The woodlands are snowed in, so I’m snowed out.

But no. I give it a try. Hiking in the wild is like a drug. You can’t go cold turkey.

Speaking of cold turkeys, they’d make a nice sighting. I saw some in a field. But that wasn’t today. Today, I’m the only turkey around.

It’s quiet. Too white in the sunshine, not good for the eyes. All this sameness, the stillness, and your mind starts to wander.

Your feet can’t wander. You can hardly move on the buried trail. But the mind moves fine.

It takes me back to another snowfield where the white and quiet were similar. But the air was thinner.

I was on a mountain in Colorado. I’d seen Black-billed Magpies there. Mountain Bluebirds, Pine Grosbeaks, a distant Golden Eagle, Gray Jays. Not much else.

Snap back to the present: there’s some modest activity here. Cardinals, Dark-eyed Juncos, a distant flock of what might be Cedar Waxwings.

And I’m surprised to see pale Robins toughing out the winter. Maybe they took global warming to heart, and didn’t migrate. Maybe they’re from farther north.

I take a breather. And think about the mountain.

When I was in that other snowfield, up there, I almost saw a mountain lion. Lions are a goal. I’m always looking when I’m on their turf.

I have a friend who saw a mountain lion on a golf course in Tucson. Sorry, that doesn’t count. A lion shouldn’t be on a golf course.

When I was on the mountain, there were fresh prints. The lion was probably watching me from cover.

Back to the Chicago burbs. Our forests are deep, and you could be anywhere, even the wild west. No lions, but coyote tracks are common.

Robert Frost wrote: “Whose woods these are I think I know.” I’m not a guy who quotes poets. But I know whose woods these are.

Back on the mountain, after not seeing a lion: I saw a bighorn ram. A lion would have been better. Still, the ram’s no slouch.

I had my old camera. My photos are nothing much, but they show that I was there.

I wrote my name in the snow to show that I was there, too. But that’s another story. And it’s long gone.

Speaking of being long gone, it’s time to get out of the woods. This wandering of mind and body in wilderness and time was nice. My only drug.

But back to reality.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 at 3:48 pm and is filed under "Daily Sightings" A Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.