the Dark Start Regulars

me and Dot and Dought are not the only early morning walkers on the mill creek parkway (the bike path that winds through town)

there are the Dark Start Regulars

there is a pair of women and a trio of women / there is an elderly gent on a bcycle who rings a bell as he comes up behind / there is an elderly couple who also stop to pet Dought / there is Jace who works at the shifty markup (city market) / he carries a flashlight and a big stick

i wonder if he carries the big stick because of the bear

a few years ago i went on a river trip down Desolation Canyon / it was fall of a drought year / there were many warnings of bears / rafters had been attacked in their tents

bear scat sightings were marked on beaches to notify incoming campers

we had dought along to check out campsites before we came ashore / that's when i changed her name from Doubt (not a shadow of a) to Dought / as in courageous resolute and brave / also Scots for cute

well, Doughty across the pond

we saw one bear, a young one, happily bathing, splashing in the river close to shore

later, back in Moab, walking the bike path where it passes the Youth Garden Project i spied an unmistakable pile of bear poo / there was more in the garden too / the bear ate the lettuce

he/she had eaten some fruits / something like loquats / these grow on the only tree in town it is all the way on the other side of Main Street / well there is a tunnel under Main Street so he didnt have to cross over

i more or less expect to see a bear on the bike path sooner or later

we started this Dark Start business in the summer when it is too hot to walk later in the day / i expected to give it up when it got cold / maybe switch to driving up to the slick rock later in the day

but i am hooked on the morning jaunt and gosh, so is everyone else of the Dark Start Regulars / we are all out there every morning / ten degrees today !

brrr