Mammoth to Cagle, Day 2

 Tue Mar 1

Oh the joys of camping. Leaving my home in the country where I can only hear traffic noise as a diffused roar in the far, far distance, leaving my isolation where my nearest neighbor is across a wide field, leaving my semi-fast Internet...and going where? To a lake? But why?

I guess just because it is. At home I have birds and flowers (or will soon) and occasional butterflies, but I don't have a lake in my backyard. Most of the time, at least. I certainly don't have pelicans and cormorants, although a short drive down the road to nearby Lake Lavon would certainly reveal them. This is  just...someplace else to be. 

And I like being someplace else. If I could spend the rest of my life being someplace else I would do so happily. But I'd have to find a new home for the dratted cats. I don't imagine they're all that happy being left alone for four or six or even eleven days at a time, but they seem to forgive us for it. Cats are annoying little furrballs, but they seem to be attached to their humans.

My garden is a different story. I'm not sure how long a trip away from my garden would get to be too long.  But most likely, knowing I would get back to it someday would be enough to keep me happy.

We made the day a lazy one, driving over to Huntsville State Park in search of a non-existent bird blind and campsites to consider for future stopovers on the way to the gulf. It was not so good for the former but excellent for the later. There are a few full hookup sites, a few pull-throughs, and some of these are lakeside for a decent view. And there are a lot of back-in water & electricity sites. Possibly on a weekend we might have a problem, but making reservations in advance just might do the trick.

Then we returned and hiked past the water treatment area.  Yeah, I know...imagine if someone had asked, "Hey, where's some good hiking here?"  "The water treatment area! Can't miss it. Besure sure to take a picture of the blue pipes against the steel-gray fence...what a photo op!"

There was no sign or anything--other than hunting regulations, but there was definitely a "road" there and a bridge over a low-lying area that was probably a creek in rainy weather.  We followed the road a few hundred yards or so, and found a clearing in the woods that appeared to have been laid out for an archery tournament at some point. Very odd indeed.

After that I tried to take Molly jogging, but I just didn't have a jog in me. Instead we walked down to the front entrance, where we found no "wildlife viewing area". Then back to the boat ramp, where we found a loop trail along the edge of the water. That could possibly have been a "wildlife viewing area" but it wasn't marked at all. But it was a nice walk and could possibly have allowed a view of an alligator in warmer weather.

Then we went back, passed up the campsite and kept on going. And going. And going. It was clearly a well-used trail and made of concrete for the longest time, then turned to pine needle carpeted dirt. We were skirting the lake's edge--at one point the trail split and one fork went up the hill and probably ended up at the first camping loop (not the one Mammoth was parked on). The other fork kept on going along the lake shore forever. Or at least, as long as I cared to go. It would have been interesting to keep on going until it came out on the road--I could see where the road crossed the lake in front of me, so the trail had to hit the lake or the road--one or the other--sooner or later.

By the way, I'm going to christen this "sunset campground". We're directly on the east side of the lake and we've have two of the more glorious sunsets I've ever seen so far.