Sunday April 2nd 2023

There wasn’t as much wind today as yesterday and it was a little less humidity. Those changes offset each other resulting in about the same feel for the day. The temperature peaked in the upper part of the mid eighties. (That’s a convoluted way to say about 87 degrees.)

As planned, my primary hike of the day was to the southern part of the park. I was in search of two things; deer and the colt creek. As I walked along the main park road heading south from the campground, I watched the perimeter of each field for deer. The tall grass had been cleared from one of the fields since I walked through the area last week. Even so, none of the fields contained any deer as far as I could tell.

The parking area for the south day use area was empty. I stopped to checkout the little pond for the alligator I saw last week. Today it was in the water watching the bank closely in the area I approached the pond. While I was busy taking a picture of the gator, I heard a noise close by on my right. I swung around with my camera still raised to see a deer about twenty feet away. I guess the deer found me.

There were two deer in the tall grass that boarders the pond. They watched me closely, but didn’t seem to be overly concerned with my presence. I was able to take a few pictures before I withdrew from the side of the pond. They were still there when I returned about twenty minutes later. They watched me closely as I approached, but didn’t leave their tall grass “hide out”. One deer tried to stare me down while I took its picture.

Between visits to the deer I walked another half a mile down the main park road. Just after the road turned to the right and became a gravel road, it crossed a very slow moving body of water. It is the most water that I’ve seen in the park that isn’t in the ponds. I going to guess that I’ve found Colt Creek. The maps don’t say and I haven’t found anyone to ask, so for now, I’m going to check the box on my search for the creek.

I returned to my RV home the long way. I followed a part of the main park trail that goes back north on the back side of the fields I walked by on the park road. Once again I was watching for deer, but didn’t see anymore.