I had a wonderful little experience some weeks ago. It’s one of the things that makes living on Orcas such a special part of my life. I was hiking a trail which was new to me above Cascade Lake in Moran Park. I started late in the day - about 1:30. This was probably one of the most majestically beautiful trails I’ve walked on Orcas so far. The trail head is so easily accessible that I’m surprised I’d not walked it until now - over 7 years on island. This was an unplanned walk and so I didn’t even think to bring my camera. I did have my iPhone but many of you know they take only marginally acceptable pictures. Anyway, by the time I’d reached what was my turn around point it was already getting dark. Like I said no planning. I’d downloaded a nifty “flashlight” application to my iPhone so I could use that if need be. It does actually work! I decided to bee-bomb it down the trail to beat the darkness back to my car. Instead of listening and blending with the forest as I did on the way up, I supercharged my descent with some classic Beatles tunes on my Nano pod. I was moving pretty good mainly focusing on not twisting an ankle or walking into a tree or something. It was getting darker and darker. I’d seen many deer on the way up which tickled me because I generally don’t see them in Moran park on the lower more traveled trails. So, I’m cruising down a section of switchback trails and I catch a deer in the side of my vision the next switchback down. I stop. After a brief moment I start walking slowly around the corner to meet this rather large deer face to face. I’m straining to see in the darkness and this buck moves his head. “I know that deer” I thought and I said “Shawn, is that you”? He immediately starts to walk right up to me but stops about 6 or 8 feet away. I can tell he’s wary but I start talking to him like I do all the time - before de stopped coming by our house at the beginning of rutting season about 6 weeks earlier. I stepped closer to him very slowly but he moved off the trail. I was speaking to him in a soft friendly tone and he stopped about 15 feet away and turned towards me again. I could barely see him at all at that distance so I said goodbye and headed back down the trail saying “come on by the house. I have treats for you”. I made it to my car in one piece with very shaky legs, drank some water and drove the short distance home. When I got to the house I was very excited to tell Rebekah about the new trail and my encounter with Shawn. We’d wondered if he’d been had by a hunter or a car for a while. The very next morning who was in the front yard waiting to say hello - Shawn. And within a few days after that Junior came back too. I know we can have a connection with animals if we care to put attention there. I don’t claim to fully understand these things but we humans generally grossly underestimate the intelligence and emotions of animals. And all beings suffer because of this. It’s quite sad really.

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