Saturday, November 08, 2008

Walking through the woods.


Megabyte and I took a walk. The woods around here are pretty trashed out. People dump their garbage out at the back end of their property, you might find old bicycles, washers, refrigerators, oil drums, and other trash. Rusted metal and busted fencing everywhere, makes me sick to my stomach. Anyway. Meg and I decided to go exploring a little patch of woods at the back side of the RV park. We climbed under a barb-wire fence and found a little horse pasture. The 7 residents of which ran to the center and huddled in fear of us, watching us warily the entire trespass. We followed the fenceline until it ended at a wash. The precipice of the wash was a dump. We wandered through all the fascinating remnants of civilization. Curiously picking up the bicycle with a banana seat, or a piece of corrugated tin to see what was underneath. I saw an antique bathtub. Not the enameled type: the cowboy style you see in movies, set in the middle of the kitchen with someone's still-booted legs dangling over the sides. It was rotted through, but it looked kinda cool. And then we heard IT. Snorting and stomping. Sounded really close. Is it a bull? Meg started to growl. I looked to the direction whence the sound came, and saw to my surprise, a big brown horse. He looked too big to be maneuvering in the undergrowth of the woods. And he looked mad! Fortunately for me, there was the big deep crevice separating him from us. I laughed to myself for being so silly to be startled by a mad horse in the woods.
Meg and I continued our wanderings, we left the horse field and went East. Still staying on the North side of the wash. I kept thinking that I would like to see a clean part of the wash where the water runs clear and there are no rusted metal impediments, so we followed along beside the stream until we saw a clean area, and a nice hard-packed slope down to the water. Meg and I crashed through the undergrowth, making a path through the branches and brambles and went down to the stream. I saw a deep pool (I always call them "natural bathtubs") in a bend, and a fallen tree that is always fun to try to walk across. Meg and I played a while, and then went across to the other side and we went up, up, up to another pasture. Well, it wasn't really a pasture, It was overgrown with tall weeds, taller than me, but there was a stomped-down spot which I imagined to be where a herd of deer sleep. We stood there for a moment when all of a sudden I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. We were being watched. Then I heard IT. Scraping and snorting. Uh Oh! That horse has found us. I was spooked! I whipped around and ran back to the stream, crossed it carelessly, splashing and stumbling, and then up the other side. Meg was right with me. When I finally stopped, I was laughing and gasping for air and the mud on my boots had splashed all over my blue jeans, I even had a few specks of it on my face. I looked back across the ravine to see that horse, all prickled up with his ears back and his rump up in the air and his tail high - he was trotting; high-stepping I tell you, back and forth past the trail that Meg and I had just made down to the ravine. "Whew! We made it", I said to Meg and then I laughed at myself for that whole spectacle.
I decided just to head back to the trailer for some more coffee. We walked through the back field and on to the trailer. Meg laid down on the boards outside while I poured a cup and sat down on the steps. All of a sudden Meg stood up and his hackles went up and he started growling towards the West. Oh Crap! That horse followed us out. The horse was trotting along the fenceline in the RV park. He looked excited. Meg started to go after him, but I called him back. I didn't know if the horse would try to stomp Meg, he seemed so aggressive.
The owners came and got the horse, but I don't think they've found how the horse escapes. Every morning now, the horse is in the RV park. He doesn't act aggressively now, he just grazes his way across the park. I got close enough to take this picture, and Meg will go run a big circle around him, but I'm not sure if this horse is approachable. I saw the aggression in this horse's eyes and body-language on that first day.
I'm still giggling inside. My imagination always takes over when I go exploring in the woods. The trees are always alive, the streams have bathtubs and waterfalls, every scraping noise must lead to a raccoon or a possum... My fascination. Except for the garbage, I always imagine that I am the only one who's ever seen this place.

Thanks for listening.
Later Peeps.
MsAmber

1 comment:

Flubberwinkle said...

The trees are always alive, the streams have bathtubs and waterfalls, every scraping noise must lead to a raccoon or a possum...
I love your imagery for the wonderfulness of nature.
Too bad about the garbage.