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<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f1fef8c9c41bPikeNF2.jpg/>



This is South Meadow Campground in the Pike NF very near Pike's Peak. It's a nice campgound, with an active beaver dam just about 200 yards in the direction my truck is pointing. There isno electricity and no on-site water, but there are plenty of strategically placed faucets. I don't think there is any site that is more than sixty or so feet from a faucet. There are plenty of clean, well-maintained toilets. No shower house, however. Two nights cost me $10 with my Golden Age Passport.

I stopped here between my Colorado and New Mexico visits in order to have a couple of days to wind down, write some notes, and organize my pictures. These in-between stops are vital to my mental health as well. Lazy time. And what a wonderful encourager for lazy-time Otra is, too!

This campground seems to draw an eclectic bunch, with a slight edge in favor of big, big motorhomes, most of which disgorge a very high concentration of hyper-active progeny. I guess a little like the mother ship when she sends the alien crew out for samples. I hadn't been there more than a couple of hours when one of these behemoths pulled in about two sites down from me. The landing doors splashed down and Company K poured out, screaming their battle cry and obviously determined to take and hold all the high ground before nightfall.

Half an hour later three of them, all boys, shirtless and barefoot, rushed into my site. Two of them pinned the one they dragged between them to a big pine and proceeded to tie him to it with about three hundred feet of plastic clothesline.

"Get his arms! I'll do his legs!" ordered the apparent ringleader.

"Ow! Cut it out, you guys! The bark hurts!"

"Shut up! We're gonna torture you !"

"Ow! No! Don't! M-O-MMMMMMMM!"

"Hey, guys!" I said, from my comfy chair next to Otra. "How about you take him back to your own site and torture him there! Huh?" They were not enthusiastic about my suggestion, but complied, dragging their victim between them again and heading roughly in the direction of their own site where mom was tethering the three yapping dogs to a long overhead line and dad was fiddling with the big genset. Nobody was paying any attention to the three-year-old with the double-bit axe.

"We're gonna burn ya at the stake, white man! Real slow" one of them said to the victim.

"M-O-MMMMMMMMM!" wailed the unfortunate.

"And guys," I added. "Please use a gag, I can't stand screams!" They sniggered and the captive broke free and ran off into the pines.

"I gottaway! I gottaway! Never catch me! Never catch me! Woo-wooo-wooo-eeeeeee!"

Ah, yes. The healing joys of nature.

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<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3f202f7630d56PikeBeaver.jpg/>

I meant to include this picture with my other post on the Pike NF but the server didn't seem to want to accept both pics.

I do not present this image as having any value other than conversational, as it is a complete failure as a wildlife pic. That slightly furry lump in the approximate center of the picture is (take my word for it!) a beaver. This was made with a 200mm lens, which was the longest lens I took on this trip. Such a picture requires a 400mm or 500mm lens.

I've photographed beavers before and I was surprised at how unperturbed these guys seemed to be by people. It was also interesting to observe that although the beaver dams were very close to the campground, literally just over a little embankment, very few people bothered to come down to look at them. A good thing perhaps. Beavers seem to have poor eyesight and if you're quiet and still and stay downwind, you can get some very good opportunities to photograph them, mostly early and late in the day. But some of the best pix I have ever gotten of them were in the middle of the day when they were playing around in their pool.

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Back in my 35mm days, I had a 200mm zoom and a 2x coupler. That made for some significant zoom capability, but the coupler did add a certain amount of graininess to the pictures. Not too bad for snapshots, but not too good for enlargements.

Now that I've gone digital, I've had some success, surprisingly enough, in just holding the camera up to the eyepiece of a good, bright binoculars. Combined with the optical zoom capacity of the camera, it provides incredible telephoto power. Stabilizing the setup is a challenge, but I've had several pictues come out pretty well. The cameral logic (at least with my Canon S10) enables a good focus and exposure, as long as I can keep the items stable. Just a tiny movement causes the camera to have to re-adjust.

Keep posting the pictures! It lets the rest of us travel vicariously.

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Dont EVER under estimate beavers! I did, and almost lost my dog. They cut a tree in our yard on the beach, and a couple of days later when we went down to look at it, the beaver was there. To make a long story short, he wouldnt leave, no matter how the dogs tried to chase it off, it just wouldn't go. I thought it would just slap it's tail and take off, so wasnt too worried about the dogs "getting" it. My one dog, (who is the killer in the family) chased it, and it LET her catch up, she bit it, it rolled over, and so did the dog. I said-O.K.- that's enough! And called the dogs out of the water. The beaver still didnt leave, and the dog came out unscathed (thank God). I had enough time to run and get my camera, and do have pictures. And then of course I heard many scary dog/ beaver stories after that. Just beware. They do have some big strong teeth!

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I always thought beavers were small, cute little things. NOT.
when the land around our old house was flooded, a beaver took refuge in our yard. the dogs we had then tried the attack about twice, then backed off. they would run up, the beaver would whirl and that tail would smack them, a Big yelp, and back away. that beaver was 3/4 the size of my blue healer/german shepard mix. large