A new bow in the form of a Samick Sage recurve

So after obsessing over it for well over a month I finally went out and bought a bow.  While I have a 22. rifle in my possession the kind of target shooting I enjoyed the most was always bow.  Take a rifle and it's scope, zero it in and then the mystery is done.  But take a recurve bow and just a slight change in the wind... So I finally bought one for myself.  Here is my Samick Sage 45# right handded bow.  Sure I am left handed but with a bow I am right.

5-6-12 CAT Trail Camel's Hump

It is still mud season so still sticking to the lower trails so back to the CAT trail.  It was a beautiful day and the forest was just starting to turn green.  As I walked along it honestly felt like an entirely different space, the budding leaves added something to the trails I have walked many times.

Another miscellaneous flower.  I really need to start learning these so this can be much more interesting posts.

This is the usual hidden waterfall but this time the water was really flowing and crystal clear.  I checked Sal's exploration just so he did slide on loose leaves into the water.

A frog... er actually a toad.  I heard something and ended up doubling back to find this little guy, Sal completely missed him.

So this is about where I went off the path.  I saw a rock wall off to the side and decided to explore some more and practice walking quietly in the woods.  This must have been farmland at some point, but I can't imagine to trying farm on these hills.  I tried to teach Sal how to move slower and quieter but being the attention deficit dog he is it did not work.  He runs full tilt after everything so wildlife is easily startled and as he and start exploring off trail in wider areas I want him to learn silence so we can see more things.  I have a feeling it will be a long learning curve.

This seemed to be the last week for fiddleheads and managed to grab a pocket full (carefully selecting one or two from each plant so it was not detrimental to them) and when I got home made a stir fry.  The stir fry became my leftovers for the whole week so I have had the pleasure of eating what I foraged for all of this time.  It makes me want to do more.

5-5-12 Little River again

I have been to Little River State park many times at this point but it is spring and it is much better to stay off higher elevation trails due to mud and more importantly trail erosion. So I ended back in the moderate lowlands again.  The park was busy so I jumped onto the VAST snowmobile trails to get away.  There I found a wide variety of flowers.  No idea what they are though.

 It almost looked like lady slippers or something, but also at the same time not at all like lady slippers.

 This looked like a red trillium but I am sure that isn't it either.

 This is where the snowmobile trail ended after several miles.  The forest here seemed to be fairly old and I sat listening to a very active group of birds sing their hearts out.  I also took the time to verify that this was not the trail I thought I was on and that this road wasn't even on my map.

 The stream running underneath it was quite nice.

 On the other side.  Then back to retrace my steps to where the trail should be.  I tried to teach Sal to walk quietly through the underbrush but he... he wouldn't slow down long enough to learn.

 Cool mushrooms, nature knows how to rock the color.

 There is an old sawmill deep in the woods, the last two times here I did not get to it for various reasons but this time I made it back.

People had been arranging debris in a variety of ways.  I will have to return to those snowmobile trails later.

4-29-12 Winooski River

I have spent a fairly large amount of time on the water in my life in kayaks, canoes and sparingly sailboats.  As it gets back into the season my urges become stronger and I ended up on the Winooski River above the Vergennes Dam.

It was beautiful (as you can see above) but windy.  So windy, in fact, that when I turned around and tried heading back down stream the wind was producing whitecapped waves heading upstream.  I quickly discovered that those same winds were equally capable of pushing me upstream as well.  Moral of the story: sometimes despite all expectations you will have to paddle both ways,