Silent Sports

I dislike noisy motorboats, 4 Wheelers, noisy motorcycles, snowmobiles, and other noisy sports.
Perhaps that is because my Grandmother influenced me so much as a kid. She had an old leaky wooden row boat we'd fish with and she'd grimace any time a motorboat went by.
The waves would rock us. She told me they scared away the fish.

We do have a 4 Wheeler as do most of the neighbors. It is a nice way to get extra tools to different areas to fix fence, or if you can't hike...to inspect fencelines and carry things like a chainsaw.
I have no use for motorboats unless of course I was on the Mississippi River. I like canoeing on the Kickapoo. I hope to try out a kayak this year...but there I go, off track.

I guess I really don't mind snow mobiles that much, they do stay on trail and rarely do damage to the surrounding area.

I just found out that the 4 Wheelers that abruptly make a horrible racket on my 'absent' neighbor's land don't have permission from 'him' to be there. I suspect that the drunken brother who is allowed to live out on the old cabin is allowing it. This the same brother who said his dog 'shot' him. That is a whole story in itself!

Their machines are not quiet, they are loud. They seem to delight in finding wet spots and shooting rooster tails of mud high into the air while their tires dig big holes. First they just showed up on Saturdays. Then it was all weekend, and now they are coming out after a large rainfall and 'muddin'.

I've always kept an eye out on the neighbor's land since his brother died and it became Paul's land...or his land in trust. The year they let guys 'hike' out there was the year the I walked into large plots of pot growing. That was a bad time.
Well, apparently NO ONE is supposed to be running around out there at all.
I am allowed to walk, hike, snowshoe, and explore as I have done for over 20 years.

During deer hunting season the Peterson Clan takes over and the place is mobbed by orange clad hunters.

I digress.
I went to get the mail with Charlie in the rain yesterday and we hadn't used our north hill route in a while. It used to be a mere deer path. And after the 4 Wheelers started showing up...it was just a trail of bent down foliage.

I was shocked yesterday.

I don't think I'd mind it so much except that the soil here is very fragile. When it rains, it washes away the rich black topsoil. In some spots on this trail, the tree roots were showing. But since it wasn't my land and I had a MIL and husband to contend with [think health issues and LOTS of doctor appointments] I tried my best to ignore the comings and goings.

In some places the trail bites down nearly 12 inches. I guess I wouldn't mind having the trails if they weren't destroying the soil. I actually was a bit grateful at first to not have to 'brush bust' to walk through.

However. After heavy rains again, the 4 Wheelers showed up again last evening and I could hear them roaring. This trail pictured is annoyingly close to our house.

Since the owner lives across the state, I took photos of the vehicles plates and where they were parked with my cell phone and sent them to the owner this morning. I sort of feel rotten doing that, but perhaps the owner should know since he rarely comes to this gigantic section of land.
He does visit his family farm which is about a mile from here on most weekends.

Anyway.
I enjoy the silent sports. Hiking, x-country skiing, snowshoeing, riding mules, and fishing quietly along the banks of the Great River.

I'd much rather see the land preserved and not mangled.

But I guess I have been spoiled by having access to the neighbor's land for so many years.

I will ride the trails made by these 4 Wheelers and check it out. At least I know I am allowed on the land and my mule's hooves do not cause that kind of damage.

Hide n Go Seek?

When is the last time you played hide 'n go seek?
Well I will be 62 this year and it has been a while. When we were kids we played many versions of hide 'n go seek on my Aunt and Uncles' places. The woods were our playground in the summer.

One cousin would be it and the others would hide. One time we used the pony to ride through the woods and seek our hidden cousins.
As we were older we'd ride horses together and end up having to 'hide' from people. It was just a game.
I can recall once being with a cousin in his car and he said he had to hide from the local constable. We took dirt farm roads.

I shouldered my back pack and put on my .22 pistol which I always carry. I grabbed my camo jacket [Camo is the best color, when you get it dirty or muddy it isn't so obvious. Mud stains look natural on them.]

Dixie whined. I had taken Charlie in the morning to get hay from our farmer friend and he's spent an hour playing with the farmer's kids. He was one tuckered puppy.
Dixie came along. Big lumbering, gallumphing Dixie. She whined and ran ahead and then back to me to check on my well being.
I wanted to go to the far end of the valley in PeeWee's to see if the skunk cabbage was poking up yet.

