Pictures from outdoor exercise.
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Another hike today since the weather was good. This one was a DOUBLE palindrome! It was 11.11 miles (I had to walk a very small extra distance after getting back to the trailhead to get that number to appear on my device) and was 252 minutes (I didn't realize this until I looked at MFP when I got home).
I wanted to explore the trails at a relatively new land trust nearby. It's privately owned but open to the public. Their mission is to "own and manage perpetually self-sustaining privately-owned public spaces to provide enhanced recreational, educational, and research experiences with an environmental focus to its visitors." The land abuts the natural area owned by another land trust that I hiked in on Friday. The one I visited today uses the land to generate some income to help sustain the property. The owner also has a farm and ranch. They use cattle to help improve the landscape, which is perhaps unusual. They also prune up the branches in the forest to reduce ladder fuels. They are managing for invasive plant species and encouraging natives including Kinkaid's Lupine which is the sole food source for a local butterfly that is endangered. It's a very nice trail system, although there's sure a lot of interpretive signs. Lots of trail markers, too. Lots of fences and gates to keep cattle where they're supposed to be when they have them out there. None today. They also have stations with shovels you can use to help clear the trails of cow *kitten*. You just drop the shovel back off at the next station.
The land was once owned by a timber company. Much of the forest is naturally seeded. Some is hand planted with a number of species. There's also an abundance of oak savanna which is really nice to see.
There were picnic tables in various places along the trails so people could pack in a lunch or some wine and cheese or whatever.
This was one of my favorite trees on the trail; a broken oak that made an arch over the trail.
I decided to pretty much walk ALL of the trails and most of the roads. My first trail was the River Trail. It goes.... right along the river. I've paddled this river many times in the past, but it's been a while. It makes me want to get out and paddle it really soon, and I will.
There are open meadows with open-grown oaks, and there are some vistas of the valleys nearby.
I passed a few pieces of "art" that visitors made on the trail out of lichen.
I had looked at my GPS and saw another loop I could take that would take me out into some neighborhoods and back to some trails near the ones I had hiked on Friday. So I went. I didn't quite realize how much extra distance I was adding on, or how much elevation change there would be. I did fine. Part of this part was walking down what used to be a county road that has been closed for decades and decades and that in the last 50 years was just used for people walking, riding horses, or biking to get up to enjoy the forests and go over the ridge to the next valley where there's even more trails that I'll go visit sometime. The road wasn't maintained for many many years and got eroded so that the road bed was well below the ground surface. Walking in it has a "hobbit" feel as there's places there's walls of soil next to the road.
On the last leg of trail, I walked what they call the "North Trail." It's on the north side of the property near a ridge, so it has southern exposure. It was nice to soak up the sun as the temperature otherwise was dropping as it was getting late. Out on the top, there's a nice timber-frame gazebo with a very nice picnic table.
I'll go back again. I probably won't repeat this eleven mile hike, but I might to six or eight or just five. It was nice to get in a new adventure and scope out not just the land trust trails but the neighborhoods on this side of the ridge where I can also drive to if I want to access portions of this area or the other one I hiked on Friday. The uppermost trailhead on my side of the areas is about five miles closer to my house, but it might actually take longer to drive depending when I went since I'd have to go through town and whatever traffic there might be.
My hike with the highest elevations in red and lowest in blue:
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The lichen art is relatively cool...0
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The one I got a picture of must have been from last week - Valentine's Day. There was another at a trail junction near the edge of Fitton Green (in the upper right part of the green shaded area on the map where there's a little triangle of trails) that was a peace sign.
I did see some people, but fewer than I thought I might on a nice Sunday. Most were in two areas near trailheads that had options for short hikes. One couple made me shake my head. The young woman had a phone or other device in her bag "sharing" what she must have thought was good music and I thought was pretty awful. Too bad they couldn't just enjoy the sounds of the forest and had to bring their own beats. Maybe they thought it would scare off bears or something. I literally shook my head.
There were three groups of people I passed twice. That was fun.
