Beaver Nation!

Heavy rain can be good for a guide, offering a weekend of enforced rest. I was grumbling about it Saturday, though, as I sat in my office contemplating my pile of paperwork. I puttered with it for an hour when I realized I was getting nothing accomplished. That's when I flopped down on my bed and read a murder mystery. I'm in the middle of my favorite kind of mystery--one that's dripping with atmosphere. The Lighthouse by P.D. James is perfect in this regard. It's set on an island off the southern coast of England. You know the kind: high cliffs, jagged rocks that wreck ships, one lonely mansion, peculiar people. Gotta love it.

Enough of my day off! I promised I'd blog about Friday, the day after my hiking fiasco that I described in my previous post.

I checked out a wonderful trail that leads to a secluded pond. Unlike the hike to Round Pond, this trail was clear all the way. (Eureka!) And the forest was open enough so that pond breezes kept me cool as I hiked. The most adventurous moments were when I had to make my way across a long beaver dam to reach the rest of the trail. Because I was carrying a waist pack rather than my usual backpack, I couldn't store my binoculars or my camera before I crossed this all too watery area. To prevent disaster, I had to stand more or less upright and keep my balance all the way. To prevent a spill, it would have made more sense to bend over and use my hands to break a fall.

As I maneuvered my way across, I couldn't help imagining how much fun my ten- and twelve-year-old friends would have scrambling over this amazingly constructed beaver obstacle. From the photo (beaver dam is on the right), it doesn't look as though water is on both sides--very deceptive.
I also encountered an area where beavers had felled massive hemlocks, one after another as if they were a bunch of pick-up-sticks.

And I discovered a most unusual beaver lodge: Hey, is that a tv antenna sticking up to the left?