Beautiful view, and then the wrong lens

©2012 Lydia Hinshaw

 

Early morning light on Lake Como and the mountains beyond

                 
  DARBY, MT --  Thursday night we camped in a Forest Service campground near Lake Como, named after the more famous one in Italy.
 I set out early with a camera and walked across the dam, because I knew the rising sun would be behind me and with luck, the light on the mountains would be excellent.
 That was a good move, but I brought only a wide angle lens.  Trying to extricate the longer lens from our avalanche of a home would have awakened Prince Charming, who was still sleeping peacefully.
 And so, halfway across the dam I heard a ruckus overhead, a bald eagle being harassed by a smaller bird I couldn't identify, though I suspect it was some sort of hawk.  The bald eagle, though revered as our national symbol, is a bird of low character, more than willing to steal breakfast that another bird has already caught, which may have been what was going on here.
 I got some distant shots with my short lens, but they aren't good enough to post here.  As I continued my walk, off the dam and onto a Forest Service Road, a fox ran across in front of me.  The long lens wouldn't have helped, as there wasn't enough light to capture his image.
 Still later, three deer crossed the road in front of me.  All this before breakfast.  I had to get my shoes muddy on a logging trail to get back to our campsite, where the Prince still dozed, not knowing what he'd missed.
 Halfway through our breakfast, black clouds rolled in and it started to rain. The beautiful morning was turned into a panicked attempt to keep ourselves and our possessions dry.