On the Road: Made in the shade

It was a little smoky at sunrise.

The sun was hanging like a pink ball above the fields and farms north of the city and bands of thin cloud made it look like those close-up pictures of Jupiter. The blue haze surrounding it added a touch of coolness to the scene even though it was pleasantly warm.

But it didn’t take long for it to rise above the smoke level and cast warm light on a moose snacking on canola not far from Madden. She took a minute to look over at me and then went back munching the still-green crop. A flock of tiny birds flew by, chirping, as she fed.

Yeah, it was shaping up to be a pretty glorious day.

I figured that with the summer rain and the recent heat, there might be a pretty good crop of mushrooms poking out of the forest floor so I was headed northwest into the foo