Weather today: warm and a little boggy
Jun. 20th, 2005 12:58 amSo the big news for today is that I ran afoul of a bog.
Of course, there's backstory to this. Ellen and I decided to spend a day on Dartmoor as my last bit of Devon before I leave the country for good. We went first to the Minature Pony Centre, where I nearly imploded from the cuteness, especially of the foal that made him/herself my special buddy. There are many pictures, which I will share at some point soon after I get home (and have access to my webserver again). These things are smaller than some dogs I've known. It's crazy. There was a baby goat that was roughly the size of a small cat. It was all definitely geared towards the under-five set, but cuteness is for all ages, is it not? We were, however, wishing we'd worn shorts instead of pants, as it was quite hot out in those paddocks. (And I cannot believe I'm calling what could only have been 75F at the most "hot." I'm going to die when I get back to Nashville.)
Anyway. Then we continued on to the place we did our first Dartmoor hike and took the same path for a while, this time taking a different fork than the previous October. Saw a nice bridge, saw a bunch of cows, lots of sheep, etc. etc. Climbed a small tor, which was entertaining. Watched the mist roll in, because oh, wait, it's Dartmoor, and it isn't Dartmoor without mist.
After the tor, we decided to take what we thought was a fairly well-marked shortcut back to the town. There was practially a straight line between the tor and a part of the path closest to the town, but the real trail took us on a big loop before connecting, sort of like the two legs of a triangle versus the hypotenuse. To continue the geometry metaphor, we took the hypotenuse, which kind of turned into a sheep path, and then not a path at all. We didn't get lost (well, not exactly...not for more than a few minutes, anyway, and that was mostly because we couldn't see over the hill to where we knew the path was), but we did kind of run into a bog. And there was no way to get to the real trail except to go through the bog. Now, it is, technically, possible to get through a bog without getting too wet as long as you can quickly figure out which plants have root systems and are thus solid enough to step on and which most definitely do not. Hint: Tall bushy things? Good. Reedy things with bits of cotton fluff stuck to them? Very, very bad. However, if you're not entirely cognizant of the fact that there is a bog there, and not just a very enthusiastic stream, it can and will get muddy. Me not quite so much, but Ellen was having serious issues up to her knees.
My boots were already on their last legs and needing to be replaced within a month or so (three years of love, including wearing them for much walking daily for five-month stretches, will do that to a pair of shoes), so this was just the proverbial nail in the coffin. Hey, at least I don't have to pack them. This totally served a purpose in helping to eliminate the amount of stuff I need to shove into suitcases tomorrow.
Of course, there's backstory to this. Ellen and I decided to spend a day on Dartmoor as my last bit of Devon before I leave the country for good. We went first to the Minature Pony Centre, where I nearly imploded from the cuteness, especially of the foal that made him/herself my special buddy. There are many pictures, which I will share at some point soon after I get home (and have access to my webserver again). These things are smaller than some dogs I've known. It's crazy. There was a baby goat that was roughly the size of a small cat. It was all definitely geared towards the under-five set, but cuteness is for all ages, is it not? We were, however, wishing we'd worn shorts instead of pants, as it was quite hot out in those paddocks. (And I cannot believe I'm calling what could only have been 75F at the most "hot." I'm going to die when I get back to Nashville.)
Anyway. Then we continued on to the place we did our first Dartmoor hike and took the same path for a while, this time taking a different fork than the previous October. Saw a nice bridge, saw a bunch of cows, lots of sheep, etc. etc. Climbed a small tor, which was entertaining. Watched the mist roll in, because oh, wait, it's Dartmoor, and it isn't Dartmoor without mist.
After the tor, we decided to take what we thought was a fairly well-marked shortcut back to the town. There was practially a straight line between the tor and a part of the path closest to the town, but the real trail took us on a big loop before connecting, sort of like the two legs of a triangle versus the hypotenuse. To continue the geometry metaphor, we took the hypotenuse, which kind of turned into a sheep path, and then not a path at all. We didn't get lost (well, not exactly...not for more than a few minutes, anyway, and that was mostly because we couldn't see over the hill to where we knew the path was), but we did kind of run into a bog. And there was no way to get to the real trail except to go through the bog. Now, it is, technically, possible to get through a bog without getting too wet as long as you can quickly figure out which plants have root systems and are thus solid enough to step on and which most definitely do not. Hint: Tall bushy things? Good. Reedy things with bits of cotton fluff stuck to them? Very, very bad. However, if you're not entirely cognizant of the fact that there is a bog there, and not just a very enthusiastic stream, it can and will get muddy. Me not quite so much, but Ellen was having serious issues up to her knees.
My boots were already on their last legs and needing to be replaced within a month or so (three years of love, including wearing them for much walking daily for five-month stretches, will do that to a pair of shoes), so this was just the proverbial nail in the coffin. Hey, at least I don't have to pack them. This totally served a purpose in helping to eliminate the amount of stuff I need to shove into suitcases tomorrow.
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