life moves on: words can be telling so i am watching what i say.

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

Oh how I would like to tell you the full story, but feel I should wait till after the court date and then let you be my judge again, and then we can compare notes. Call it OCD, as I would after today, that is obsessive cannabis disappointment, but something in me wanted me to end the mystery of where Dundee Falls was and I found it, but should have left it alone. Not that it wasn’t anything and everything I had heard about, or the fact I had made several attempts to find it and was unsuccessful each time. Something in me needed to be sated as I slipped away in the afternoon and headed back to the Beach City Wilderness Center armed with more information about the topographical features in the area and where the falls might be, now that the terrain was fresh in my mind.

My first attempt to find Dundee Falls was limited to the lower sections of the preserve and I took a long hike and was nearly eaten alive with mosquitos buoyed on with ample rainfall and super moist conditions in the swamp. My arms were bleeding from bites as I returned to the car. This in itself was irritating as I have at least 30 cans of OFF with Deet at home I rarely use, as I don’t like to have that oily feeling on my skin. But I also don’t like looking like I have Ebola and I am hemorrhaging through my skin as I did on that short jaunt from the biting of the mosquitos. After surveying the terrain and realizing I would have to be at least a half, to a mile away from the waterfalls at least, I returned to the car.

On my way in I passed this hawk along the way, and I assumed it had an injured wing. It just sat there on the stump and didn’t move as I pulled the car alongside and talked to him. I wanted so bad to help him but realize it I against state wildlife laws to aid in the rescue of wild animals. I felt sorry for him as I know without his wing he may be forced to die a slow miserable death not being able to hunt any prey. Putting him in my car and taking him home surely was an option, I am glad in hindsight I didn’t undertake. Yet as he sat there I commiserated with him in ways and tried to soothe as if a human would have anything of comfort to say to an injured hawk. A car could have hit him or it may be just a natural accident he had, that affected his wing. I never got out of the car and checked. Some may feel this was wrong of me, but I still didn’t know what to do. Calling a wildlife officer was senseless as I was told when I found a baby doe trapped in a fence and freed it but it had lost its leg in the process, to return it to where I found it and its mother would take care of it. I was advised then it was against the law to harbor saved wild animals and since I had provided them with my name a report would be wrote advising me against keeping the doe in the event I was later found with that animal.

This is the policy of our state of Ohio, right or wrong I had no choice but to return the fawn to where I found it and released it to go hopping off to see wyle e coyote. I really didn’t see any use contacting them again about an old injured hawk. This all seemed so ironic as I had just posted a picture of a red shouldered hawk identical to this one on the roof of my truck just yesterday. I should have realized at this point that it was fruitless to carry on my search for the elusive Dundee Falls, but still my heavy heart carried on as the hawks memory faded in the dust I left behind as I had one more area I needed to check. Mom and I passed this area yesterday, and it came upon me so quick and for some reason didn’t look right.

There are no neon signs or in fact any signage at all that indicates where the falls is. Just a sign about the Beach City wildlife preserve. I pulled in and 2 guys were getting ready to enter the area and so I asked if I had the right place and they indicated to me that I had the right spot. I grabbed the essentials and was soon entering the forest area, eager to see what the falls was all about. The two guys I talked to were informative telling me about what to expect as I headed down into the falls area. From cornfields to tumbled rock landscapes and shaded vistas I was mesmerized by the raw beauty of what I observed as I took pictures feverishly. After a period of time I was finally able to put this one waterfalls area behind me on my list of things to do, or have I yet?

I enjoyed the solitude of being alone with waterfall sounds and trickling water all around me and just soaked it all in. It is at this point of the story I have to leave everything as it is and you must wait for the rest of the story after I go to court. Kind of like a Paul Harvey thing only without the rest of the story. Nothing serious but pending legal action against me prevents me from saying anything more. It is nothing serious and in my opinion will someday be legal even here in Ohio, but for now I must watch what I say, especially on here. Yet another ironic piece of information though and it is related to that same hawk I had seen before, and that is it had to do with the Division of Game and Wildlife. In fact I informed them of the previous hawk’s situation and that it may have a broken wing and since they were close, should check him out, but as I figured they had more important things to do than aid injured wildlife. Thankfully I didn’t have the hawk with me when I encountered the finest of Game and Wildlife. That would have been another fine.

Outside of being a fine trap, the area was beautiful or was at one time. Graffiti abounds in the area. I don’t understand the huge phalluses painted on trees as if the artist creating that masterpiece could ever measure up to the enormity of their creation, and if they did women would run from them screaming. Rare in nature do you find vaginas of gargantuan size to accommodate such huge members. I am sure this is a primal scream for something but what?

Nazi signs adorn the walls also in this area; maybe some time at Auschwitz might curb one of the needs to relive those old memories if they even had one. Again you really need to hand it to the numb chucks that leave their initials and a date on the walls of the valley as I viewed their scribbles, as I worked my way down the falls. Highlights of neon orange paint along with fluorescent green outlines of pot leaves shout out from the shadows of the rock overhangs. You would think that the Division of Wildlife would be interested in curbing these atrocities but instead they have bigger fish to fry. Art is about freedom of expression but when art trumps nature and nature is left in chaos from man’s hands, then we have lowered man to a new low. Kind of hard to jump out of the gutter and get over that bar.

I do believe this sand outcropping and cliffs was once a quarry site where large sandstone pieces were drilled and shot with dynamite and hauled off to form a façade on some bank building in Omaha. Evidence of hammer drills on the face of the falls itself lends itself to man’s hands of destruction. This was some time ago and nature does heal its wounds as it will in the graffiti way as time erodes all traces of memories, scratchings and etchings. We can only hope a younger generation will be more vigilant in learning to accept and relish in nature as it is, and enjoy what it has to offer. On the whole I would rate my experience today as a rewarding one, yet something it seems is still amiss. As if my destiny was planned today to take the turn it did. My eyes are open and yours should be also if you plan to visit Dundee Falls. You never know where those pesky Division of Wildlife guys will be hanging out next.

I also did manage to sand on the wings of the back of the eagle on my totem. I did this before taking off on my little adventure today. All in all I am glad to get that out of my system, as it will be awhile before I revisit this place. Add another hour to the total.