Fall Harvest Moon
A guy trudged along the same trail I was on, dressed in full camo but with the jacket open and t-shirt spread wide by a belly yearning to be free. “Nice day for a walk,” he said. “Yeah.” He was a bow-hunter with six yellow feathered arrows and a compound bow. When I got back to the parking lot, I saw his truck with a large sticker, Life Begins At Full Draw. A bow hunter with his bow-string fully extended. He had another large sticker, “Born to Fish, Forced to Work.”
A bit further along a Hmong man in blaze orange vest with a rifle slung on right shoulder. “Hi.” “Hi.” Only a moment before meeting the bow hunter I had decided to turn back. I had no orange vest and wanted to be safe.
When I drove up here, only 3 maybe 4 miles from home, I’d discovered that this new state owned land was a conservation area, not a scientific and natural area as I had remembered. The difference is that you can ride snowmobiles at Cedar Creek Conservation Area. You can hunt. You can also hike of course, but…
Armed with my smart phone I looked up Minnesota hunting seasons and found that it was bow season for deer and hunting for small animals and certain birds. Didn’t seem I’d be confused for any of these since bow hunters have to be fairly close and have a good sight line, but out of, as the politicians say, “an abundance of caution,” I had begun my exit.
It was a spectacular day. 64 degrees. Clear skies. A light breeze. Just right. As often happens in northern Anoka county, it felt like up north with woods and meadows. Imagining myself on a trail outside of Ely was easy.
Here are a few things I saw:
This gallery contains 7 photographs in all as photograph etc.
