Because our two little dogs are so small it isn't difficult to clean them up after our daily ravine walks. We simply lift them on to towels laid atop the laundry machines on entering the house, and sponge their little feet of the dirt and detritus they pick up. Sometimes it takes no time at all. On other occasions, such as yesterday, it takes numerous applications of a wet sponge to free their paws and pads of hard-packed dirt and muck.

That occurred yesterday because the night before the skies had roiled with thunderstorms passing through the area. And when we awoke the morning after, the rain was still pummeling the environment, drowning everything in an endless sea of water. By early afternoon it had stopped and off we went into the ravine to walk the forest trails.

The ravine entrance has changed enormously. Where before, until April when the saturated hillsides leading into the ravine began to crumble and slump into the ravine, we walked down a trail sided with dense forest, now on the right-hand-side where the slumps occurred, there is a sight-devastating void of desolation. All the trees that hadn't themselves broken and collapsed had been removed by forestry crews clearing the area for bulldozers and steam shovels to do their work of moderating the steep rise of the hillside, layering its bottom portions with huge granite rocks for stability and preparing the rest for reforestation.

We were able yesterday for the first time in months to access portions of the trail system that had been closed to us while the restoration work progressed. And what greeted our eyes was not very attractive, since it presented as a vast cleared area where once a forest thrived. All the trees had been removed by great logging trucks. Now, once the entire project has been completed, a tree-planting effort will proceed in due time.

We went on from accessing the now-open bridge and opened trail system to continue with our usual hike through the woods. And it just happened to be a forest whose floor had been re-invested in a soggy mess with large mosquito-breeding puddles re-appearing on the forest floor and the trails. None of which  takes away from the pleasure of being able to amble along those trails at one's leisure, enjoying the forest ambiance.