Red Sumac and Highway Turtle Rescue

Here's something new. Now I have something to put on my list of things that I would sorely miss if I ever left Minnesota! The changing colors from Summer to Fall! You guys are gypped big time (on my beloved West coast)! Even the weeds on the side of the roads I ride everyday, have changed from green, to gold and RED! Not sorta red, or what I imagined a fall red would look. Bright Red. Unreal looking red. Like a crayon.

At first I was just seeing small bits and pieces of color in Camden....but now? It's looking more and more like someone who paints has been busy with a brush and has been changing the colors of the leaves at random! Not only red either. There is one tree around here who's leaves turn white! I thought it was a flower...but it's a leaf.

They're doing some roadwork on my normal-daily-ride-route, so now I ride on highway 23 for longer than I used to. Yesterday when I was heading home from West of Russell, and just as I was across from Brawner Lake (near Camden), I saw a big rock with two little rocks walking towards me. I didn't feel too much wind (the wind has been known to blow hard enough around here to move rocks...but it was not blowing hard at all at the time) , and thought maybe I needed to clean my glasses.

The closer I got to the walking rocks though, explained things. They were turtles. A BIG one and two small little baby turtles! They were I'm sure heading over to Brawner, as when Mike and I have gone canoeing there, I've seen these shelled creatures working on their suntans on the rocks and downed trees around the lake. Perhaps the storms from earlier in the day had misplaced these guys? I dunno. But they were sure to be turtle road kill if they were gonna try and cross the highway at this time of day!

So I hopped off my bike and wondered, "Do turtles bite?" I picked up the big one first and she hid inside her shell...then ran her across the highway and dropped her off. Then I ran back and got the two little guys (who also hid from me), and dropped them off with their Mom (Dad? I didn't get that close to check)...and they scurried (crawled faster than I thought they could, but they didn't go fast) into the weeds and towards the lake!

How about that?