Doak Farm, 1772

 Today I discovered an area of Raccoon Creek State Park that I'd always overlooked.

 I'd been there before, but I never ventured down behind the building where frontier survival skills are sometimes taught in the summer.  It's got this way-cool picnic area down below.  Of course, this is not one of the old Doak Farm's original buildings.  Those are long gone. But they've retained the name of the family that was dispossessed of this place when the park was created.  

It was 16 degrees outside, but here I sat for three hours in the warm winter sunlight, reading, meditating, playing my panflute.  It was just about the perfect day.

 Every once in a while the cold would catch up to me, so I'd get up to explore Doak Field, a very large grassy area with trails and lots of birdhouses.

 I'm all in favor of public lands, but I do pity these poor Doaks.  They settled this land in 1772--well before the American Revolution--and in the 1950s, the state came and confiscated their 400-acre farm to add to a newly created state park.  

I've photographed this beautiful tree in every season.  It was a lovely day for several winter hikes, including the Pinto Loop.  All the world was bright and cold, but comfortable with very little breeze, and a blameless blue sky overhead.  It was silent, so wonderfully silent except for the occasional plane overhead.