Up on top, there was a woman walking down the street. She commented that it was such a nice day. I mentioned I had come up from the other side. When she finally realized I meant the Wren side of the mountain, she got big eyes and said, "OH, you are going a long way." Yep.
The bagel shop is closed today, and it's a mail holiday so I won't walk downtown. Maybe it should be a rest day. But the weather prognosticators say it won't be "that bad" yet today, so maybe a short local walk by the river in my most local park. Or maybe I should get back to the house organizing I put off to go hike in the nice weather because I'm behind on my "ten hour per week" commitment.1 -
I walked to the post office this morning. It was still sub-freezing, but was sunny. I didn't dally. There was no mail, so I hoofed it home and took care of some chores. It was still nice and sunny, and I knew there was still snow on the ground at higher elevations. So I decided to go visit a park on the other side of town that has a very few short trails. The main trail that goes all the way around is 1.5 miles. There's two little "short cuts" that go up steep hills, so I did a second lap to hit those two trails for a total of about 2.5 miles.
The sun was out. It was warm enough to take off my gloves and scarf at one point. Well, it was also sun beating down so that helped. Vitamin D from nature to boost what goes down my throat in a pill!
The top of the trail has views of town, the Coast Range mountains, and the Cascade Mountains.
Some of the oaks still had a little snow on them.
Later, after I got home, I was looking up the activity, logged in to my Garmin account, and the page it landed on showed me THIS:
Twenty four?
I've been telling people for a few years I'm 42. I was 36 for years and years and years and "gave myself an upgrade" a few years back. Now I can reverse the digits.
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Is that a garry oak? And a madrona aka arbutus tree)? My goodness... that brings me back...0
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Whidbey Island, Washington beach walk this morning3 -
Is that a garry oak? And a madrona aka arbutus tree)? My goodness... that brings me back...
Quercus garryana - Oregon White Oak.
Arbutus menziesii - Pacific Madrone.
I have some in my yard that I planted as tiny seedlings less than a foot tall. Now twenty years later, they are getting big. Sort of. They were seedlings from the Conservation District's annual sale. I added a lot of native plants to my landscape. I took out the Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana); it was just too aggressive. I took out the tall Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium). Also pretty aggressive, and in the wrong place. I left most of the Dwarf Oregon Grape (Mahonia nervosa) and can mostly keep it contained. I took out an Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor) - it was in the wrong place. I have some Pacific Ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus), some Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum), some Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis), some twinberry (Lonicera involucrata), and probably a few more species I'm not thinking of at the moment.
The Madrone is out in the front yard. I really love their bark. The flowers and berries are nice too. The front yard was about the only space I wanted to put it. It's in an area that I do not water during the summer. It's been doing quite well. It has a mycorrhizal association with a fungus, so that fungus must have been present in my soil or the seedling was inoculated in the nursery because it's quite happy.
The Oregon White Oak is out in the back near the orchard. I am careful to keep water away from it in the summer. It's doing quite well also. I want to put a deed restriction on the property if I sell it that the oak tree must never be irrigated like a lawn, and both trees need to remain in place.
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CrazyMermaid1 wrote: »
Whidbey Island, Washington beach walk this morning
My dive club does, or did, an annual critter collection up at Fort Casey each spring. I should really get back up there.1 -
Striking photo, @crazymermaid1!0
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I took another hike today. I was worried it would be crowded; it's the weekend, and the sun is out. It's been COLD at night, but today was up in the mid-40s for a high. I had a few ideas of where to go, and at the last minute made what was probably a good decision.
Today's hike was 5.55 miles. I hiked some of the same trails I hiked last week, but I started from a different place. I started near the top, did a popular loop, hiked down to what used to the the end of a trail than now continues all the way up, then back to the top and added a steep loop... just because. I met a nice couple on the trail, twice, and we had a couple nice chats. They had parked down near the bottom, and they actually parked in a place they usually don't because the place the usually do was full, full, full of cars.
So my decision to drive a few extra miles and start from the top was for sure a good call. I passed the lower trailhead they would have used on my way home, and the lot was still totally full.
