Critter Interference: X2

On my way back through Caprock State Park after surviving my ride on the Caprocks Trailway I had a hankerin’ to stop by the interpretive center there not too far from the Honey Flats campground.

The goal was to revisit the interpretive plaques, just visible there on the left wall, that talk about the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway in order to refresh my memory. (Should have done it on my way to riding the trailway but it was still dark then.)

For a moment the neat, parallel berms of dried mud on the floor of the center confused me. What was this? Some kind of miniature dirt-bike track?

but the racket over my head soon cleared up any confusion.

I have been here before, but it was November and the Cliff Swallows weren’t nesting at the time.

This being early May, and the rafters overhead providing just the perfect spot, nesting was in full force and suddenly the air was full of a whole bunch of flitting and zipping and squawking  birds!

Rather than agitate the birds any more than I already had, I skipped the interpretive plaques.

Shortly after being run out of the interpretive center by a hoard of tiny little Cliff Swallows I noticed this mini-parade of two bison cows and two calves casually meandering up the road as it climbed out of the Lake Theo spillway.

I was on foot and the safe steel cocoon of The Van was a good 50 yards away, but the bison moms were more interested in getting where they were going than in me and the calves – well calves that age just go along with mom.

Eventually they turned off the road and wandered through this gate.

Wheew!

Oh wait! That gate is the upper end of the Eagle Point Trail which I’m planning on hiking in the morning!

Crap!