We got to the east end of the valley and I was mildly surprised not to see any skunk cabbage poking up anywhere.
I was also slightly surprised to see all of the 4 Wheeler tracks. Thirteen years ago on Good Friday the man who owned this land died in a 4 wheeler accident. It wasn't actually a 4 wheeler but I think a 5 wheel utility type vehicle.
Anyway, aside from the influx of hunters each deer season, there hasn't been any human generated traffic other than myself for the last 13 years.

The land has grown up in berry briers, multi flora rose, and parsnip. I follow the creek and some of the old cattle trails that are now mostly deer trails.
I'd thought I'd heard 4 wheeler vehicles on the last few Saturdays, now I saw that indeed they had been driving around.
I patted Dixie on the head and told her that we had easier trails now.

We searched for Skunk Cabbage and didn't see any. In a few days I expect they will pop up. Hopefully the people with the 4 wheelers won't crush them on their next foray through.

Skunk Cabbage

We made it to the end of the valley and I paused long enough to take some shots of Awesome Creek running over the rocks.

As I started to walk up the creek with my camera in one hand, I heard the revving of engines somewhere on the ridge above me. 

I felt pretty irritated even though this is not my land [I have the owner's permission to wander wherever I want and whenever I want on this acreage...].

I felt a bit as if I'd been intruded upon. Someone had gotten permission to run their 4 wheelers here. I immediately put away my camera gear and 'tsked' to Dixie. We set off for trails where we wouldn't run into the new comers.

We crossed out of the valley and ducked onto a deer trail that led up the south hillside above the valley. From that vantage point I could see through the trees and a good portion of the valley floor.

Dixie ducked under some multi flora rose bushes. It was a thorny tunnel, I got down low and made it through. Some thorns grabbed my hat and pulled it off. We sat next to a huge old oak and relaxed while peering down the valley.

Two of the guys on 4 wheelers wore helmets. Somehow that made them seem more sinister.

I could hear their shouts as they stopped their machines in the swampy portion of the valley. They revved their engines and held them in the muck while their wheels dug holes and black sticky mud sprayed high into the sky. With shouts, they spun and made donuts and then took off to challenge the stream bed.

I heard one guy shout he'd gotten 'air' and the others followed him.

Soon they took off again, so Dixie and I headed down another trail alongside the valley towards home. I thought they'd gone up the snow mobile trail and towards the cropland.

Imagine my surprise when I heard the machines growling in front of us somewhere. Back into the brush I went, ducking thorns and briers. Dixie trotted behind me. I heard a loud shout and then the engines quit.

I stopped and sat down on a log, pulling Dixie next to me. I commanded her to sit and wrapped my arm around her. 

Just below us the guys were discussing something. Apparently one of them had broken his 4 wheeler. 'Good' I thought. And then I reminded myself that this was NOT my land.

They had a long discussion about tools, shocks, mud, trails, spare parts, damage to their machines...

I decided to move quietly up the hill to the ridge and cross over to my land. I let go of Dixie and started winding my way through the narrow trails. I have to admit it, I was enjoying myself. I felt like a kid in one of my childhood games of Hide 'n Go Seek. Where we would hunt each other as kids in my Uncle's woods. 

Dixie heard the voices below her and I don't know if she found a hot scent or what, but she started trotting down through the brush. I called her quietly, she didn't listen. I couldn't whistle or shout.

I went "tsk tsk tsk cha cha" loudly and started to pat the log next to me. I have no idea why it works, but Dixie turned around and came at her rambling trot to me.

I loved her up and we wound our way up to the wild berry patch.

I know this land like it is my yard. I've wandered on it for 22 years. I passed the patch and headed under the giant oak, through the fence and on to our land.

We made it home without incident.

I heard the 4 wheelers fire up in the valley and about an hour later I could see hear the diesel engine of the truck coming on the road above our house. I glanced up from my yard work and watched through the bare trees as the shape of a truck with 4 4 wheelers turned the corner and headed out.

Hide 'n Go Seek.

It still was a good game.