Good Walk Spoiled

Mark Twain referred to golf as a good walk spoiled, but today it was the rain that spoiled our good walk across the swamp in Audubon's Francis Beidler Forest.

Once again, we were trying to complete the painting of the cross-swamp internal boundary line. Previously, the futility of painting in the rain caused us to abandon our work. At least then, the swamp was relatively dry and the occasional creek channel was only ankle-deep. With the recent rains beginning to fill the swamp, we knew that we would encounter some deeper water in the creek channels. Additionally, today's high temperature was only forecast to be in the low 50Fs. Based on our wholly unscientific water depth equipment, we report the creek channels as being SOPRANO high!

Although we were unable to complete the boundary painting job, the final creek crossing was more distressing. It wasn't the cool air or the creek's depth, but the fact that we crossed the deep creek just before our lunch break and the rain began to fall steadily as we finished lunch. As paint won't dry in the rain and remain on the trees, we had to head back to the truck, which was on the other side of that deep creek.

As Maxwell Smart was wont to say, "Missed it by that much!"