Woods Canyon Lake (Mark)

August 22, 2017: A view of Woods Canyon Lake right across

from where Mark and I were sitting. I love that reflection!

On Tuesday, Mark and I drove out to Woods Canyon Lake, a lovely recreational area almost an hour away from home. He'd been wanting to go fishing for quite some time, so I figured I'd take my laptop and work on my novel while he pursued his favorite hobby for a few hours. We left the house around 8:30, ran some errands, and picked up some chips and sub sandwiches on our way out of town. It was about noon when we reached our destination.

My car is parked above the lake and Mark starts unloading it.

Mark was soon ensconced in his camp chair with a line in the water. My plans, however, weren't going so well. First of all, I had forgotten that I'd have no Internet service while out in the wilderness and that my most updated version of my novel is on my OneDrive, which requires Internet access in order to pull up. So I thought, "Okay, I'll just use the older version I saved to this laptop." Oh, wait, I guess I bought this laptop after the last time I used a laptop to work on the book, so it isn't saved on this one.

This hollow log by the car looked like a big fish!

Still trying to "think positive," I told myself, "Never mind, I'll just start a new chapter, the next one coming up." I think I wrote two or three sentences before I gave up altogether. The reflection of trees and sunlight on the screen made it hard to read, but worse yet was the way my arrow/cursor kept disappearing from view. I ended up spending most of my time trying to figure out where the arrow went so I could make the computer do what I wanted it to do. All to no avail. After weeping some tears of frustration, I put the laptop away and tried to talk myself out of my bad attitude.

From the top of the rise, it looks like a gentle slope down to the lake... 

Thankfully, it's hard to stay mad while you're surrounded by such gorgeous scenery. I found myself slowly relaxing and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. Most people know I'm not the most energetic person around, not even close, yet I find I'm always driven to accomplish something. Whether it's reading, writing, sketching, taking pictures, organizing, cleaning, whatever, I always need to be seeking after some goal. Simply doing nothing more than enjoying the world around me really goes against my nature.

...then you get to the rock-line and the precarious footing turns pretty steep.

It was tough-going for these old knees.

That's one area where I could take a lesson from Mark. His personality is so uncomplicated. He lives in the moment (sometimes a little too much so) and is completely accepting of everyone and everything. While he was fishing, he was totally relaxed and absorbing the good things surrounding him. All while I was wrestling my computer, cursing my bad planning, and elevating my blood pressure. I really need to learn to relax!

After he stakes out his fishing spot, Mark returns for another load.

Mark sets up his fisherman's paradise.

Now he's all settled in, fishing pole in one hand and Pepsi in the other.

A wide view of our section of lake, the distant dock, and a cloudy sky.

A large crane sails off from the shoreline where he was fishing the shallows.

A beautiful corner of the lake, carpeted in my favorite shade of green.

There were lots of others enjoying the lake, like this young couple.

And like this trio of determined fishermen.

Not long after we settled by the lake, I was joined by a bright-eyed chipmunk who was clearly hoping for food, eyeing me curiously and darting in to check my purse and other bags. He even tried to unzip the ice cooler bag! Eventually, he gave up on me and went away. He returned immediately, though, as soon as he heard me open my small bag of potato chips. I ignored him until he left again. After all, aren't we supposed to not feed the wild animals?

A while later, I was sitting with my back to a tall rock and staring placidly out at the lake when something heavy landed on my left shoulder from behind. Something furry with little claws, tangled up in my hair. I let out a squawk and dumped the little critter off me. I'm sure I gave him as much of a heart attack as he'd given me, but he stuck close, determined that I must share my chips. At that point I gave in and complied, handing him a couple of small bits. That wasn't enough, however. After he'd eaten them, he took off, but then he circled around me and sneaked in to try to take the whole bag, which was on a chair behind me. I barely rescued it!

When the potato chips were gone, I put the bag on the ground for him. He went right in for the final crumbs, just his tail sticking out, and then lost interest.

This little character kept me on my toes throughout most of our visit.

My chipmunk friend went away for a while after that, but he put in another appearance when I took out the sub sandwich to cut in two for Mark and me to share. I was using the cooler bag as my very short table while I cut the sandwich with a plastic knife, and the little guy didn't hesitate to join me. Literally. He climbed right up onto the bag with the sandwich. When I tried to give him a piece of the bread that I'd already broken off for him, he ignored it. Instead, with lightning speed, he snatched the top half of the loaf right off the top of my sandwich and absconded with it! 

"You little turd!" I yelled. The elderly lady sitting with her husband farther up the ridge gave me a reproving look.

To add insult to injury, the critter tore out a chunk and took off with it, leaving the rest lying in the dirt. Mark helpfully picked up my bread, dusted it off, and started to put it back on top of my sandwich. I let out another squawk and pushed the bread away just in the nick of time. "Not only has that been in the dirt," I told him in no uncertain terms, "but it's been in a chipmunk's mouth!" In typical male fashion, Mark seemed to find my outburst to be a slight overreaction.

A huge blue jay enjoyed the final crust of Mark's sandwich.

It was a little after 5:00 when we started packing up our stuff to reload the car. Mark hadn't caught anything, although he said he had a lot of nibbles. He wasn't too troubled by it, though. To him, it's the fishing itself that matters, more than the catching. I'm very destination-oriented, whereas Mark is an "it's-the-journey-that-counts" kind of guy.

These cow elk were completely unconcerned by the presence of my car.

The fun didn't end when we drove away from the lake. Along the road out of the park, we found four cow elk grazing peacefully. They didn't pay any attention to us when we pulled over beside them and started taking pictures. One of them was actually grazing in a campsite, where a guy was sitting on the ground with a very nice camera, capturing her in close-up. She was moving closer and closer to him, completely unthreatened by his careful, quiet presence.

Looking west toward the edge of the Mogollon Rim's high precipice.

Our final stop was one of our favorites. Whenever we're in the area, we like to pause and stand at the highest escarpment of the Mogollon Rim (part of the Colorado Plateau) and look down at the world below. My house is actually only a mile or so from the lower southwestern edge of the Rim, and there are some beautiful views in our area, too. But this part of the Rim is breathtakingly high, with must-not-miss vistas. It was the perfect way to end what turned out to be a most enjoyable day.

The view from one of the Rim overlooks.