Watching Cattle by Paddle

 

It was great spending some time with the family up here.  They left me this afternoon so...  I lugged Ben's wonderful old canoe down to the lake for a paddle as soon as they took off.  I had been itching to get it on the water since my arrival, but the rain had been so frequent I would have had to bale every three strokes.  My paddle started with nasty headwind that brought back frightful memories of Ross Lake, but it died after about an hour of battling it.  The water turned from gobblygook to glass, and it was perfect.  The light began to penetrate the clouds as well, making for a spectacular show.  It was the kind of light that comes and goes with moving clouds.  And, each time that light came through, bird song would increase.  And when it disappeared they would hush.   It was truly amazing.  There was a large gaggle of redtails, a pair of bald eagles, canada geese, ducks of unknown type as well as wood, and plenty of others I could not name.  

To create range land here, ranchers bulldoze off ground cover and shrubs, and their cattle keep it from coming back by grazing.  The reason some of the hills are still covered seems usually that the slope is either too great for cattle or bulldozer, I'm not sure which one.  On a ride back in the hills today I was able to see big piles of scrub oaks etc. that were pushed into piles to develop more range land on the property adjacent to ours.  Yey!  I'm off to Bishop! Goodbye Lake Don Pedro, I will be back in few months...