A few years ago there was a huge debate over whether or not there were mountain lions in this area. I will have to say that I am convinced there are. Although I have not seen a big cat myself, I know a few people who have. I know others who have seen tracks. Last fall Jon Wisthoff and I were looking for a place to camp. We found a good spot straight across the coulee from our house near this tree. The one side is all clawed up. I do not know what else could have made these claw marks but a mountain lion. A few days later Ruth and I walked across the coulee and I took this picture. I know that mountain lions are more afraid of me than I should be of them. However, I notice that I tend to look over my shoulder more these days when I am hiking in the coulee.
I find it interesting to come across a highway number down here that is the same as a highway number up in our neck of the woods. Yesterday, we spent some time on Highway 281, which is the same U.S. highway that goes through Jamestown and crosses Highway 2 at Churches Ferry. I-35 splits into I-35 W and I-35 E as it passes through Ft. Worth and Dallas, just as it does in the Twin Cities. Many years ago in North Carolina, I was on U. S. 52, which runs from Portal SE across America, sometimes disappearing for hundreds of miles, swallowed up by highways that get more respect. On the way down here we crossed U. S. 30, which is known as the Lincoln Highway out east because it passes through Gettysburg and Northern Illinois. I don’t know who devised the U.S. highway system, but they made it interesting.

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