The other place I almost went was actually near several neighborhoods, and it would have been even MORE crowded. Aside from the few folks I saw up top, and a few folks I saw twice, I mostly had the trails to myself. Even on a sunny Saturday in February. I was pleasantly surprised.
There was hills and snow and mud... and SUN!!!
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I'm cheating on the thread topic, but it was nature-esque, outdoors-adjacent (under glass), and IMO quite scenic, but only the mildest of exercise: I went to the orchid show and walked around there for quite a while yesterday.
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@AnnPT77
Those are lovely for sure! I'm pretty sure those orchids can't grow outdoors out there..... Oddly, we have some native orchids out here. The Lady Slipper is one, and they're lovely.
As long as we're cheating, I did something outdoors that wasn't really EXERCISE, but it was planning for future exercise and recreation. I went some scouting for river access.
I walked downtown earlier and dropped something off at the post office, then went to the bagel shop. I got a whole-grain rye bagel with smoked salmon spread and added red onions and cucumber. Yum. I got a cinnamon-raisin bagel to go. I got to walk back through the park by the food/bike bridge over the river just in time to see the fire department extinguishing what used to be someone's camp. I'm surprised there's not more fires. I worry about them more in the summer when they could spread easily. This smelled like plastic. Yuck.
So then I took a drive to look at eight different places to access a local river I want to go and paddle again some time. It's been years. There's really not much access other than where a bridge crosses the river on a public road. There's precious little area for parking near any of these access points, and they all require a scramble down a muddy hill under a bridge and dodging a whole lot of thorny blackberry brambles. Not ideal, but that's how a person has to access the river.
There's one exception in a park in the next town upstream and one in my city. The distance between the two would be a VERY LONG day. I'll do it! There's another place with decent access near a place where firetrucks can pump water. I might also include that access one day.
Anyway, I got to enjoy some time between the rain, hopped in and out of the car, and got pictures of the access points to update a map and a river description for a national organization I've supported for decades.
Here's a few pictures of what I'm talking about:
The only one that you can more easily get to in the park in the next town up; it still requires a carry about 60 yards down a path that was really muddy today.
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@mtaratoot, we actually have quite a few wild native orchid species here in Michigan, I think around 50, the lady slipper types more common (comparatively!), but there are a number of others as well. I've only seen (that I recall) one non-lady-slipper, Rose Pogonia, and that was in Ontario, though it's native here, too. Several are not only rare, but also bog-dwellers, so not on most average hikes. The yellow and pink lady-slippers (Cypripediums) grew wild in the woods/swamp on the property where I grew up.
None of those natives are in the photos above, AFAIK. Many of the tropical or near-tropical orchids can spend summer outdoors here in pots, with careful care . . . some of mine would probably do better if I moved them outdoors, but I'm not sure whether they're tasty to woodchucks, so . . . !0 -
Well, the first meteorological day of spring, right? Well, I've been watching, and I've been looking at one in my back yard. I've seen the initial buds breaking exposing the inner buds. Slowly slowly slowly spring is showing up. Well, today while out for a walk I saw the first open flower. It's an Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) and the first native tree to bloom around here. And it decided that the calendar was right.
The one in my back yard still has a week or more to go. It was a nice day out there after a very cold start. We have more weather coming, but it should not get much below freezing. Snow's coming; it may pile up, but won't last long. I'll go enjoy it if I can. Maybe I'll drive up and take the sticks out for a little tour. I might also get out to enjoy the rain, but tomorrow I am looking forward to getting back to the gym for the first time in a couple months.1 -
Are the plums edible? I had a plum tree in Ottawa but it was plagued by fungus issues.0
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Are the plums edible? I had a plum tree in Ottawa but it was plagued by fungus issues.
They are edible, but they are astringent and bitter. They get a little less so when ripe. First people ate them. They are also called Osoberry.
Birds love them; I have lots of food plants for wildlife in my landscape, and this is one of 'em.
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We have Texas persimmon trees on our property growing wild but it seems like none of them are female trees... or at least we never see any fruit although I've heard the birds will clean the tree off if you don't protect them. Apparently they're very tart until they ripen.
