Another Weekend Getaway
This past weekend, I was treated to a weekend at a friend's cabin, which is located 15 miles north of Payson. The cabin is located in a secluded area surrounded by National Forest land. Early Saturday morning I ventured out to take a few pictures. The first thing that caught my attention wasn't anything I saw, but what I heard. While looking around I heard this really high pitched squeaky, screamy sound. It took me a moment to realize that what I was hearing was the rutting call of a bull Elk! I've only heard them while watching a documentary on TV and it was really something to hear one in real life. I didn't get to see him, but captured a nice dewey, misty image of the forest he was walking around in.
Shortly after arriving at the cabin, we realized that the phone there wasn't getting a dial tone. My friend was able to contact Qwest using her cell phone and they promised a technician would be out no later than 3:00 PM the next day. Well, true to their word, he showed up at about 1:30 and proceeded to diagnose the problem. It turned out to be a connector that had been blown out by lightning. At least that is what the tech surmised. I'm sure he's seen a lot of that in his day-to-day work. He completed his work and left, but returned in about 5 minutes. At first I thought he had left something behind, but it turned out that someone had locked the gate, so I followed him back and let him out. Just as I was closing it, something scurried by. It was a tiny, baby horned lizard or "horny toad" as I called them when I was a kid. I was able to pick him up and brought him back to the cabin. To provide the proper scale, I photographed him in a rubbermaid container next to a quarter. Cute isn't he? And yes, I did put him back in the wild.
Here's to bugling Elk, baby horny toads, dewey mornings, and friends with mountain cabins. I hope to be able to do it all again soon.
Shortly after arriving at the cabin, we realized that the phone there wasn't getting a dial tone. My friend was able to contact Qwest using her cell phone and they promised a technician would be out no later than 3:00 PM the next day. Well, true to their word, he showed up at about 1:30 and proceeded to diagnose the problem. It turned out to be a connector that had been blown out by lightning. At least that is what the tech surmised. I'm sure he's seen a lot of that in his day-to-day work. He completed his work and left, but returned in about 5 minutes. At first I thought he had left something behind, but it turned out that someone had locked the gate, so I followed him back and let him out. Just as I was closing it, something scurried by. It was a tiny, baby horned lizard or "horny toad" as I called them when I was a kid. I was able to pick him up and brought him back to the cabin. To provide the proper scale, I photographed him in a rubbermaid container next to a quarter. Cute isn't he? And yes, I did put him back in the wild.
Here's to bugling Elk, baby horny toads, dewey mornings, and friends with mountain cabins. I hope to be able to do it all again soon.
