If I Were a Dragon, Who Would I Eat First...? (Day 10)

Well today I took Angie (my step mom) to the supermarket. It was sort of an adventure because it was shoprite, and crazy things happen there. Not only that, but my two sisters came along, the cooperative one, and the..uhhh....the one that wined about everything and wanted to look at everything. Yeah, that about sums it up. It was kind of a hassle, but at least she wasn't screaming and making a scene like I was a murderer or something.

While we were in the store I took the girls to the bathroom and I saw a billboard on the wall that the employees put stuff on. It said goals at the top and there were a ton of multicolored post-it notes on it that different people had filled out with their personal goals. I really liked the idea, as an organization motivator, and thought it made a good picture.

Later in the day I wanted to do some more exploring so I headed out and found a pine forest and some other really cool sights. I love all of the ferns I saw!
And here is the beginning of the pine forest. At this point I came to a path that circled the pine forest. It soon became fenced by large bushes and shrubbery (Shrubbery!!!). For some reason this area really reminded me of Alice in Wonderland or something. Maybe because of British gardens in the 1800s, or maybe because of the new movie? I'm not sure, but it was really cool being there.
While I was in the woods exploring the pine forest and all, I heard some crows or some kind of birds, really making a racket. I came closer and suddenly a red tailed hawk took off from the forest floor. I was ecstatic! I came withing 50 feet of a full grown red tailed hawk taking off! I've seen them up close before, but I'm excited any time I'm near such a powerful, commanding bird like that. I love birds, especially birds of prey.

I was about to go to Bible study after that, when I realized that my wallet was in the car my Dad just drove away with. Shucks.

So I decided to do some more exploring near my house so I didn't have to drive much. I first explored a river that's part of spruce run reservoir. It's used for trout fishing a lot, and I followed a path along it for a ways. The river looked really cool because it rained today and there was a mist hanging over it. Sometime I'll have to go down all the way it goes with some friends. It was pretty much impossible to follow on the banks of it, and I wasn't up for following it in the river (it's probably more of a creak now that I think about it. It's very shallow, so you could walk down it no problem) alone. Anyway, what I saw looked pretty cool.
I still wanted to explore Spruce Run, so I went further up and found some big paths. I figured I might be able to see the reservoir from the South side, rather than the North where all the tourists go. So I started following these paths back through glades and forest. After a while of traveling South and West, I came to a pond and a path that ran the perimeter of the pond. It was quite large, and at first I thought it might have been the reservoir. I followed the path that ran the perimeter for a long while and it soon veered away from the pond and went on forever. I couldn't think where it was going, so I followed it to find out. I was shocked when I came out in someone's yard. There were no signs or anything saying private property, and I couldn't understand why the path went right into someone's yard. It was weird.I went back up the path because I wanted to do some more exploring. I was disappointed when the path ended where I had taken the fork and followed the perimeter path. It looked like they had just stopped keeping the path maintained though, so I followed what looked like the old path further into the wild. After a little while I realized that I wasn't following man made paths anymore; I was on a deer trail.

It was very overgrown and wild out there. I didn't know land like that existed in NJ. I was positive I could get very, very lost out here. The kind of lost where you die of starvation. Still, I had a good picture in my head of where I'd been and the turns I'd taken, and I was in a sort of glade area so I was out in the open with trees lining the horizon in every direction. My other problem was that it was starting to get dark, so I knew I had to be smart about this and not spend too much time out there, allowing time to get back. I looked at the time and told myself I would turn around in five minutes. I kept pushing forward though, I was so excited about being out here and by the thought of finding something amazing. Just being here felt like something amazing. It felt like I was the first person back there in quite some time.

The grass was tearing up my shins and there were trees on my left and grass taller than me on my right. I was thinking that anything could pounce on me with out me ever seeing it coming. The five minutes I allowed myself crawled by as my heart beat faster and I started to question how well I really knew the way back. The five minutes turned into three, and then I turned around, and started taking long strides back. I took a turn that I remembered taking, but it was earlier than I thought, and I wasn't sure if I was going the right way for a second. Soon I started coming to some familiar land marks and then the real trail again, and then I felt better. It was still getting dark rapidly though. But I knew where I was going. I found my way out minutes later and was at my car, the only tension on my mind the flies swarming around my head and biting my neck.

What was really cool about the glad was that I found the natural environment of deer. I know that sounds stupid, and inaccurate because deer are all over the place, but just think about it for a second. How often do you see a male deer? Male deer are generally the smart ones who stay away from people and roadways. Not only that, but they don't have to care for young, so they don't go into populated areas to find food.That wild grass that was in the glades, that was above my head, it's the perfect hiding place for deer. It's their natural environment. This picture I took is of the area where there was no path and I saw a male deer jump out of the wild grass right before I took this picture. The first male deer I've seen in about a year (and that's out of at least 100 deer I've seen in the past year). I was really excited; I felt like Bambi (on the meadow--why is it so still?!). That place was awesome. You should come with me next time!I saw these on the way backThis was the "path" I was on towards the end. It was definitely part of a deer path. I found trampled grass in several places, the place where some animals the size of deer were sleeping last night and this morning.