Kim's excellent adventure

I went out shooting pictures yesterday afternoon with my ex-husband of all people (sorry David). He took me to Quabbin Reservoir which is one of his favorite places on earth. It was quite an adventure. He was attempting to get me to a small lake he found a few weeks earlier and because I have little to no experience hiking, he went the "easy" way. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was trying to kill me. :)

The whole place was muddy from 4" inches of rain topped off with all the melted snow. It was like walking in a mine field. And don't get me started on the thorns. I swear there was bush that was determined to keep me and make me its pet.

By the time we got to the lake, I was sweating and rather tired. But there it was. A rather large mud puddle. What had been a "beautiful lake" weeks earlier in the snow was now a dirty pond. We decided to walk around it and go back down the other "easy" way. HA! Remember the mud mine field I spoke? Well I stepped right in one. I went in almost to my knee. As I tried to hop up and out, my other foot landed in the stream I was trying to "hop" over. Now both feet were soaked and I had mud to my knees. Ok, I was prepared for a few missteps. Just not thoroughly wet feet. But then, maybe I shouldn't have worn my Rykas. He kept telling me to find boots.

It turned out that we needed to climb up the mountain a bit higher to find the path back down. As we were walking, we heard a mating call that was so close. We looked for wild turkeys, ducks, or geese but could see none. We did see a small body of water up ahead of us so we walked as quietly as possible to find the noise maker. It was a frog! A very small frog. I was so surprised.

It seemed like a great place to take a picture across the surface of the water so when I saw a felled birch, I decided to take a seat. Suddenly as my backside was nearing the tree, I felt compelled to say "Please don't break, please don't break, please don't break." I should have kept my mouth shut. It broke and I ended up on my back with my legs in the air.

Now keep in mind who I'm with - my ex-husband. I'm surprised he didn't take a picture of that pose (I guess I should develop that roll before I make THAT statement). I'm also surprised he didn't pee his pants with all that laughing. But then again, most of the laughing came from me. I am so not a woodsy girl.

So when all was said and done, we took 72 shots of the most beautiful woods, birds, and water. He took me to the summit and I got numerous shots of the mountain ranges in the distance. It was magnificent. I am so glad, mud and all, that I spent the afternoon there taking pictures. I'm sure I have a lot to choose from for my next critique.