a more or less usual round I took a side trail I'd never done before, heading up over the ridge that separates the little neighborhood downhill down the hill from us from the park. Of course I got lost, or at least bewildered, and rather than ask directions at the nice new house with a big covered porch a hundred yards down the wash, I carefully began retracing my steps, orienting mostly by mountain-bike gashes in the mud at the low spots.

There was a little rise that I just know would lead me to the back of a neighbor's house if only I could find a way through, but it was getting toward dark, so I began heading backtoward the trail when suddenly there was a crashing in the brush. I froze behind the nearest big pine tree and started taking pictures as the deer nosed its way through the open woods toward me. Finally a biker came tearing along the trail and it decamped.

Posted by wallich at October 4, 2004 07:00 PM