November 5th, 2001
I have been here for 3 days. I brought my painting clothes to finish the deck. I didn’t.
It is very peaceful here. There is nobody anywhere. – Not exactly true. I went to the resort to get water and there was a car parked in front. Later I was mooching down the Pacific Coast Highway and the resort bus came up. The man had taken hikers out to Observation Point.
He was very nice, he said that he was the whole winter staff and if I needed anything or any help he lived down by the horse corral and I could find him there. I guess I looked a little elderly and feeble to be wandering around alone.
What I saw!—
A ton of deer. When I came out the door this morning, a spike buck was coming down the road. I have seen many does and fawns. I am thinking that it may be because all the leaves have fallen. They may have been going by all around but the thickets around the cabin are very deep. Two things I saw that were strange. Walking down towards the park entrance for Cable Mountain, I saw three turkeys, except one of the looked very different. The same general shape, a long neck and a small head. The same size as the turkeys but a much lighter color. I thought at first it was a mutant, but it was too different. And I didn’t get that good a look. After while it came to me. I think it was a pea hen. I made up this romantic story about how the beautiful pea hen fell in love with a macho tom turkey and ran away from her family at the Fly-in Ranch into the wilds with her lover. It was a sweet story. Something else that I saw was not so sweet. Last night at about one hour after dark (I have no clock so I don’t know time) But it gets dark early in November. In the east (I guess) sky before the moon rose the sky was bright red. Like a huge pool of red light, the sky shimmered and waved. The color faded and came back, the stars shone through it. It got very large then faded slowly away. By moon rise it was gone. Spooky things like blood red skies make a powerful impression if you are alone in the forest and nobody within miles around. But I am not such a scaredy cat. So what if I went to bed early and pulled the covers up over my head.
Uncle Jim (Aikens)