He landed on my arm, and I smiled when he eyed me with his bright, raptor eyes.
“You want to go on an adventure?”
“Be careful,” Dad ordered for a second time.
I gave him a thumbs-up, got Possum’s curtain rod set up in my cargo area, and headed to the trailhead I would be taking for the day.
After sending several messages on where I’d started to my parents, I set Possum free and started my hike, breathing easy for the first time in a couple of hours.
There was nothing better than spending time in nature.
Alabama was nice and all, but we didn’t have views.
There were a bunch of trees, some hills, and that was about it.
Here there were mountains, and hills, rocks and…snow.
Dammit.
I forgot about the snow.
I turned around to see how far I was away from the trailhead entrance and grimaced.
I was a good half a mile…
I turned around and went for my jacket.
Possum gave a mournful cry that he had to turn around, and I just smiled.
When I got back to the car, I grabbed my jacket and threw it on.
Possum landed on a nearby tree, and I resituated my camera and headed back out to the trailhead.
Possum took off with a flap of wings and wind, giving a shrill cry before disappearing above me.
I walked with my eyes peeled, my bear spray in easy reach thanks to a couple of hikers I’d met early on in my move here. They’d told me all about the rabid bear attack that a woman had been through, and it’d worried me enough that I kept the spray in easy reach now.
Not that it hadn’t been within easy reach before, but now it was right by my hand just in case.
I saw Possum quite a bit over the next half hour of my hike. He’d appear above me, between clouds and tree branches, coming in tight to make sure I was still close.
I’d just topped a massive rock when I spotted the river down below.
My smile went wide when I spotted a mother bear and her cubs.
There were four of them in total, playing in the river while their mother hunted behind them.
I took a seat on the rock and got my camera out, along with my tripod.
Keeping an ear out in my immediate surroundings, I started snapping away at the bear cubs having the time of their life.
The snow got heavier about ten minutes into the photoshoot, and the pictures started getting tricky.
They’d probably be pretty darn cool, though.
Ears and hands freezing and satisfied that I’d gotten a good couple of photos, I started back up the trail, smiling when I spotted Possum on the tree branch right above my head.
“Are you getting hungry?” I asked him.
