Mike Humfreville - 11-9-2005 at 01:06 PM
Cattle Tracks
Beyond Gecko?s there exists a road that leads south to San Raphael, as Zac would know, and then San Francisquito. But we were headed for the south
end of Bahia de Los Angeles to visit new friends staying and looking there for a place to lease. We took a fork in the road heading east.
As the narrow path to Rincon and La Mona is influenced by tides and rainstorms there are many roads leading there. As the tides rise you can take the
high road, as someone has named it. During lower tides you can choose between perhaps a dozen different routes. Unless you live there it can be
confusing and lead to deep sand or a dead end where it?s difficult to turn around. Sometimes the tidal water seeps across a small berm of the beach
and dampens the muddy sand or a rain at the south end produces enough water, needed by the surrounding dusty desert, that you can become stuck in the
muck. Not a happy moment as there is no one to help for miles.
I have traveled these paths for many years and I am still a relative novice and constantly wonder which route is the best. Yesterday we were coming
home from the south end after visiting our friends there. Several days before I had made a bad decision and ended up having to turn around. On the
present trip I was being more careful and trying to learn the most direct route.
As I stared at the various choices I noticed cattle tracks in a heavily used narrow pathway heading in an east-west direction. It took me only a
moment to realize that on almost a daily basis the cattle headed out in the morning from the old Diaz cattle ranch to forage for the day?s comestibles
only to return nightly to the ranch. They are creatures of habit for sure. Aren?t we all?
While the cattle?s route was most likely the safest and most direct, there was no road leading in that direction. All the roads wound off into the
desert in other directions. I knew the cattle were programmed and knew the best way. I was not, nor were the other humans whose routes I was
following.
Evolution had programmed the cattle, or Intelligent Design if you prefer. It gave me cause to wonder if humans, with so much brain power, have to
work harder to understand some fundamental truths then what we think of as animals less than human. These animals accomplish many basic tasks without
any conscious thought because of evolution. I was obliged to look at the various routes home and wonder.
Maybe I?m not so smart after all.
i hear ya!
eetdrt88 - 11-9-2005 at 03:08 PM
Mike,i feel the same way about animals...theyre supposedly not as smart as humans but in some ways i think they may be much more advanced and
definitely more adept at leading a hassle free life
neilm - 11-9-2005 at 04:06 PM
Yeah; that old saying -
Humans think they are superior to dolphins because of cities, automoblies an nuclear power... Dolphins think they are superior to humans for the same
reasons....
Neil
thebajarunner - 11-9-2005 at 10:17 PM
Mike, having raised cattle (very small scale) for 24 years my best guess is that they return at night for water. Bet it is hard to find out there in
the hard scrabble.
I am always amazed to see cattle browzing in the cactus, both in terms of the incredibly inedible stuff they have to devour, and also because there
surely is not much water to be found,
and they will not last very long without regular intake of great quantities of agua.