Generic picture of Texas persimmon fruit... Like I said, we haven't had any luck...
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We have Texas persimmon trees on our property growing wild but it seems like none of them are female trees... or at least we never see any fruit although I've heard the birds will clean the tree off if you don't protect them. Apparently they're very tart until they ripen.
Generic picture of Texas persimmon fruit... Like I said, we haven't had any luck...
The persimmons we had in Georgia would be astringent until after a frost. If you never have any fruit, yeah - you probably have a male. They are dioecious.1 -
We have Texas persimmon trees on our property growing wild but it seems like none of them are female trees... or at least we never see any fruit although I've heard the birds will clean the tree off if you don't protect them. Apparently they're very tart until they ripen.
Generic picture of Texas persimmon fruit... Like I said, we haven't had any luck...
The persimmons we had in Georgia would be astringent until after a frost. If you never have any fruit, yeah - you probably have a male. They are dioecious.
These trees are growing wild. My best guess is the local deer ate fruit and "seeded" our property. Odd that none of the trees ended up being female.0 -
We have Texas persimmon trees on our property growing wild but it seems like none of them are female trees... or at least we never see any fruit although I've heard the birds will clean the tree off if you don't protect them. Apparently they're very tart until they ripen.
Generic picture of Texas persimmon fruit... Like I said, we haven't had any luck...
The persimmons we had in Georgia would be astringent until after a frost. If you never have any fruit, yeah - you probably have a male. They are dioecious.
These trees are growing wild. My best guess is the local deer ate fruit and "seeded" our property. Odd that none of the trees ended up being female.
How many trees are there?
Another possibility if there aren't many around (although if naturally seeded by wildlife, there have to be more around) is that none are male, but there's no male trees close enough to pollinate the female flowers. The persimmons we had were not the same as the ones in your yard; the ones that grew in Georgia were orange-fruited. Same genus, different species.0 -
Half a dozen, various locations. The property is mostly natural with mixed trees; mostly oak and evergreens. Interesting, the Texas persimmons are all growing in the shade of oak trees.... none are growing close to the evergreens.We have Texas persimmon trees on our property growing wild but it seems like none of them are female trees... or at least we never see any fruit although I've heard the birds will clean the tree off if you don't protect them. Apparently they're very tart until they ripen.
Generic picture of Texas persimmon fruit... Like I said, we haven't had any luck...
The persimmons we had in Georgia would be astringent until after a frost. If you never have any fruit, yeah - you probably have a male. They are dioecious.
These trees are growing wild. My best guess is the local deer ate fruit and "seeded" our property. Odd that none of the trees ended up being female.
How many trees are there?
Another possibility if there aren't many around (although if naturally seeded by wildlife, there have to be more around) is that none are male, but there's no male trees close enough to pollinate the female flowers. The persimmons we had were not the same as the ones in your yard; the ones that grew in Georgia were orange-fruited. Same genus, different species.0 -
I did a nice hike in great weather, and except for two VERY LOUD people who followed me for a while (I walked really fast to try to get away from them and then went a direction I didn't think they'd go), it was a great day. Sunny. Mild. Good views. Saw birds. Hiked 8.88 miles.
This was back out on the Land Trust that I was on a few weeks ago. Last time I drove a longer way and approached it from the bottom. This time I approached it from closer to my city and up near the top of an abutting land trust property that has really great views. I had not necessarily planned to hike down into the area I did, but those loud people made my decision. It was a good one. The area I planned to hike isn't as pretty, and likely had more people. Once I got away from those first two folks, I saw maybe three or four other groups of one or two people or one person and a dog. Maybe a couple more, but it was just people walking quietly and soaking up the forest vibe. I only snapped a few pictures, and only two are worth sharing.
It was nice to be able to hike the roads and trails I didn't hike last time I was out there. I had hiked almost every trail and all but a couple of the roads. I put boots on all the rest today, and I definitely hiked back on some that I had previously hiked. I had to cross some trails two or three times to pick up the last segments. The lower road that I hadn't planned to hike goes right along the river. In order to pick up one last road segment, I added a longer trail segment that is really pretty and had to hike that lower section, and I'm glad I did. It was actually very nice. I'd do it again. I'm sure I will!
