Duck Harbor

Slept in!..no Tuolumne today...was a bit anxious about breathing...smoke and all...needn't have worried!...rain!...but just as well...would have been slogging up Parker...or even Kiope...pass...in lightning and thunder!...with some effort I could have used the last three days of vacation to make it to Gem Lakes...and from there to June Lake and YARTS...somehow!....studying it out kept me up late..that and an Arnold movie...just read that train wreck pics are forever popular....kinda like Arnold movies!...but that will be a neat hike...it's a section of the PCT...will have to ask for a day or two off!....anyway...started the walkabout in the smoke and heat and right off caught a glimpse of Bobcat in the backyard...strolling by...couldn't keep up... or get a pic...following I kept going and made the Big Loop counterclockwise...collected some "Flowers and such in the wind" pics...I've developed a fascination, since that day by the Mariposa Creek, for the wind animating plants and trees....bugs too!...mailed a bill to the dentist..then caught the Crowded Shuttle to Happy Isles...grabbed a hot dog at the snack stand...and found a sawed off stump by the Bridge and Merced to sit...dark clouds coming in from the High Country...and Thunder...went over to the Fen...and there it began to rain...so caught the Crowded Shuttle..and on back in "day trippers leaving early traffic jams"...hopped off at Lower Falls...really really wanted to walk in the rain to the Creek and get wet...and at the Deer House I heard one bird bedeviling another...and followed them from the Deer House Oaks over to Flicker's Grove...and found Hawk!...and a big one...being chased, by all things, a Robin..I think...Hawk flew off over Cook's in the Rain under the Dark Sky...picked up and went on back to the Creek...had the sandals on so waded...not much to wade now!...and over to my left in Duck Harbor...well...Duck Harbor was living up to its name!......got as close as I could...then picked up...wet camera and all...and back to the Cabin...so...it was kind of a neat walkabout...seeing Bobcat and Hawk..though no pics...and the Ducks were a treat...and the Rain...tomorrow Tuolumne!....oh...yesterday I found a partially submerged very long log...just down stream from Sentinel Bridge...with two Mergansers hauled out on it, snoozing while the rafters were floating by...hence this log is Merganser Log!

And Oh!...while uploading the clip I thought to go to Last Chance for dinner...and outside caught a glimpse of Half Dome through the Backyard Forest...Rainbows!...I forgot about Rainbows!....after these kind of Summer Rains it's the best time!...Half Dome was glowing!...this about eight...so I paddled on back to the Creek...crossed over the Twin Cedars..and out past the pile of picnic benches at the Deer House...not a tourist about...and not any clouds over Half Dome to make a mist...hmmph...took a pic...still very pretty...the greys and alpine glow of Half Dome always look great against a cloud dark sky....there may have been Rainbows a little earlier..will have to ask about...how could I forget!?....the other thing on an "after rain evening sky" is sunset over the Cathedrals....I miss many of these working evenings...sunsets are best around the Equinoxes...sun is just behind the Three Brothers then...in the "range of light"...one chases...light!