Breaking the Ordinary

In the midst of our present situation I feel perplexed sitting in my rocker by the fireplace listening to all of what this country is going through. If you are one of the fortunates and still working congratulations. For others their future seems bleek with no direction. Though many of you are seeking to stay afloat by whatever means. As bad as these times my be, taking a little time out of your ordinary day for yourself might be just what the doctor ordered.

Hello all trail buddies, Febuary now past us, winter from here looks like it will go on forever by the amount of snow I have around the cabin. Try shoulder high lined on both sides of the drive going out. Over this winter it has seemed all I have done around this cabin is photograph the birds with little venturing out anywhere else. The birds over this winter since the beginning of snow fall, which was back in October, has been something more than spectacular. Now into the first few weeks of March, the few red polls that came for a daily visit back in the beginning of the season have multiplied into outragous numbers that have made the other varieties of birds go else where. Although I still photograph the red polls I just got to a point I couldn't take another picture of them!

One sunny Sunday at the tail end of Febuary, I just had to take a break out of my ordinary day and go on a road trip out of the area for the day. Packing the camera and snowshoes, we were gone. The problem is in any direction adventure awaits you, depending on what it is one would like to do. So as always, head...north. On down the road we went. Making our way towards and into the bounaries of Denali National Park. The more north you go the deeper the snow gets. What a sight to see Mt.Mckinley on a warm sunny day at 26 degrees. Days like this one seemed to go on forever. We came upon the only "real" rest stop on the Parks Highway and at this point in our venture it was a good place to stop and photograph some of the landscape and experience some of the deep snow. So one can only wonder why you would bring snowshoes and not use them right away. This was my experience following what I thought was a trail past the outhouse slowly creeping out only to suddenly find snow giving away, sinking waist deep in snow. We had a good laugh about it and Destiny tho't it was picture worthy. I retreated for the truck with snowshoes on my mind. Once back out onto the snow, taking pictures of the lanscape, Destiny moved around me over by the visitor building where she stood, her head higher than the roof line. Most of the time I don't miss a beat, this time I did as Destiny's eyes had lead her to a white birch tree where she noticed an owl of sorts up at the top. Oh! look she says: an owl, well now, how do you know that's an owl? How many birds do you know where the head turns almost all the way around? Well at this point I had taken 3 shots of Destiny, so more shots of Destiny or the owl? Sorry, but you all know where I headed - back to the truck to check out the previously unnoticed owl. Binoculars in hand looking at the owl, to much amazment it was a Northern Hawk Owl! Oh was this exciting - the first time ever for seeing such an owl as this. The fact that the owl was out during the early afternoon with a slate blue sky (a little windy) sitting in the top of a birch tree - was beyond anything I could have wished for on this day. I dared not to miss a second. Getting the camera out and get everything I could to record this wonderful owl opportunity. Long story short, some 145 pictures later from 3 different spots I was just ecstatic! So as bleek as our present situation may be, maybe taking a day out of the ordinary and conditioning your mind and body both mentally and physically, somewhere out of the area just might put you in a better frame of mind. He did for me. And spring isn't that far off with new opportunites as each month passes.

Wishing all you trail buddies a glorious Spring, with many outdoor adventures to come.

Buford T. Porcupine