This is a 4 picture vertical Panorama taken with the 18-400 lens

This is the same single picture taken with the 18-400 lens

During our long and very hot summer,  walking, at least for me, was out of the question so I kind of hid away inside my house in the very comfortable air conditioning. I only braved the outdoors either early in the mornings or if there was a pond emergency, and as quickly as possible. I am definitely turning into a wimp as the heat never used to bother me. Now that the temperatures are much more bearable and no longer reaching even 90 degrees, I am spending more time outdoors, sort of.

The three months of 100 degree heat has brought about a change in me due to the enforced stay inside. I seem to lack the energy and ambition to get out in the yard or hit the trails again now that it is cooler. It’s all  in my mind as I do fine when I actually get after it. So a couple of days ago, I said to hell with it and  grabbed my camera and drove to Reimers Ranch to get some pictures and go on a short walk. I had no intentions of it being anything more than just a stroll to get myself back into the swing of things. I didn’t even put on my boots or any of the usual camera paraphernalia that I normally carry. Heck, I didn’t even take my walking poles, just me and my camera. I did have the new  18-400 lens on the camera as this would be the first real work out for this setup.

I parked in the River Bend Parking Area being the only car in the lot as it was a weekday. This lot has a concrete road that leads down to the Beach and Swimming areas although it can only be used to transport items, canoes and such, as it is just for drop off and unloading. There is no parking allowed in the Beach areas.

My interest was in the opposite direction as I walked down the concrete road and then took the River Trail. The plan was to walk as far as the next parking area, Riverview Parking No 1 and then depending on how things were going, either climb up and out at that Lot and back along the gravel walk that covers the entire length of the river within the park, or back track the way I had come along River Trail.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I decided to backtrack rather than risk the climb back out of the gorge without my poles. There were a lot of Buzzards perched in the trees with a few circling around in the air. They must have had a good feed from something with so many of them perched as they were. I watched one of  them go through a series of wing stretches and then sit with its wings spread out as though to either dry them or catch some rays. The water level in the river was very low as our recent rains have not done enough to replenish it. I guess that with the ground so dry, most of the rain soaked in and did not run off. The foliage has not yet changed very much except that the green is now a rather drab looking color.

When I got back to the concrete road, I walked it to the Beach area. I took a few pictures and decided that I had seen enough. There were no other people around so I guess the swimming season is over. My last exertions for the day was the steep climb back up the concrete road.

Reimers Ranch 10-02-2018 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.

I ended up walking a little over two miles which was enough for me to restart my hiking again now that the weather is so much cooler. On the way back, I stopped at Golds Gym, the one that I joined before I hurt my shoulder 8 weeks ago, to get them to show me around. The equipment is very new and much more modern than the old gym I used to belong to. They even have saunas and hot tubs. Now that my therapy sessions are almost over, I can start to exercise more at least on the treadmills as that does not require any heavy lifting. I can’t wait…

Written 10/04/2018