Silver Creek Preserve

AAA's magazine had a piece about Nature Conservancy's Silver Creek Preserve near Sun Valley and it sounded so attractive in wildlife that my wife wanted to go.  Wildlife (except for fish) seemed to have gone on vacation, perhaps to New York City, but it was very pretty.  We wandered down the nature trail, me clumsily tripping on my cold weather boots.  It wasn't really cold, but I thought it might be.  My feet have shrunk enough that where my walking shoes now require two layers of socks, these boots I bought last winter, which were perfectly sized, now require three layers of socks.  Not surprisingly, walking in them is a little clumsy.  At one point I tried to step up onto an observation deck, and fell, getting what I though was a cut, but was actually a sliver, which my body finally ejected this morning.  The board walks across the bogs were a bit uneven in width and slope, causing a bit of nervousness.

The creek (or, in Los Angeles, river*) was very clear, and somewhat reminiscent of the awful swamp in Lord of the Rings (without the corpses):

And yes, those are the Sawtooths in the background:

*You've seen the Los Angeles River in chase sequences in movies.  Concrete channel with either no water or a few puddles.  In 1920s L.A. high school yearbooks, "Yours until the Los Angeles River wets its bed."

Not much elevation difference, but enough to remind you what the differential does to a weak water bottle.

Hint: exhale when hiking down or driving down a mountain.