Thursday, January 5, 2012

Hiking The Tandy Hills With 100s Of Yellow Ribbons Desecrating The Natural Area Unnaturally

Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around A Tandy Tree
Well, the Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artist struck again. Stringing hundreds of yellow ribbons along various trails in the Tandy Hills.

Yellow Ribbons are often tied to trees, or other sticks, for various reasons, thanks to a Golden Oldie song by a one hit wonder named Tony Orlando, with the title being something like "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around An Old Tree."

I am almost 100% certain today's Tandy Hills Yellow Ribbons were not tied to Tandy branches to make note of the end of the Chesapeake Energy Blockade on Fort Worth's Bridgewood Drive.

Speaking of which, even though the Chesapeake Energy Blockade has been lifted, the "Road Closed" and "Detour" signs remain, as of early this afternoon.

Perhaps the road signage is a City of Fort Worth Road Crew responsibility, which would explain the dawdling and incompetence.

To get my daily endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, today I parked on top of Mount Tandy, under the Tandy Tower, also known as the Fort Worth Space Needle.

I walked down Mount Tandy and when I came to the Tandy Trojan Horse Shrine, I took the north option and headed towards Tandy Falls. It was soon after that I came upon the first Yellow Ribbon.

In the photo you see above, that is the first Yellow Ribbon I came upon. By the time I came upon the 3rd Yellow Ribbon I realized this must be a Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artist Operation.

All these Yellow Ribbons were not seeming all that natural to me, festooning, as they were, the Natural Area, with their flamboyant flashes of unnatural yellow. What with Saturday's Manly Men Wild Women hikers hiking the Tandy Hills, this Yellow Ribbon thing seemed quite worrisome to me.

This made me wonder to myself, what would the Tandy Hill's Godfather Don do?

I decided it was my duty today to clear the Tandy Hillls of those un-natural Yellow Ribbons, even though it greatly prolonged my hiking time.*

Soon after I saw the first Yellow Ribbon I saw a small piece of heavy equipment zip by, heading towards the Tandy Highway.

The Relocated Tandy Tires
I was not fast enough, with the camera, to get a photo of the small piece of heavy equipment. I thought it might be the Tandy Hills Guerrilla Artist driving the small piece of heavy equipment.

Upon reaching the Tandy Highway I saw that the Tandy Tires I caught coupling on Saturday had moved way closer to Tandy Falls. That is the coupling tires in the second photo.

I crossed the dry Tandy Falls, then headed west to the main trail that enters the Natural Area from View Street, collecting Yellow Ribbons along the way.

The New Big Boulder Bridge Across Tandy Creek
Eventually I found myself back on the Tandy Highway, with a heavy load of Yellow Ribbons. I came to the first, formerly washed out bridge across Tandy Creek to find what the small piece of heavy equipment had been up to.

Big boulders have been dumped on top of the flood erosion exposed drain pipe. And also on top of Tandy Giant Tire #1.

Soon after gingerly making my crossing over the giant boulder bridge I came upon the trailer that likely hauled in the small piece of heavy equipment, along with the pickup that likely pulled the trailer.

Soon after that I came upon the small piece of heavy equipment and the heavy equipment operator, operating on the second bridge across Tandy Creek, this time with fewer big boulders.

The Heavy Equipment Hauling Trailer & Pickup
The small piece of heavy equipment said "Caterpillar" on its front. It appeared to be a mini-bulldozer of some sort.

So, that was my adventure on the Tandy Hills on the 5th day of 2012.

*I was joking about taking down all the Yellow Ribbons. Clearly they'd been tied to limbs in order to mark the way for Saturday's Manly Men Wild Women Hike. I'm guessing Godfather Don will fire off an earnest comment or email informing me of the bad bad thing I'd done, before he gets to the point where I indicate I did not take down any Yellow Ribbons.

See you on Saturday along with 100s of other Manly Men and Wild Women who'd get lost without Yellow Ribbons.

2 comments:

Don Young said...

Very bad Durango. I say that with all earnestness. No Wild Women for you.

Durango said...

Darn. I should not have inserted that asterisk. Thus directing you to the end of the blogging. It does not seem, to me, that my level of bad rises to the level where a Wild Women prohibition is deserved.