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OCT

19

2006

i've been following the weather and all indications said that today would be a good day to go motorcycling. i got a ride back to my parents' place to pick up the bike and rode off in the direction of dover to noanet ("no neck") woods, my 4th visit (1 2 3). from last year i know it's a great spot to see the fall foliage and i was hoping to catch some colors again.

there wasn't much to see in the woods. here and there grey squirrels, red squirrels and chipmunks would scamper and chitter out of view. whenever i got the chance i'd overturn a log hoping to find salamanders but i didn't see any. there were some lazy mosquitoes flying around in the more swampy area of the reserve (even then, the water level's so low, it's more muddy than swampy) but none of them bit me. i did find a tick crawling up my jeans as i casually flicked it off. as for birds, just the usual, bluejays, chickadees, some noisy sparrows. i spotted a small snake (6" thick as a pencil) slithering through some dead grass but it moved too fast for me to get a photo. i found an immature puffball the size of an egg; i think they're edible but i'm not sure (so i left it where it was).

i decided to take a detour and tried to find a hidden pond in the woods. i got as far as some private property without seeing this elusive body of water and decided to return to the main trail. when i finally made it up to the peak, i saw that the foliage wasn't at peak colors yet. i finished off some chocolate covered cookies (my breakfast and lunch) and walked back down.

a successful nature outing is measured by whether or not i see something new, whether it'd be an animal or a plant. i'm happy to report that i saw something i've never seen before: some stalked puffballs in aspic. they sort of looked like stinkhorns except they're orange with jelly-like seeds.

i left dover a little after 3pm. i rode by my parents' house and stopped when i saw a car in the driveway. my mother was home and asked me some more questions about the tibetan turquoise and coral necklaces i got for her from western sichuan. next i went to zeff photo supply to buy a replacement camera cover for the one i lost i china. after i returned home, i stopped by julie's place briefly to pick up some thailand/cambodia books i lent her.