I must say, I'm disappointed in the low response to this one, but whatever. This was even cooler than the fold-out canopy in the shallow water that I posted about last summer, so you guys missed out! Now on to the answer ...

So I'm walking along, and I've pushed the unusual animal tracks to the back of my mind, and soon I sense a horse and rider ahead. I look up, and it takes a couple of moments for my brain to register the whole scene, which is this:











Yes, I know it's only another crappy thumbnail, but you're seeing it right -- it's a camel. I am practically face-to-hump with an honest-to-stu camel. On a NH beach.

So I go up and talk to the guy, but because I'm no longer a reporter I've become kind of lax about pushing for basic information, so I don't ask him his name or where he lives or anything, but I ask him if I can photograph it. He says sure, and warns me that the camel is prone to spitting and other rude behavior. I say, fine, I'm not getting any closer than this, anyway, and start snapping with the cell cam. Another guy who is also walking the beach is also quite taken with the sight, which he is video-ing, and joins the conversation. In response to intense cross-examination (LAX, I tell you!), camel-guy says he just always wanted to own a camel, and yeah, it lives right there with him. Wherever there is.

So some other horses are off in the distance, and camel-guy is all, oh, those horses don't like camels, so he keeps moving, and I'm walking backward trying to make sure I get the shot, because there is no way this is not going on the blog, and eventually he joins up with his wife/gf/whatever, who is riding another horse. But of course there is an inevitable confrontation with the other horse people, which, alas, is not clearly depicted here:




There was a better moment just a couple of seconds before this shot, where a non-camel-toting rider ended up having to jump off her horse, or was nearly thrown off, or something. It was all terribly exciting, and if I WERE still writing for newspapers, would have been a great story. Anyway, near as I could tell, everyone escaped unscathed.

Soooooo glad I went to the beach Saturday. That's one good thing about the hotel job -- if I weren't working graveyard, I'd never get up that early to go walk on the beach and I'd never see stuff like this.

Now that the new beach-walking season is under way, we at the Braid also embark on a new season of "What's on the beach this weekend?"

Our first episode is one for the animal lovers. This time of year, until the tourists invade, it's not unusual to see equestrians riding their mounts up and down the beach, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. So it's not unusual to see hoof prints.

But I'm walking along this morning when I stumble upon this pair of tracks:




(sorry about the small photo -- I'm having logistical trouble getting my images from phone to blog and haven't worked out the kinks yet)
and thought to myself, one of these things is not like the other. As I kept walking, lo and behold, I encountered the animal that left these prints, and it turned out to be actually the thing that I had first popped into my head upon seeing the tracks.

So, any takers? Post a comment if you'd like to guess. The answer will appear here sometime soon, probably no earlier than Monday.