Near the far end of the hike, out on that last trail before hiking up by the river, I saw something I've never seen before. Three or four young folks riding electric "dirt bikes." These weren't mountain bikes; they were more like motor bikes. But not noisy. I am really curious how much range they have. I'm surprised they are allowed out there, but they may not be and they just went anyway because - quiet and hard to tell where they are and faster than anyone else who would be out there. I think they must be neighbors; I've seen the tracks before and was curious. I saw them going in one direction and then back today. I think they'd be fun to ride.
My wrist device told me I am supposed to take a few days to recover. Not likely. It was just a little hike. I didn't even carry food or water. I always carry emergency water; I'm not sure why I didn't, but I didn't. Tomorrow I am planning to get to the gym, but you know how plans are.....1 -
I've done a few outdoor walks lately. I often don't take any new pictures; they look the same as the last time I was there!
On Tuesday I went out to go for an adventure, but I got to a place where the road was still covered with snow. I was in my "new" car, a 2011 RAV4. I haven't had much experience with it on snow yet, so even though I have new tires with the triple-peak snowflake symbol on them, I just turned around. It's that wet spring snow that has zero grip. I hit some snow on a back road a few weeks ago, and the car just wanted to go towards the ditch, so I'm a bit uncertain about snow with these new tires for now. If I were in my truck, I would have continued on. I've driven that truck for 27 years, and even though the tires are at their halfway used up point, they are BFG T/A Radial tires, and they get traction.
I was already about 30 miles or so from home, so I took a different route back along a different river. I hadn't been there since last fall when we went looking for candy cap mushrooms and found a lot. I poked around the woods for the oddball mushroom, and didn't find any.
I did take the short hike down to the falls though, and I snapped an image.
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There is no substitute for experience when it comes in driving in snow.
I was in Texas during their most recent Snowmageddden (winter 2020/21). My wife's SUV had good all-season tires and was AWD so I had no problem even though our area is hilly. My wife was pleasantly surprised as I drove past vehicles like Bubba's lifted 4X4 who were all stuck on the hills or in the ditch or whatever... Knowing how to drive in snow makes the difference.
Mind you, how much help was it? Most everyone else wasn't driving, including the transport trucks... We lost power for most of a week... the grocery stores started running out of supplies... We were talking about maybe driving someplace with power so we could get a hot meal. lol0 -
When I lived in Utah, I remember there was a big uptick in crashes during the first snows of the season. I had to drive in snow quite a lot. Now I mostly only have to when going over the pass, and sometimes it's pretty slick up there. It does help to know how to drive in snow, and it helps to keep it slow. Some people with four-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive don't seem to recognize it doesn't help them stop.
My truck will skid around like crazy until I put it in 4wd. Then it goes fine in snow. Some snow has a lot more grip. The slushy stuff where it transitions from rain to drier snow up in the pass is always the worst. It fills up the voids in tires and you're essentially driving without tread. That's the kind of snow I was seeing the other day and that I slid on a month ago. This car is my first front-wheel-drive car, and it has electric power steering. I'm still getting used to how it steers on the dry pavement, and then adding snow.... I'm sure it will be fine going over the passes, but this road is an area that is not maintained for winter. I had no idea if it was just this dark curve with snow that would go back to dry road or when it would get deep enough that I might have trouble getting turned around. I was alone. I thought it prudent just to turn around and change plans for the day. I still had a nice day. I'll go back up there when the snow melts, but now we're getting MORE.1 -
I got a big dump of snow overnight too. I started off my day with a shovel in hand... lol0
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I went for a short walk today at the National Park but the cold wind chased me away... There are trails along the roadside but the wind was nasty...
This is Covehead Lighthouse from the road... and the road from the steps of Covehead Lighthouse!
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I didn't take this photo (of an underpass mural, with light graffiti added), but the friend I was walking with did. It's a mostly-straight wall, the extreme curvature is a panoramic photo artifact.
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