Adventures in the Round (CA19-06)

Brain cancer is...

 ...done with our "round" of adventures today.

We didn't plan it this way, but today's adventures took us all the way around the lake.  Here is the Cabin Adventure Day 6 (CA19-06) round of adventures, by the numbers.

1.  Our first unexpected adventure:  On our way to our trail near the lake:  Off-roading it toward Holcomb Canyon.

Sure, why not?  We made about one mile before we thought better of it.  Darrell did an eight-point u-turn and got us back to paved surfaces.

2.  We walked a trail through the forest, away from the lake. (Top pic in this post.)  It was nice and warm (54 degrees) with even more butterflies than yesterday.  We estimate that we saw literally thousands of them.  We had so many questions about these little creatures zooming past us that we stopped strangers to talk about the odd butterfly highway.  

One woman made a good point:  The butterflies are too small to be monarchs, even though they are colored the same way.  Our later research suggests that the butterflies are either the world's most widely distributed butterfly, the Painted Lady (here's a link), or the also-common California Tortoiseshell (here's a link).  

Because we wondered if the butterflies were migrating (why else move along at breakneck speeds?), we studied some more and learned a new term:  dispersal.  Whereas migration involves moving along a planned, longish path to get to a desired location, dispersal means getting the heck out of wherever you are, hoping living conditions are better somewhere else.  

The insects were flying so quickly that we couldn't get a good pic.  But for the stout of heart, we did capture their movement in a slo mo video.  I filmed for 30 seconds, but it takes 3 minutes to view the video.  Not for the busy individual.

Alternate YouTube Video Link

(Cliff Notes version:  34 butterflies in 30 seconds = 1.1 BPS--butterflies per second.  Darrell says they are small, so they may not be easy to see.)

 3.  After the hike, we headed around to the south shore.  We had lunch at a place new for us in Boulder Bay:  Blanca and Pierre's restaurant.

 Blanca commented on the butterflies too. She also commented on storm damage, #5 below.

4.   We continued around the lake, coming back to the north shore.  This photo, at the dam, shows the length of the length of the lake, looking from west to east.  (We shared the east-to-west view on CA19-01).  

Notice the clouds?  A storm is rolling in tonight. Speaking of storms...


5.  Back in Fawnskin, we caught sight of  more damage from the recent storms.

The top of this huge, downed tree is to the left.  Its upturned roots are bottom right.  We estimate its height at 70 feet or greater.  Our neighbor Mike said that the winds hit 65 mph during the Valentine's Day storm.

We're back home.  Darrell's changing light bulbs.  I'm feeding the birds so I can watch them instead of work.

Stay dry, fellow adventurers.