Bird Timing

Looks like it's going to work. At the end the bird dodges one thing, then gets hit with something else. This is just pen and ink, now I colour it on the 'puter.

Lots of bush fun today. It's amazing how fast the human body adapts. I made a summer-long goal to be able to keep the pace of a trotting dog in the bush, wearing barefeet. After two weeks, I'm already able to do it wearing runners. I don't think I'm going to do the barefoot thing now though, because there's too much potential for broken toes and deep bruising on the tender middle of the foot. (This is speaking from many years of experience. I was known as "the kid in barefeet" by the adults in the neighborhood where I grew up, and I never stopped. At the end of the summer, when I have to wear shoes again, the hard callused layer of my feet peels off in big chunks.)

So my new goal is to be able to maintain that same pace in sneakers, but keeping quiet as a deer. Huge challenge! It's easy to move quick through the bush and crash through everything. Picking the perfect places to step and move with man-feet that cover 10 times more surface area than a deer is nutty, if not impossible. We'll see.

Another thing I'm noticing is the increased use of my hands. I'm starting to feel like a primate. You know when you're running through rough terrain, how your feet kind of choose the right place to land without you thinking about it much? You look ahead about 5-20 feet and your brain kind of registers where your feet will land before you get there. I find that happening with my hands as well. They're pushing aside the right branches, grabbing onto roots and handholds without me thinking about it. While I was running today I just thought "Man, my hands sure are wet and dirty", and it hit me how much I was using them.