Dusk On Sugarloaf

I was off work and my wife was working late because she runs the adult education class in Marathon and a few nights a week stays late to benefit  people who work. Consequently there was no pressure on me to get home so Rusty's walk stretched out into a two-and-a-half hour meander. 

 It's how I relax, with dog and camera as I mentioned yesterday and I like a mix of back country and city walks and my dogs likes the same. There is part of Rusty that likes predictability but variety keeps him alert. Lately he has preferred running up our trash filled subdivision to getting in the car and seeking out his favorite trails. So I concur, it is after all his time and if he wants to walk the trash who am I to argue?

Then I wanted to check out the farthest reaches of Sugarloaf Key because it was a lovely afternoon and I knew Boca Chica beach would not be empty of people. The Sugarloaf Loop  was  busy when I drove past it. I saw half a dozen cars parked near the entrance so we motored on by. 

Of course when we finished the wooded part of the walk, completely alone on the walking trail, except for the wildlife...

...Rusty wanted to keep walking so we left the car behind and strolled off up the empty road.

How far? I asked myself as I dawdled and played with the camera waiting for my dog to come back, tired surely after an hour running in the bushes?

Nope, we left the car far behind and eventually found ourselves at Sammy Creek which pictures I published here earlier this week. We were no longer alone on the road either:

The dude on the bicycle went back and forth a few times getting his exercise and waving cheerfully as he went listening to a radio on his handlebars. I was never ready for him face  on and only caught his  compact form gliding apparently effortlessly away. I think he was older than me and dare I say  fitter too, by far.

On the road we had wreckage dumped not by a  hurricane I doubt, while on the waterfront amid all the natural beauty beyond the rocks recently battered by Irma, I had a manic tireless dog running up and down leaping among the rocks fearlessly and without injury.

 The light was fading so I took a flat rock to sit on and watched Rusty playing happily by himself.

I'd take him to dog parks and stuff but he hates them even when they are empty. He seems to find the smells of so many dogs in one place completely overwhelming. 

 So we play alone together and that seems to suit us.

I thought this was a channel marker with my naked eye. The power of my modest bridge camera, an FZ300 by Panasonic, is astonishing.

 Pelican heading for the palms.

It was dark pretty much by the time we got back to the car and drove back to Sammy Creek where I stopped again and took this picture:.

We still got home before my wife. Result!

Walking With A Camera

My life is  back in my hands at least a little bit  now that Fantasy Fest is over and after nearly two weeks of working and sleeping I got to go for a wander for the sheer pleasure of making my acquaintance once again with the quiet streets of Key West.

 This is the last week of daylight savings time in the United States. There are a handful of locations that don't do the time switch but for the rest of us Sunday the clocks fall back, a few days after the rest of the world that observes daylight savings and standard time changes. 

 I like the dark mornings which are unsuitable we are told for children going to school though I dare say many young students wouldn't mind a later start, as discussed by sleep scientists but not by parents who have to go to work.

So even though these pictures were taken by me after six in the morning and before 6:30  it might as well have been midnight as far as ambient light goes. Consequently there weren't many people about which suited me also.

The thing about walking Rusty and taking pictures is that I don't have time to do much in the way of composition, and I certainly can't haul around a tripod and a remote shutter release and spend time fiddling with manual shutter speed and f stop settings. It's mostly all automatic and thank heavens for low light enhancements and a decent telephoto lense built into my Lumix camera. 

 In these marginal conditions I fond black and white works better and the sepia setting best of all. Then I come up against a colorful gallery window. Color? At the risk of being banal:

 Or sepia at the risk of flattening the picture too much? I prefer sepia.

Rusty is actually quite patient even though he too was keen for his own reasons to be walking the streets of the big city.  And then he sits and waits a moment while I compose a shot, giving it the extra thirty seconds it deserves...

Still I have to remind myself if it weren't for Rusty I doubt I'd be out on the streets at this awful hour anyway. Good dog.

Sammy Creek

A walk on Sugarloaf Key to take advantage of the end of summer sunlight, darkness falls around 7:30 these days, brought us eventually to Sammy Creek. Above as it is today and below as it was before Hurricane Irma swept the place with 140 mile per hour winds.

The structures survived remarkably well:

What seems to have happened is the gravel and dirt got washed away leaving the pathways as mere suggestions:

The  kayak ramp is still there.

I took this picture a few years ago walking Cheyenne in the same place:

Rusty liked the exploration:

Even the signboards miraculously survived the storm. They tell the story of the old house that used to be here and the family gave the land to the state to make a park. I remember the building sitting on the creek and the no trespassing signs. I like it better like this... 

So does he:

These days, looking at the ruined landscaping I like to say to myself that you can't keep anything nice in the Florida Keys, but it will come back no doubt.

And a reminder of the storm that struck home was this empty box of reduced salt meals-ready-to-eat. The self heating packets were a lifesaver after Irma.

Glad that's over. More or less. For now.

Old Bahia Honda

They call West Summerland Key "Scout Key" these days though I'm sure the Scouts must be wondering what to do with their camp blown out and all vegetation burned away by 140 mph winds. When I have a hankering to take pictures and a dog to walk this always was the place to come and so it is now, looking different but the hill, the approach road to the old bridge, is still here. And so are the views and the perspective on the ocean waters below.

 Pelicans alongside the old bridge, crumbling away:

 The view toward Big Pine, now largely vegetation-free:

 Himself always on the look out for iguana:

 He looks around but iguana have taken a hit from loss of habitat.

 Barricades to stop people turning off the highway onto an access road...

 ...that is no longer there:

 Torn away by the waves:

 The mangrove tree, subject of many attempts by me to photograph it:

 But life is re-generating.

 There was an iguana in the tree, he was sure of it:

 He doesn't kill them anymore. He catches them, they play dead and he loses interest.