Cattle Gate - painting a day

Yesterday was the first really sunny day in a couple weeks and the dog and I took advantage of it by hiking at Mt. Burdell Open Space Preserve in Marin. The preserve is large and has sections with cattle, so where the trails intersect fences there are gates that hikers can pass through (although winding through them with a large pack and tripod took some care) but cows cannot. We never encountered the cows, but the field where I set up to paint was liberally bestowed with cow pats. Just one more hazard of plein air painting.