Local trails

When I got out of work today, the weather was brisk but sunny.  I have been playing with the idea of exploring the farm land around my house for the last couple of years, but I never have because of the rednecks that live around me.  "Squeal like a pig boy!"  Yeah.  The land isn't marked with POSTED signs, but I'm still reluctant to venture into it.  It's funny though; when I was a kid I never had a problem trespassing on the local farmers' land.  Hell, my buddies and I used to penetrate deep into the Thurston's land and shoot birds with BB guns all day long (Yes, I'm evil I know).  But that's not to say we weren't ever marched off of their property at gun point.  An angry, tobacco-spitting, turkey hunter, in full camouflage, pointing a shotgun in your face is a hell of a site when you're 14 years old.  So, it was with my tail between my legs and my eyes open wide that I dipped into the woods after work today.  As I pedaled on, I laughed at how my life experience has helped to shrink those gigantic cajones I had as a child.  People are crazy.  I followed a faint trail from the road, down through the woods and out to an open hay field.

When the trail broke from the woods I was greeted with a wide expanse of hay fields.  I slowly prodded along the perimeter of the field looking into the woods for other trails.  I was hoping to find a well worn ATV trail; something I could turn into a nice little after-work ride.  I didn't see anything like that.  Instead, what I found were numerous tree stands and some prime rabbit hunting land.  Deer sign was everywhere.  I stopped often to look around and take some photos.  I'm still really really loving my fat bike, so I took a ridiculous number of photos of it.  I peeled apart a milkweed pod just to feel the soft seeds inside.  Did you know that milkweed's fibrous filament is used as a hypoallergenic filling for pillows?  Now you do.  

At one point I followed a game trail through a valley between two fields.  There were deer beds all over and several tree stands were perched in ideal spots for shooting down into the valley.  I'd never venture back here during deer season; I'll tell you that.  At one point the game trail passed over a log a few feet off the ground.  I took a really close look at the briers around this log.  Just as I suspected, the briers were covered in hair snagged from deer that pass over it.  "Awesome" I thought to myself.

When I popped back on to the road around my house, I was stoked to have ridden right from my house, through the woods and back home.  It's something I haven't done since I was a kid.  Something city life had taken from me.  Something I really want to have back. I'm going to have to find out who owns the land I was on today and knock on some doors.  It'd be awesome if I can get permission to ride back there whenever I want to.  Then I could fully enjoy myself.