Wild, wild life

After the golf outing Tuesday, I decided to take a short hike yesterday...and there was a tentative golf plan today, back in Fairfax, but one of our threesome dropped out for some reason (involves a USAir flight to Hartford or some excuse) so we bagged it. So I hiked again today.

First a shout out to Howard and co. at Evergreen Outfitters - good seeing you yesterday, and if our discussion of the Caverns Country Club course means you might be up for a round some day let's work on it.

So my two hikes so far were the Stoneyman Summit and Ivy Creek, both up in the Park. I have a number of photos to upload and will post next week; still logging in from the Panera in H-burg.

In the meantime, a wildlife report. This photo is of the old doe that leads the herd into our yard during the morning and night. On this occasion she was alone, but she's brought along as many as 5 others with her at times. They are eating all the hostas (the variegated ones, anyway) and really feasting on the fallen apples. In fact, it's unusual to find an apple on the ground out there, the deer eat them all.

Also, when I was driving up to the Stoneyman summit yesterday, two sitings: a young black bear climbing over one of the stone walls and onto Skyline Drive (he turned and ran as I approached - my greeting: "watch it there, big fella!") and a six point buck there on one of the shoulders. Pretty fulfilling, as all I'd been catching site of, for the most part, has been chipmunks and bunnies.