Long and winding road

Last evening dark clouds loomed behind rock peaks although our meadow exuded a calm peace.
This morning, the stormy aura remained. The vibrant energy of strong storms is both scary and beautiful.
As I rode my bike with K by my side, the Beatles song "Long and winding road" kept looping through my mind. It seemed to encapsulate life and the aspen-lined trails that I was swooshing along. It reminded me to be patient, even though the first attempt to extinguish my muscle spasms didn't work, hope remains.
I woke up feeling lousy - so lousy that I considered giving up on the day. Then, I started to rejuvenate and saw my chocolate best friend watching and waiting. OK, I thought, for K's sake, I'll head out onto the trails. K seemed as consumed by the dark energy of the gathering storm clouds as I was.
As we both stared into the abyss, both literally and figuratively, I glanced to the south. The light green leaves of awakening aspen trees decorated the hillside and reminded me to live my life with panache.
As I stared in wonder at the transformed landscape, I glanced at K. Her focus was the same as mine.
When we dropped down into an aspen grove, the aspens' green leaves, a symbol of life and vitality to me, blazed brightly with the storms behind them.
In a sunny spot, I noticed my favorite delicate flower just started blooming - a pin cherry. These blossoms will become a berry that bears devour in late summer.
At the end of my ride, I visited two different wildlife cameras to pick up their memory cards. First, I visited the popular bobcat scentpost at bobcat rock. Oddly, about a month ago, I noticed that all of the bobcat scat had vanished from the site which used to harbor numerous old bobcat scats. However, my camera showed no visitors aside from pine squirrels, golden mantled ground squirrels, and rabbits. My best guess was that the rodents had eaten the scat. I wondered if the bobcat would keep returning without the scat marking the spot. Indeed, he or she returned early in the morning of 5/27, looking lean and perhaps hungry.

Then, I checked my camera that has picked up lots of bear activity on a wildlife thruway in the past couple of weeks. I'd captured a bear barreling toward the camera, moving fast enough that the camera captured only a bear hind leg and rump before s/he passed the camera. Enjoy the short video.