A dinosaur in the late afternoon woods

Excuse me. For just a second there on the Willow Springs/Rowlett Creek Trail I thought a two and a half year old was with me. He had his spear, and was keeping a sharp look-out for a brontosaurus or maybe T-Rex. They live in the woods, you know, so you have to go hiking to find them.

True, that little fella is old enough to have his own hiking companion one of these days, and has probably stopped looking for extinct animals. I'm almost teary remembering that on one of those hikes we actually came around the bend and found a buffalo blocking our trail.

Having demanded hundreds of readings of Peter Spier's Gobble, Growl, Grunt, my son wanted the buffalo to say, "BALLOOOOW!"  We were on a trail near our rented primitive fishermen's cabin in Custer State Park, South Dakota, 1985.


© 2011 Nancy L. Ruder