RIP Nook

From the FCF list, I've heard that Nook, the liger at Valley of the Kings and the biggest cat I've ever known personally at all, has died.

I could speak at length about Nook, VOTK, or the article, but I have a lake to circumambulate.

Kennekuk, with cannon

I didn't end up taking the trail around Lake Mingo today.  It seems that there's some outdoor festival called Civil War Days, and I couldn't drive to the lake without paying admission.  Kennekuk is a huge park, so I walked around Lookout Point and in the marshes.  It was somewhat surreal to hear the rifles and cannon from over the hills -- it put me in mind of how non-combatants in the real Civil War might have felt in the woods when a battle was nearby.

The water is shockingly low in the marshes.  The pond closest to the parking area is dry; there are dry-land plants on some of what should be pond, and dry, cracked mud over most of it.

I had in mind walking up from the marshes to the dam and possibly along a bit of the trail, but I was feeling hot, tired, and thirsty, so I turned back without doing that and headed home 3 hours after I got there.  It's a bit hard to tell, but I probably walked about 5 miles.  I feel as tired as I did last week when I walked about 9 miles.  I blame the fact that it was fairly hot today.