Fifteen years back, I used to work along the Blaine County bike trails. Having an interest in butterflies, I noticed that some milkweed plants were sprinkled, growing in a small area south of the Gimlet crossing. This was one of only three spots in Blaine County, where I have seen Milkweeds, which Monarch butterflies need to thrive.

I pointed this out to the trails superintendent. However, lifting the blade, and not spraying poisons in that particular milkweed patch, was not deemed a priority, Thus I was reduced to writing this ode to the Idaho Monarch.

Diary: Milkweed Cream

A few hundred feet south of the Gimlet bike crossing on the east side of the trail, I spy a lonely milkweed plant, a rarity in this part of Idaho. It begs to help a monarch butterfly.

But right now, this is speed alley. Zippy bicycle fashions blur by with no time for these winged attractions. The 18 gauges and monitors on their bikes are only for racing down the straight and narrow path. Even their music gear deafens bird songs.

From above, a golden beam of sunlight directs a fluttering monarch to the prize I've found. She dips her proboscis into the flower's nectar. Then she lays her tiny white eggs on the milkweed's soft leafy underside. Her young will soon become riders of the sky through the wonders of metamorphosis as they munch on the creamy cells of the milkweed.

Thrasher and Toxic man care not. The machine operator does not tip his blade up to genuflect to the hallowed incubating ground of the magnificent monarch's milkweed. He slices thorough the right of way while maintaining rhythm to "We're Going Wrong" from the band Cream's "Disraeli Gears." I turn southbound and for some odd reason Neil Young's "aimless blade of science" stanza sings through my head:

"Where the eagle glides ascending

"There's an ancient river bending

"Down the timeless gorge of changes

"Where sleeplessness awaits

"I search out my companions

"Who were lost in crystal canyons

"Where the aimless blade of science slashed the pearly gates."

And now here's the way it should be done:

Robin developing monarch habitat along the Washington & Old Dominion Trail in VA.