Camp Salmen Nature Park

Every evening I have to check the trashcans in the pavilion to make sure there is no food left in them for the raccoons to have a nighttime frolic. They are not very tidy when they do. For some unknown reason I’ve been finding three or four tree frogs hiding in and around these cans. I’ve admonished them, “This is not an honorable thing for a frog to do, hang around trashcans. Plus its dangerous, you can get accidentally squished. A nice lily pond would be a better place for you.” One evening one of the frogs took a ride with me on my buggy. I was loading up garbage bags to take to the dumpster and a frog hung on the bag. He moved over to the big blue barrel I carry for watering plants. Its nice and smooth like he is and he wasn’t inclined to get off. So we went for a ride. We went to the dumpster first and got rid of the bag then went around the corner to Mary's Grotto. We saw Mary, stopped to pick up a piece of litter on the ground, got on to the bike trail, stopped to remove a stick that had fallen on the trail then headed down the hill for the bridge over pretty Goldfish Bayou. As we approached the bridge I hollered over my shoulder, “This is a good spot, you ought to consider it.” I’ll be golly-darned if I didn’t catch him out of the corner of my eye taking a well-timed leap from the moving buggy, through the bridge railing into the creek bottom. He made a perfect landing in a beautiful setting. I thanked him for taking up my suggestion, for his initiatives and for his bravery.