It was late september/early October. We'd been hitting the Ghost houses on a regular basis & one day I found myself on a lone ride. I thought to myself, let's change it up today & maybe think smaller, leave the homesteads in peace & concentrate on some nature riding. The leaves & grasses, were changing color daily so I thought I'd try to catch a little bit of fall before it was gone. To accomplish this mission, I chose the trusty River Ride as the varied array of nature in this area could not be equalled anywhere else. Undertaking this task meant my bike rarely hit 30 kph as I scoured the sides of the road looking for anything that tweeked my interest. This kind of slow, methodical riding was best done alone with no distractions.To gather these kind of photos, you have to adjust your mindset aka.... not look at the big picture but rather look for the small subtle things. I have always loved treed, bushy areas & find them to be a goldmine of unique, often overlooked subject matter.
When you actually get into this mindset, the subject matter just seems to jump out at you. There's a certain treed area that Marv & I found on one of our many runs along this route where we ran into 4 or 5 different varieties of berries as well as Bluebells which I have not seen since my days in BC. There was also the elusive but beautiful Alberta Rose, there were Rosehip bushes, High Bush Cranberries, Raspberries, Saskatoon berries, Mint bushes all within a 50 ft. by 50 ft. area!!
While I was wondering through this area, I looked down and saw three or 4 of the tiniest wild blueberries I've seen. I gathered these little morsels, put them in my mouth & experienced pure powerful blueberry taste you can only get from wild blueberries. This place is like a little piece of Paradise in the middle of Prairieland. So I continued taking pics of things that interested me as I rode a little further till I was full of berries & ready to head home. I repeated this ride the next day and took a couple different roads just to change it up a little, maybe find something new.
There was a particular remote road I frequented from time to time & day after day, I'd see the same vehicle parked on the side of the road in a shady spot. As I'd ride by, I'd recieve a big old wave from an old lady & her husband who obviously spent their days sitting on their tailgate, soaking up the sites & sounds & smells of this beautiful natural area. I thought, they've got the right idea..... when the wife & I get to that age, I hope we can spend our days doing the same thing instead of looking at 4 walls in some institution!! It obviously made their days much more bearable!!
On this particular day the vehicle was not parked in it's usual spot, so as a consequence, I had the lonely road all to myself.... or so I thought. Riding at a slow speed, I'd hop off the bike for a pic of a tree here a bush there. As I mounted my bike to move on a ways, I see this thing waddling down the road towards me, criss crossing back & forth. It was a rather humerous site as he waddled by the bike & kept going. As he passed me, I saw that he appeared to be a rather mangy looking Muskrat! So I turned the bike around for a slow speed pursuit!
I followed behind at a distance thinking he would flee into the bushes but he just continued his criss crossing, sniffing the ground like I wasn't even there. At one point, I got a little close to him & as I braked, I stalled the bike. He took this moment as his opportunity to wheel around, make a dash for my boot & attack it! When he felt he had his leathery prey under control, he sat under the bike, looked up at me with the beadiest, most pathetic looking crusty eyes, his nose working overtime trying to catch a sniff of this predator who was daring to follow him on his Muskrat wanderings. Then when his curiosity was satisfied, off he went loping down the road on long gangly back legs paired to these stumpy looking front legs. Yes, He was quite a dashing creature!!
I decided I'd follow him a bit further, so started the bike & kept my distance while he continued his journey. A little further down the road, my bike stalled again & I thought.... Oh No!!! But this time, he stopped, looked back, slowly sauntered over till he was under the bike, then went about an intense period of sniffing, whilst looking me straight in the eyes. After the sniffing session came to an end, he just kinda looked up at me as if to say..... "ok, I guess you're alright, I'll be your friend". Then, with a flick of his Muskrat tail, he was off again. I watched him till he was a mile or 2 down the road satisfied I'd made a friend of the little guy & looking as goofy as he did, he needed as many friends as he could get!!
For that week or so, I had alot of fun capturing some great photographs & making friends with a rather ugly but good natured Muskrat!!
Soon the guy's & I were off on more Ghost ride adventures, criss crossing the range roads, hunting down those elusive homesteads as we will do again next season, but I will take some time again next season to think small, gorge on berries, take pictures of simple things & maybe meet up with my furry little friend again!!
Now if you'll excuse me while I put a little Capt. & Tennille on the turntable!!
James.
Soon the guy's & I were off on more Ghost ride adventures, criss crossing the range roads, hunting down those elusive homesteads as we will do again next season, but I will take some time again next season to think small, gorge on berries, take pictures of simple things & maybe meet up with my furry little friend again!!
Now if you'll excuse me while I put a little Capt. & Tennille on the turntable!!
James.