Nothing like early season snow to arouse thoughts of skiing up crusty slick hills or stumbling on showshoes through delightfully cumbersome drifts, an unanticipated notion while poking around the Whitewater River valley last week. Came across some interesting new territory while fruitlessly hunting a cave I've heard is in one of the limestone abutments over the South Fork, and parked alongside the gravel road to climb a stony perch, from whose vantage the photo was made. I've been seeking the cave a couple years, and thought perhaps I'd spy it from the blufftop, but a couple more may be required for results! There are small caverns below the crag (all too constricted to be the sought-after one) and they appear to be an active den. Wet animal smell emanates from the openings and piles of largish dung attest to what must be a bobcat. Near the caves, at the rocky tip of the cliff base is a sheltered alcove where one such pile collects aside a dizzy ledge. Hard to imagine a finer scene than a bobcat on lookout at sunrise, adroitly perched with eyes toward the valley, searching for breakfast.
