Acrobatic Shyla plus Photo of a Mountain Lion Kitten

We had a quiet start to the day, heading out onto peaceful trails. No wind, pretty warm - we were both happy.

Shyla was in a zooming and acrobatic mood, almost scaring me with the way she was sprinting around on boulders.

That boulder is almost vertical but she came down it without hesitation.

Landing in a handstand!

She's at that age where I cannot imagine what she'll be like when she's older. She seems indestructible, performing leaps that seem impossible to me.

After I rode with Shyla, I headed to a faraway trail camera. I went to it yesterday to put new batteries in it. While I was there, a migraine started to come on. In my rush to get home before the symptoms got terrible, I left my keys next to the camera. So, today, I had to ride there again, to fetch my keys. In the process, I discovered that the new batteries must have been bad because the camera was already saying it had low batteries (after I replaced them yesterday). That means yet another trip to that spot...

As you can see, my wildlife photography ends up taking a lot of time and energy! But, it's worth it to me, when I peeks into the secret lives of mountain lions, like this one. This photo was at the end of a long play bout with Mom. She'd just walked off and the kitten lay there by himself.

I plan to make a video from all the footage, as soon as I have time. I think that glimpses of big fierce animals being playful are amazing!