Cooley Lake

Yesterdays exciting storms have left us cold and wet. About 3pm it stopped drizzling and at 4 I decided to use the break in the weather.

I immediately noticed that our local gas station has increased it's price by .11/gal since this morning. The price is rediculous and I reconsider the drive Im prepared to take.

The Clouds begin to scatter- Sunlight spots the landscape with heavenly beams and the bluesky becomes more common with time. The Big Muddy is up and is, well, Muddy. The water threatens to overtake the soggy parkinglot-it hasnt got a lot further to go. I walked the shore for an hour. It seemed to become cloudy again, but the chilled wind was settling. I can only find a single gravl bar- They seem to be the highlight of my trips here. Its sits a good 3ft higher than what Ive ever bothered to explore before- Maybe its so tempting because its the only thing that resembles a sandbar. I kneel and shift through the stones, shotshells, brass and broken glass. There are many bones, but they are all newer and are of no value to me. A glossy blue stone catches my eye in the water. As I went to retreive the tiny gem, I was surprised to find that the water is so warm.
DONT get me wrong-its still very cold, but feels good compared to the air. The small stone is flat- one side is blk; the other is blue and cracked- it looks like an antique ceramic something. The rim is green and is fairly translucent. It is a chip of the tooth of an ancient bison. I say bison because its too square for anything else that lived here before People, and is definitaly fossilized. The back, dark part would be softer if it were new, and the top is like glass.

I spent some time pacing the river and visited the marsh-side before leaving. The marsh is also flooded, and is smothered in coots. There are thousands of them and they fill the reeded water and shore. THere are several species of duck, too. I see mallards, pintails, and I think a pair of woodducks. The coots are loud and make create a variety of noises and sounds that would provoke a chuckle in the most serious of people. One is crying and another is screaming- the two closest to me have a shy conversation of song, but it is all lost in the vocals of each individual in the busy mob.