An October afternoon walk

With the days getting shorter it seems harder and harder to find the time to break away and get that daily walk in without having to do it either in the early morning dawn hours or hustle to get it in right after the supper hour.  Yesterday was a perfect day to get in a late afternoon walk and enjoy what the weather-folks have been saying will be the best day of the week weather-wise.  I was planning on just staying on the walking path near our house and walking around the park but there was a football game being played on the field at the park so lots of activity.  I decided that I will go the other way and walk along the river path and avoid the extra noise and car clutter, and I am glad that I did.  Once I got to the river I got out of the wind and the walk became much more enjoyable.  The walking path along the river was covered in leaves so the sound of crunching leaves under my feet was about the only sound that was being made as I wound my way along the river.  The fall colors seem to be running late this year, many trees have already dropped their leaves before they have changed colors.  I’m sure there is a reason for that but that answer will have to come from someone with a lot more knowledge on that subject than yours truly.  With the leaves gone there was some great views of the Red River as I strolled along the path.  I don’t think there was more than a two minute gap between the continuing thought of "why didn’t I bring my camera?"  I had my camera in my cell phone and did take a couple of shots with that but it is not the same as my digital camera.  As I continued my walk I noticed that someone had put out some food for the deer.  Not a lot, but it looked like they were inviting them to gather along the river bank for some late fall feasting.  I was about 30 minutes into my walk when I decided to just turn around and head back home, following my own footsteps through the fallen leaves.  Just a few minutes after I had made my u-turn, I made a sudden stop and looked ahead on the path, and that is when I spotted her.  It was hard to see her since she blended in with all of the fall colors in the background.  She was one of the biggest does I have seen in a long time.  In fact, she was so tall I thought at first that it had to be a buck, but there were no antlers, it was just a very large doe.  I stood still for the longest time, admiring the size and beauty of the doe.  She and I had made eye contact, her head was up and looking right at me, but her tail was still waving back and forth, not quite sure yet if she should take off running or just enjoy the late afternoon snack.  Now my thoughts changed to "you idiot! why didn’t you remember your camera?"  I slowly started to walk towards the deer, trying not make too much noise but with all of the leaves on the path it seemed almost impossible.  I got a few feet closer but that is when her white tail went straight up in the air and she took off running down the path and into the woods.  My eyes were able to follow her for a while as I could see that white tail bobbing and hopping along the trail.  As I continued on down the path I thought that she must have taken off and I would never see her again on this walk.  I was wrong.  I got about 30 yards ahead and there she was again, and once again the tail went up and she bounded further on down the path.  This continued for the rest of my walk.  She stayed just far enough ahead of me, kind of like baiting me to either catch up to her or try to keep up to her.  Neither one was going to happen, trust me.  I got to the end of the path and turned to go home and there was no sign of the deer.  There was a father and son fishing along the river and I stopped and asked them if they saw the large doe run by but they said they did not.  Probably too busy catching fish to worry about the deer that ran right behind them.  My afternoon walk turned into a very enjoyable one as I played hide and go seek with a deer.  Hopefully our weather will hold and I will be able to do that again, of course next time I will try to remember my camera.