Today was a fine day to visit Deep Creek. While traveling up the Bowen Ranch road I came across Mohave Green, Paul, and Tim putting up signs to warn hunters about staying off of private property. Some folks feel compelled to kill little birds, Quail, etc, for fun and sport. I wonder if these same people ever think about what they would feel like, being the hunted, instead of the hunter? No way, there havin to much of a good time for that! I guess that also explains the long table of guns ( maybe a dozen ) I saw just a couple of weeks ago just off the Bowen Ranch road, a ways south of the cattle guard, on a small piece of private property. Some " Great White Hunters " were obviously preparing with thier practice to kill something, or start a wildland fire's with thier errant bullets, or worse. So on I went, and along the way, there is a spot, where up a head, there is a rock formation that looks " exactly like " a hand with the " thumbs up " sign! Of course I always give my own thumbs up back to Mother Nature's cool creation in granite, how can any adventure go bad after that :-) When I reached the creek I found that I was not alone. There were two others that had arrived just before me, at one of the unique spots in the Deep Creek canyon that I enjoy visiting. Anka, who I had the pleasure of meeting a number of times, years before, and her husband Mark. I really enjoyed thier company for the afternoon, they are fine people, who have a genuine appreciation of nature, and how to treat thier surroundings with care. It was a wonderful day, with crystal clear air, blue sky's, with occasional Fall Cirrus clouds floating by. I also found that the creek is very dry, more so than I have ever seen it before. I saw a long section of Deep Creek where there is no water at all running, its completely dry, even the pools are gone in that area. It is surely a sign of the prolonged drought that has affected the Western States. Finally it was time to go, Anka, Mark and I hiked out in the late day's Golden Light of the setting sun, which is so fine this time of year. The sun glistened upon the summer grasses, that swayed in the breezes, and I said to myself " Life Is Good! ". As I hiked I like to ponder about things, a relaxing way to pass the time. Today I thought of free will, what is it, how do you " prove " it exist. Is free will a figment of the imagination that exist within the grey matter of Homo Sapiens? Does a mouse have free will? A dog? A Chimp? If our will is free, why then does it show itself to be " always " tied intrinsically to our individual bodies? Basically the human conception of itself depends on the idea, that the concept of free will is a pervasive " truth ", without question. Perhaps after all, the biggest " faith based " belief system on this planet, is the notion that our " aware selves " operates independently of the " material world ". Well in the past our orb in space was considered the " center " of the universe, by the reckoning of the masses. Then our home in the Great Beyond was flat, with edges that were at the least, very dangerous for lost sailors. Who of us believe, have faith, in these ideas now? The passage of time, the patterns of history, have shown, that the infinite layers of the " Onion of Knowledge " will continue to unfold, and transform, what we think of our lives, and what we " believe " in.
