Into the Wild

Out running Tuesday, doing a long run and got a little off the trails that I wanted to be on out past the state park and up parallel to the Cape Fear River. To backtrack though, I hit about two feet of standing water on SugarLoaf Trail... likley a result of some unusual tide patterns, that not only affect the ocean but bodies of water that are close to and feed into the Atlantic, and cause some minor flooding. Didn't see the water until I was in it, and had to run/ walk thru it for about fifty to a hundred feet.

But out behind part of the Army Corp's Electrical grids and hydro generators ... as I wrote I had mistakenly wandered off from where I wanted to be... I was cutting back to the woods-line up the slope from the bank of the river when I saw a Great Blue Heron take flight out of a marshy pond right off to my one side. Anyhow as I was watching this majestic, beautiful creature take wing, I darn nearly stepped on a three foot black snake that was curled up on the gravel and weeds sunning itself in the mid morning heat.

Later in the run L had an even bigger black snake... five feet or so... cross directly in front of me as I ran along one of the trails in the woods. I was also plagued once again by horseflies... they seems to come out in waves the hotter the day is along stretches of the ground that are more sand than dirt. And of course the ever present spider webs at this time of year... nothing like spitting out silk and the occasional bug, and wiping the mess off one's face and out of one's hair.

Though I have the thought somewhere deep in the bush, that this is their domain, their home... the horseflies, the spiders, the mosquitoes, the black snakes etc... its me, in fact who perhaps is an unwanted guest. They don't (or hardly) come into my home...

Then running this morning along a shade covered road in the Sea Breeze section just off Pleasure Island and on the mainland I saw a large hawk take flight in the trees just up ahead of me... same place I had seen two hawks last week take flight... truly an amazing sight to witness up close.