Rain on Maine

I did not hear a woodpecker this morning.  I heard, "Splink", or "Blatt", or "Dwoink, dwoink dwonk".  Consistent but changing forms of rain.  It was inconsistent and not an issue last night with the fire, but in the morning the weather was more intense and penetrating to the point that the original plans for the day were scrap.

The rain convinced me that hiking was impossible, so just taking a look at things in the rain was the way to go.  JayMe and I did the 27 Mile loop road. I introduced him to many of the drooling picture sites and I really enjoyed that because of the weather the park was not crowded and I could park at popular sites and see them less populated.  After the trip, including the run to the peak of Cadillac Mountain, we headed back to camp earlyish.

In the afternoon, I walked the hike that JayMe did yesterday.  It was great.  Not Yosemite great, but great without being really great.  It walked along a harbour and had many stunning viewpoints as well as rock hopping.  But what made the hike into an eternal memory was the confrontational deer.

I was a mere football field distance away from the end of the hike.  The path was so wide that 3 people could walk side-by-side.  Just a long slow double-ess curve remained to the parking lot.  I turned the first bend of the long ess and there was the confrontational deer.

Upon first sighting, Hi Aunt Sue, I froze.  The stag froze also.  Thirty yards down the path if front of me was a deer. We were about eye height equal, but his ears had me by a half foot.  And his baby antlers only added another foot.  So yes, he have me by about a foot and a half.

After unfreezing, I smoothly pulled out my camera.  Yoga like, I positioned myself and by extension the camera into a picture that I hoped to capture the front half of the animal while he grazed.  I aimed, I saw through the viewfinder a great picture.  I clicked the button, and the camera audibly whirred to auto focus.  And this young, beautiful deer, from now on to be called The Enemy, twitched his ears.

The enemy had heard me, and now that the auto-focus focused, the picture was snapped.  The camera clicked, loudly.  The flashbulb unexpectedly went off in the dim light. The enemy now turned and had all foor of its hoofs on the path I needed to proceed past. I took two steps back.

The enemy held his position, but eyed me nervously.  An then he ate and ate and ate.  I took a lot of pictures. (to be displayed later)  And when the enemy continued eating, I sort of got bored.  And I wanted to get by.  So I broke by silence and whistled.  The enemy heard it, and assumed a stance of running away.  I yelled, "Shoo!!".  The enemy cranked his long neck and looked directly at me.  I waved my arms and yelled "Get the &*^%  out of here!"  And to my surprise, the enemy advanced taking a few steps toward me.

I retreated a bunch of steps.  The enemy went back to eating. After repeated attempts I was able to flush the enemy just a bit off the trail...we had to parry and strike before I got him to move.   I think this was a teenage deer who I ran across and had little experience dealing with me, and we both learned a lot about the exchange.

I had an excellent seafood bisque at the local restaurant and headed back to camp.  After JayMe rescued my attempt at starting the fire, we spent the night happily enduring the inconsistent rain and the brief sky views that were provided.  I did see by far the best Moon show I have ever seen...the moon was nearly full and was sporadically and just partially masked by racing clouds. The best I ever saw from the moon, but I still haven't seen the Milky Way.

RT