Tag: nature

Taking back the red hat

On By aftheadIn politics3 Comments

This is my favorite workout hat. It’s a great sweat wicking material and it reminds me of my family’s trip to see the World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton in 2022. When we were vacationing in Canada it was a lovely hat. When I got home to the United States I remembered that red hats had been claimed by a demographic I don’t support.

In this latest election cycle, Democrats are reclaiming patriotism. They are claimed the flag at the national convention. I’m jumping on this wave of progressivism and taking back my red hat.

Let me be clear, my anti-red hat stance goes both ways. One, I don’t agree with the red hat folks on values or presidential candidates. I think that January 6th 2021 was an abomination: antithetical to one of the basic tenets of the United States of America — the peaceful transfer of power. Second, I am a middle aged white woman, and people who look like me are often right-wing Christian, forced birther, pro-authoritarian-white guy supporters. I don’t want my red hat to make me or other hikers uncomfortable – even as it’s wicking properties make my head super comfortable.

My first brave hike was with women, all in their 30s to 60s. We were in an area of Colorado where Trump won in 2020 by 7.1 percent. We saw a few folks in trucks and four-wheelers, but the only people we interacted with were two men taking down trees with chainsaws. They were friendly and joked with us. I don’t know if they felt camaraderie because of my red had, but I know it didn’t make them aggressive or violent, which is ideal when when dealing with chainsaw wielders, so this was a win for the hat.

Second hike was nondescript on the human front. I was solo and saw three sets of women – two with dogs and one with kids — no one commented on my hat. I also saw 14 amazing fuzzy caterpillars who had no hat opinions and was divebombed by one hummingbird, who though my hat was a giant flower. Total hat win. I like being mistaken for a flower. After the hike, I went by the grocery store and the clerk checking me out pointed to my hat and asked if I’d ever been to Canada. When I said I had, he started a litany of all his relatives who live in Toronto and asking if I knew them. Several minutes passed with me saying “no” to all the names he could remember, but the conversation was amiable, so a hat-neutral encounter.

The final hike was lovely. I was with my husband who wore his Colorado hat and Fleet Farm t-shirt. (Fleet Farm is another thing I would like to take back, if it’s been claimed by the right. Alas, the one we visit is in an area that Trump carried in 2020 by 19 points, but we still love it.) The trail was busy, but everyone was friendly. Some ladies horseback riding warned us of trail runners ahead who weren’t sharing the trail. By the time we got to the trail runners, they were sweaty shirtless walkers, and stepped out of our way. It would have been a completely neutral hat encounter, except I got to take this cute picture on a bridge of me with my controversial hat, my patriotic sunglasses, and tiny “Vote” earrings. (You can’t really see them in the picture, and they are upside-down anyway.)

There’s a chance that I blew this whole red-hat thing out of proportion. When I see the other red hat I get an instant rush of fight or flight, but that doesn’t mean those red hatted people are going to confront me. Or it doesn’t mean they are more likely to confront me than any other hat wearing person. I don’t go around espousing the advantages of Canadian Hockey when I wear my red hat, but I would recognize another Canada hat wearer. That’s my final concern. I’ve yet to see the other red hat in the wild while I’m wearing my red hat. I don’t want some Vance wanna-be to chase me down on the trails, thinking I’m a kindred spirit and then try to convince me to join his red hat clan. If I got trapped in a conversation around a women’s rights to bodily autonomy, or the guns used to kill children in schools, or the legitimacy of the 2020 election, or even school vouchers I would feel unsafe. Again, probably won’t happen, but there’s a reason the man versus bear meme exists. Anywhoo, tomorrow me and the red hat are going leaf-peeping, just the two of us. I’m cautiously hopeful that me and my head will be safe in the Colorado woods.

Banana Slug Factoids

On By aftheadIn travel2 Comments

The banana slug is an amazing creature found in northern California.

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Preferring damp areas with heavy vegetation, the banana slug can be found snacking on ferns, vines and other plants along the coast.

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The juvenile banana slug is a light greenish yellow, the adult a yellow with brown spots, and the elderly a hard to find dark brown.

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The slug does not just resemble it’s namesake fruit visually, but also has a pleasing fruity taste when licked, and a sweet odor. Historically, the slime was used by natives of this area as a topical analgesic due to it’s numbing qualities.   It is cool, damp, and slimy to the touch.

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Growing to over ten inches, the huge slugs are easy to spot once you identify their habitat and coloring.

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Using their gelatinous muscled bodies, banana slugs can almost defy gravity as they move from leaf to leaf.  Occasionally the laws of physics get the better of  them, and a distinctive plop and shriek can be heard when they fall off leaves onto a human head.

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Ah nature.  Glorious.  Unusual.  Slimy.  Thankfully travel allows me to experience such wonders, so different than the common brown slugs found in my garden at home.

Note:  no sources are provided for this article, because everything above is either hearsay or made up.   All picture credits my own and were taken at Patrick’s Point California State Park, just North of Eureka.    

Nature Wonders

On By aftheadIn Uncategorized6 Comments

Yesterday was a heavy blog, so let’s have a little simple wonder today.  I have lived around cottonwood trees my whole life.  We have lived in our house, that has a hundred year old cottonwood tree in the backyard, for 15 years.  I have probably picked up thousands of fallen twigs before my dad, my husband, my brother, or I mowed the lawn, because cottonwoods drop sticks constantly.  It wasn’t until last year when I learned there are magic in those sticks.

A friend of ours showed up to pick up his daughter and we were playing in the backyard.  He looked at our tree and asked, “Is that a cottonwood tree?” Before we could answer he picked up a stick broke it in half and said, “Oh, it is.  Look at the star.”


Folks, there is magic in cottonwood sticks.  Look for the ridges on the surface and break the stick between them.  If it breaks cleanly you will always find a tiny perfect star.

Isn’t nature awesome?