365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Kautz Crossing
Day 334: For the way the rest of the week has gone, it comes as no surprise that I was stung by something big, black and bad-tempered while I was out looking for mushrooms this morning. I didn't ask for its ID, but since I wasn't dead by the time I got back to the car, it wasn't a bee. I knew it wasn't a bee anyway, because I saw it as I swatted it off the back of my hand. Nor was it a deer-fly, because I am having a typical "wasp" reaction: my hand has swelled up to the size of a basketball and hurts clear up to my ears. Slight exaggeration there, yes, but swollen and painful nonetheless. I almost aborted the second part of the day's plan...the part (forgive me, Kevin, for not sticking to the prospectus) formulated while I was looking for 'shrooms. I've been telling myself I wanted to walk up Kautz for the last couple of weeks, but the thought of hordes of visitors on the trail was a strong deterrent. Today was cloudy and cool, and I covered the mile to and from the creek crossing without seeing a soul once I'd gone past the viewpoint near parking. The joy of being alone in the woods even seemed to take the "sting" out of my poor hand as long as I was in motion. It wasn't much of a hike: mostly flat, only a mile (one way), nothing scenic, although the area has a unique charm due to having been scoured by a glacial outburst event back in 1947. Three-quarters of a century later, not much grows there except slide alder, lichen and moss. But did I find mushrooms? Nothing edible, no. It's been a rough week. Maybe I should get up on the other side of the bed tomorrow morning. Or not at all.
Labels:
bridge,
Kautz Creek,
mushrooming,
wasp sting
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