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Saving turtles, one at a time

Today I got out for a bike ride with my friend Mark Quintana. As usual, he left me in the dust as we climbed Mill Mountain on Fishburn Parkway.

He was probably 100 yards ahead of me as we approached the turn-off to the Mill Mountain Star and zoo area.

On the shoulder ahead I noticed a big, red Ford pick-up facing me. As I got closer I saw a burley guy get in and take off, heading back toward town.

Mark had waited for me.

"Did you see that guy?" he asked. "The big, burley guy with all the tattoos in the big truck?"

I said I had.

"Do you know what he was doing?" Mark asked.

I didn't, and I couldn't even venture a guess.

"I'll show you."

We rode to where he was parked. Marked pointed at something on the shoulder opposite of where the man was parked. A colorful box turtle was nestled in the grass.

There must have been some turtle migration thing going on because we found one on the Blue Ridge Parkway about 20 minutes later. I put it on the shoulder, which would not have surprised anyone, being that I was fully decked out in lycra.

Comments

# 1

[September 4, 2007 1:17 PM]

Wylee

Bike riding and turtle saving... that pretty much sums up the best part of summer.

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About this blog

Mark Taylor holding a fish.

While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures.

Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism.

After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters.

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