On The Tandy Hills Hiking With A Big Bobcat Enjoying A Distant Look At America's Top Downtown

On the left we are on the old wagon trail on top of Mount Tandy, looking west at the stunning skyline of what we recently learned is the Top Downtown in America.

Fort Worth, Texas.

I had trouble sleeping last night, so I was vertical early this morning, which had me in the increasingly cool pool a half hour before the sun arrived to do some illuminating.

I thought a bout in the Tandy Hills Natural Area's natural steambath sauna would make me feel better.

It did.

I'd forgotten rain fell on Saturday. I remembered the rain when I got to the jungle part of the trail and found myself growing suddenly taller due to mud sticking to my shoes.

The mud did not stay stuck long, quickly shrinking me back to my regular height.

I saw several Hoodoos today, including the precariously engineered Hoodoo you see below.

The above Hoodoo was standing at Hoodoo Central at the north end of the View Street trail. I did not take  pictures of the other Hoodoos I came upon today due to the troubling fact that the humidity made it difficult to get the camera out of the pocket in which I stick it.

For what seems months now when I arrive at the summit of Mount Tandy I find my usual way in blocked by a tower maintenance operation. Weeks ago I walked over to the operator sitting under two big umbrellas to inquire about what they were doing. All I got out of the explanation was cables were slowly being replaced.

Today when I started my hiking the under the umbrellas guy waved at me. When I returned from my hiking the under the umbrellas guy waved again and then as I was standing outside my mechanized transport, hydrating, the umbrellas guy got off his perch and started walking towards me.

The umbrellas guy looked like he wanted to tell me something.

I was right.

Apparently soon after I started hiking down Mount Tandy the biggest bobcat the umbrellas guy had ever seen walked slowly in front of the fence that surrounds Tandy Tower and then took a right  to follow me down Mount Tandy.

I asked if he was sure it was a bobcat, asking if it could have been a panther. He said it had a short bobbed tail. The umbrellas guy said he's seen a lot of bobcats over the years but did not know they could get as big as the bobcat that apparently went hiking with me today.

In all the years I've been hiking on the Tandy Hills I think I have only seen one bobcat, a fast moving one darting across the trail ahead of me.