Candyland / Bear Tracks / Snake / Skeleton Party!

Aside from the occasional howling of the coyotes, it was a quiet night for us backpackers in the woods of Sproul State Forest. In the morning, there was chirring in the treetops nearby. And eventually we actually saw one of the red squirrels who live there. One curious fellow came down to look at us. 

I said, "I rescued one of your kind from the road a few days ago!" And then the squirrel disappeared back up into the trees from whence it came. Before we left, I put some bread crumbs from one of our sandwiches under its tree, and on the couple of branches I saw it walk on.

We packed up in a leisurely fashion and walked back out the muddy side road. Much to our surprise, we discovered tracks in the mud. I thought they looked like the footprints of a person walking barefoot (Big Foot!???) but my husband said bear. So let's go with that. A photo of the tracks is in the extras.

And then we got back to the car, only to discover that there were muddy paw prints all over the back part of the car near the trunk and taillights. We think it may have been the bear, trying to get into the car trunk! 

My husband said in retrospect that there was a cooler in there that had hoagies in it last weekend, and it still smelled of onions; could the bear have been interested in that? Could be! For the record, this may have been the first time we've ever had an animal mess with the car while we were out backpacking.

Oddly enough, my husband wanted to go jogging after our backpack trip. The walk to and from our campsite had not been very far; not nearly as long or as grueling as the one at Quehanna, for instance, where that final mile can be just plodding and exhausting and long. So we drove along route 144 (the above image shows off the amazing colors in our little corner of Candyland) to gameland 100, where he jogged and I walked.

He ran to the very end of the one road, and reported back that the foliage colors there were amazing, maybe among the best he'd ever seen in his life: one big patchwork of color, like a quilt made of golds and reds and oranges. Just unbelievable, how lovely it gets here in the fall. It's like a fever dream.

On my walk, I was fortunate to run into a small snake, sort of pinkish brown, maybe about a foot long. I don't know for sure what it was, but it was my latest road rescue. It wasn't much of a road, but it wasn't very big of a snake! I touched its tail with my finger and it moved off the road, very very slowly. A mid-October snake is a special find, so I've put it in the extras for posterity. Update: my friends and I think it may be a worm snake Carphophis amoenus, which is not rare, but it is reclusive, and thus seldom seen.

Now, here I go, burning through all of my extra photos! But I have to show you the skeletons! So far, it's been just wild woods adventures. But on our way back home, my husband and I drove through Snow Shoe. Not far from the Clarence Moose, on a bad corner, is a house with a huge and creative display of skeletons (see extras). Oh, the time and expense they put into it! Do you suppose that after dark, under moonlit skies, the skeletons . . . dance? :-)

I've got four photos, so here are four songs. First, for the candyland of fall colors above along route 144 on our drive home: Roy Orbison, with Candy Man. Second, for the bear tracks, John Hiatt, with Something Wild. For the cute little snake, ZZ Top, with Tube Snake Boogie. And finally, for the skeleton party, Silly Symphonies, with The Skeleton Dance.