A Walk Along a Creek

Apparently, I went for a walk along this same creek and through these same woods on April 11, 2010. The pictures I took that day look a lot like the pictures I took today.

I was here less than a week ago. A few of these flowers were up, but not like this. When the whole forest floor is covered, it looks like a blue mist coming through the woods.

I don’t know what normal is, but compared to a year ago we are about a month behind. That would explain why I was only able to land a couple of smallies today. Still not up here. Since I was tired of taking arms length shots of fish, I never bothered taking fish shots.

For as beautiful as it is, this is a brutal hike. There is no level ground. Beneath this shimmering blue miniature canopy are holes, ditches, tree limbs and beaver punji sticks. You do not look elegant wandering through here amongst the flowers, more like a lost, stumbling drunk.

When I wander through here, I change directions on a whim. Always hoping that the new direction will make my life easier. It never does. So when I came across a feather lying on the rocks of a narrow creek bed, I couldn’t help but think of the odds of me finding this. I even crossed this little creek in a spot I normally don’t.

I thought I knew what kind of feather this was, but looking it up made matters worse. It could be a turkey, a red tail hawk or a great horned owl. They all look similar. In my own typical fashion, I gave up trying to identify it. It’s a feather. A nice looking one.

An hour later, stumbling through another section of the woods, I came across another identical feather. Again, down a path I normally don’t take.

Maybe I should go play the lotto.

I first took a picture of the following tree around 9 years ago. It sits sentinel at a bend in the creek. Behind me and to the right is a 50 foot tall, almost shear bluff. When the sun hits this just right, the tree lights up against the deep blue of the sky. I think I have more pictures of this tree than anything else I’ve taken pictures of while out exploring. Three or so years ago there was a massive flood through here that completely changed how this section of the creek looks. The flood took down all the trees around this one. I’ll be disappointed if I ever come here and it’s gone.

Because of how much I wander through the woods this time of year, I have always searched for morels. Those tasty fungi that apparently sprout everywhere in Illinois except for where I wander. In 15 years, I’ve never found one.

I do find a lot of the following. Like usual, I never bothered looking up what they are. I have no clue, nor do I care, what there name is. But I may have to do that. I want to know if I can eat them.

Hmmm, they didn’t say they’re edible, but they did say on the big ones you can count rings on them like rings on a tree to determine their age. I looked at the picture, but didn’t bother looking at the name. I typed in “plate like tree fungus” and the picture came up. That’s funny, to me anyway.

When I got to the end of the hike I sat along the creek for a bit. The frogs were out and singing loudly. Carp and suckers were breaking the surface of the long slow pool. I took a couple of minutes of video of this and caught a couple of the rings of surfacing fish. Only I have no clue how to deal with video. So, I have two big video files sitting on my computer. In typical me fashion, I’ll probably never teach myself how to deal with them.

Some day when I’m gone my kids will be rummaging around my computer, open those files and the sound of frogs will greet them. They’ll sit there watching and listening for a minute or two and eventually see the ring of the fish appear on the surface of the water. And that’s it, nothing else.

Then they’ll sit back in the chair while staring blankly at the screen, chuckle to themselves and mumble . . . he really was an idiot.