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Hal, for once, found himself shoreside, without a boat. And he wasn't
even scouting a put-in. Instead, he was armed with a daypack full of
gear and food, and he aimed to skip merrily along the exposed shoreline of the
Quabbin Reservoir. As he went, he mused about the advice of the Wall
street gang, "don't bring your work home with you" and all that. Well,
patrolling the shoreline was part of Hal's day job. "I don't see
nawthin' wrong with a little extracurricular fieldwork!" And so off he
set into the waning sunset, rock-hopping along the water's edge.
The furnace-heat of the day finally began to subside as Hal sat,
trancelike, unconsciously popping baby carrots into his mouth. The
breeze was hypnotic, as were the waves. Hal stared out across a thousand
acres of water and land, and saw nary a sign of human intervention. He
planted one elbow in the cool sugary sand and looked around him. There were
no human footprints on the beach. "Hmm...., shoulda brought my field
guide to animal tracks..." he thought, sandwich in hand. "Well, there's
no denying that those are coyote tracks, ain't no stray dogs around
here!" he could also see deer, mouse, and raccoon tracks in the wet sand
along the edge.
Dusk began to wash the color from the scene, and Hal grew uneasy.
Perhaps it was those articles about coyotes snatching children out on the
Cape. Or maybe it was Gary, caretaker of Cook's Canyon in Barre, telling
about calling in the coyotes. Gary had gone out in a field one evening,
and began his "yip yip yip" in earnest. It wasn't long before he was
rewarded with a lone coyote approaching him, slowly, apprehensively.
Some primal fear suddenly surfaced in Gary's brain, and he whirled around
to see a whole pack silently advancing on him. "YAH! GIT GIT GIT!" he
shrieked, hair fully on end. Fortunately, they did "git", and Gary was
in a full willie until he got back into the safety of his house. He
never tried that again.
Proud of his excellent night-vision, Hal set out across the round rocks
and boulders. Hal ate carrots every day, and good old Doc D'Amico told
him that yes, the vitamin A out of those carrots was especially good for
night vision. The night was moonless, and a thick gauze of clouds
obscured the stars. "Good night for a test." He wanted to check out
three particular things: just plain walking around with the scope;
looking for the reflectors of the car, parked in the woods, a few hundred
feet from shore; and for animal eyes in the woods.
Hal was sorely disappointed. While the monocular scope could illuminate
the rocks nicely, the lens had a slight 'fisheye' effect, and there was
no telling how far away they were. He tried keeping both eyes open, to
no avail, and found that his own night-vision was far superior, complete
with peripheral vision and depth perception. He pulled it away from his
eye, temporarily blinded by the bright images in the scope. The animal
eye test was inconclusive, as he hadn't knowingly encountered any
animals. He approached the path leading into the woods in full darkness.
Staring up into shadows, he could faintly make out a big dark shape,
might be his car. Out came the scope, and yep, it was a big dark shape.
He walked up the path and found the car unaided by the scope. So tail
lights were out too. In the car, he tried driving slowly through the
woods without any lights on. Even then, parking lights were required,
and who can't drive slowly with parking lights? Hal determined right
then, a bag of carrots was a far better value.
One thing he did notice though, and that was the fact that the scope
could pick up the stars, even through cloud cover. He tried to find the
big dipper, but the field of view was small and distorted. Perhaps a
more experienced stargazer could have seen it. The Rangers at the
reservoir also had told him it's great for spotting campfires,
flashlights and stuff. "well, keep it then." Hal muttered. |
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Hal's own personal uneasiness hadn't gotten anywhere near the willie
stage, but he realized there was a good 25 minutes of rock hopping to get
back, if the light held out. Hal had waited till dusk on purpose. For
the occasion, he had borrowed a night vision scope, one of the latest
Generation 3 models, a Night Mariner (A similar model, the Night
Quest, not waterproof, goes for $1,795 in the Cabela's catalog). Tonight
would be a good test of the unit.