Rolling with the Dogs

I knew it was going to be hotter than Vulcan's forge today, so I got up at 5 a.m. to get to the Canal Towpath before 6 a.m. It was 87 degrees at 6 a.m.

My modest goal was to get both dogs back on the bike, while adding two reels, a break down spin-fly rod, and my Nikon P610 to my rolling kit.

It all worked fine. Though it was too hot to fish, everything packed fast and solid. Another day, another time we will actually cast a line.

I started out at Pennyfield Lock, where President Grover Cleveland used to fish. History is never my enemy and it lies thick around here -- draped like wild grape.

I was led on for a while by a beautiful blue Kingfisher that I never got a lens on, and I missed a large owl as well -- bigger than a Barred Owl, so it must have been a Horned Owl, but I did not see the bird's head too well -- simply the size.

A kayaker was out on the river, and I squeezed off a shot from a great distance, capturing a skein of geese flying over his head.

Turtles and several beaver were scooting around in the canal, and a deer seemed quite unconcerned with my presence, perhaps secure that it was on the opposite bank.

Less that 100 years ago, beaver were so heavily trapped they were extirpated from the United States east of the Mississippi. Now, they are so plentiful they cannot be trapped and moved; the law requires they be killed in place, rather than moved to a new location whey they are likely to cause trouble. One of my farms has had to trap off several -- one of which weighed 80 pounds, I am told.

  

The dogs were perfect little citizens and it was a nice run, with all of us back at the car by 8:10, before the heat came too hard.