Pattern

in cross section of aspen.

       Bob invited me on a walk up the lower north  slopes of Escudilla mountain this morning and I thought - "Opportunity to take some snaps."  Bob likes to follow water courses to their source where the mountain "leaks".  The odour of putrifying flesh greeted us when we stopped the truck.  A little way into the woods we found the carcass of a young elk.  The maggots and flies were feasting and I snapped a picture.  The head was missing which is suspicious.  Poachers?  So called 'trophy hunters'?

       We continued following a small stream up through stands of aspen saplings and fallen debris from the Wallow fire of 2011.  I was listening to the birdsong and snapping wildflowers and Bob picked up rubbish left by thoughtless people and tried to identify the flowers and the young evergreens for me .  How much do I remember?  Bob had trouble remembering too.

       We returned to the truck and drove to the next creek, Mamie Creek.  I investigated a plaque driven into the ground near a tree.  As I got close I could see it was a memorial to one Melvin Lathrop.  I took one small step closer and startled a baby elk resting behind a tree not three feet away  which then ran off up the hill into the forest on my left crying.  It was not long before we heard and then saw the mother elk calling for her calf and coming across from our right and keeping a very wary eye on us.  She was about two hundred yards away up the hill from us.

       I thought some blippers might have ideas about what they see in this image and I include extras of an iris and a view of the west slopes of Escudilla.