Mammoth Goes Birding…and stuff, Day 14

Monday, April 21

Since Edward had to go to work, we hung out at the campground until mid afternoon. My plan for the morning was to take the “Lake Trail” around the lake, so I went through the RV sites and cabins to the start of the trail nearest us.  We (Molly and I) found it and followed it toward the lake/creek, but it promptly vanished in the marsh upstream of the little lake. We stumbled around in the tall, scratchy grasses for a while and then gave up.

But on the way back to the start of the trail, I saw an Otter!!!  So cool.  It was very dark colored but I don’t think there was a chance it could have been a mink, and it swam like an otter so that lets out Beaver, plus no big tail.  What a lucky sight!  No picture, of course. He wasn’t in a hurry to get away from us, but not stopping to pose for pictures, either.

Our walk couldn’t end so soon—it had only been twenty minutes or so at that point. So Molly and I walked through the campground to the other end of the trail, on the side of the lake nearest the office and “beach” (that’s what they call it.)  At that end the trail was easy to find and follow.  When we got back to the original trail start, we turned around and went back. And then I could see why I’d had so much trouble at first—the trail cuts right across the creek with only a pink flag or two indicating where one might cross. Once across the creek, it took me a couple of minutes of “casting around” to find the trail again.

 

So back we trucked, picking up ticks along the way.  I guess that’s where we picked them up—I didn’t find them until later.  I found a tick on Molly next day. Since she’s wearing a coat of that supremely expensive Bravecto tick killer, I assume any ticks she picked up either died or jumped off and climbed on me. Grand total for the two days:  Molly-2, me-4.

The walk improved my mood. We also saw two chipmunks…well, I saw them. If Molly had seem them I’d probably be missing my right arm now.

We went over to Edward’s house in the afternoon and played outside with the kids, then went inside and watched them play Minecraft until supper time. We went out to eat at a Mexican Restaurant about five minutes away. It was pretty good; nothing special.  But fun for us to eat out together and not break the bank.