Day: August 14, 2015

Up early to beat the heat.  Over three hours took us up Bushnell to the Fifth Gate (a personal record) and back.   The gates, in reverse, return-trip order:

Sun filtered through wildfire haze intensifies the usual post-sunrise glow, but the sky would intermittently darken, seeming to threaten rain.  Now and then some normal blue would pop through (as well as a raindrop or two).  On the way, we tried to mark the area where Kim previously saw the wolf; saw the purported site of an early homestead and orchard; talked to an ATV-er trying to locate cattle; and gave the Atrabilious Animal a good dose of exercise.  For the birder in the family, the highlight surely was seeing a very large owl, well-camouflaged in the deepest, darkest part of the woods off the trail — and, in a sheer spit of luck, shaky-hand Lawrence was somehow able to handhold the camera at max zoom for a 1/6 second (at f5.6) to tease out a record of the sighting before the fowl flew away.  At higher elevations, we smelled and tasted the strong forest fire smoke.  As we returned home, the haze was easily seen above town and around Mt. Emily.