awesome thread! i loved all the pics everyone posted, good stuff! here's a few of mine -

an alligator head! (solo overnight kayaking trip on the Hocking River)



clearly a leprechaun lair <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> (overnight kayaking trip on Hocking River)



...and last butt not least..i hope this is ok to post <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> (hiking in southern ohio)



i have a few more but not on this computer, so i'll have to upload them at a later date <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Snapping Turtle

This is a natural burl on a Sydney Reg Gum (angophora costata) in the Royal National Park.




Can you see Mr Hippo?

Cheers,
Michael.

Chipmunk about to be eaten by a giant, one-toothed catfish. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

(Hendy Woods State Park, Anderson Valley, CA, 10/22/08)

Ah, Hendy Woods - one of my favorite picnic spots as a kid (I grew up in Cloverdale)! I loved wandering into the grove by myself...it seemed so big then!

dk:


What a spot to grow up in! Anderson Valley (& Cloverdale) is an incredible, isolated place. A local told us the first paved road came into Anderson Valley in the '50s -- now they've got a WI-FI hot spot at the Hendy Woods Visitor's Center -- oh, well, it's still a somewhat-isolated spot in today's world.

dk, did you ever visit the Hermit's Huts at Hendy? Now here is a guy who did some ultralight living from the '50s to the early '80s, hiding as a hermit in wood huts in the redwoods (Hendy Woods) up behind the tiny town of Philo.

We had heard about the hermit while hiking in Hendy (enough of the alliterations) from a retired schoolteacher from Sea Ranch, who said the hermit had fled from the KGB, although I'm not sure that's completely accurate.


In the 2nd hut of Petrov the Hendy Hermit.

The huts -- or maintained reproductions -- are a short hike from the road and have a small informative plaque nearby. The hermit was Petrov Zailenkov, born in about 1924 and died in August of 1981. He is believed to have jumped a Russian trawler in the 1950s, finally ending up in the redwoods for almost 2 decades in the isolated Anderson Valley, where he lived until he died of cancer (in a hospital in Ukiah).


Board about Petrov near his first hermit hut.

Petrov avoided people, always afraid of being sent back to Russia. He did befriend a few hikers and campers, and stories about him appeared in area and San Francisco papers when he died. What a beautiful place to have been a hermit.

No, I heard about the hermit from a newspaper article my parents saved for me after the guy died. What an interesting character he must have been...

Cloverdale when I grew up was less isolated - Highway 101 ran right up the main drag in town. Years after I left, they rerouted the freeway; better for travelers and quality of life, worse for the local businesses that thrived on the tourist traffic. I remember having a hard time getting uptown on holiday weekends, especially summertime, when there was a huge backup of cars in one direction or another (the one stoplight in town slowed them all down!).

Couple of new sightings:

Bearded rasta lion (with his dreadlocks in a cap, ala Peter Tosh ):


(Lost Creek Wilderness, Wigwam Trail, CO, 7/09)

A rising stallion (or that demonic horse sculpture as you approach the tent-terminal at Denver Int'l Airport -- without the glowing red eyes):


(Golden Gate Canyon SP, Mule Deer Trai, CO, 7/09)

Turtle!



(Limestone Lakes, Height of the Rockies Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada)