Pictures from outdoor exercise.
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Wow, that's a lot of water! Sorry about all the trash! Sad to hear of the loss of life too.
Haven't been in the forums much until lately. Been enjoying the photos here. So, thought I'd post a few of my own. Unfortunately, I couldn't post pictures from my phone, but I figured out how to bluetooth them to my laptop.
Had a nice 3.48 mile walk on Friday. I was trying to get to the "Cookie House" as it's rarely open to the public. It was supposed to be open every Friday from 1030-230pm for the next few weeks starting on 21 Jan. But of course I picked the one weekend that they shut the park down at the last minute for repairs to the buildings, and I missed the closure announcement. Still got some nice pictures along the way, and I got a couple of geocaches on the way back home.
Part of the Historical Marker Inscription:
The unique "Cookie House" was built c. 1931 by John Foster Bass, Jr. (1897-1939) founder of the Bass Biological Laboratory and Zoological Research Supply Company, to serve as his personal office and laboratory near the Bass home on New Point Comfort Road near Gottfried Creek. The Bass operation was the first full-time land-based marine station on the Florida mainland, where eminent naturalists, biologists and zoologists studied and identified at least 470 marine and terrestrial animals between 1931 and 1944.
Some flowers and berries:
The "Cookie House", the first Marine Lab:
"Water" break, and a couple of gecko friends - neither tried to save me on car insurance though:
Looks like a couple of controlled burns in the park, probably to get rid of the underbrush and some of the hurricane damage too:
Sometimes the Spanish Moss looks a bit 'spooky':
And for all you "Fun Guys" who like fungi, there was quite a bit starting to grow after the rains last week:
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I've never heard of the Cookie House... off to google I go...1
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Fascinating!!I've never heard of the Cookie House... off to google I go...
Prince Edward Island has an interesting tourist attraction built by a similar construction method but with bottles rather than cordwood cookies...
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I planned to go hike with a friend for his first day of retirement. He has to be near home to take care of an elderly dog that needs meds every four hours. I thought we'd do a little six mile loop that goes up a gravel road through the school forest to a local peak. I figured since it's a road, it would be clear from all the storm damage. He decided that he just wanted a day to settle for his first retirement day. Sounded good to me. It was a gorgeous day, and I still wanted to hike, so I was just going to go anyway.
On the way out of my neighborhood, I ran across two friends. She said trails in the local forests weren't bad. I stopped to get mail, dropped a book at the library, and decided that since I'll go out with my friend next week, I'd go to another local trail that has great views but I had left a few weeks ago because even the trailhead was already in a cloud. That day I hiked another area nearby.
That trail is very short. Just a couple miles. I can add more miles in either direction if I want. But I did something different. On the way up, I saw parking at the trailhead down near the bottom. I stopped there to save the gasoline from driving way up to the upper trailhead. It's a nice trail to the top - a little more than eight miles round trip.
The weather was great. I saw blue sky. I saw native oaks. I saw clowns in the forest (Acorn woodpeckers).
I stopped just before the last little loop to the top to eat an orange in case it was too windy up top to stop. It was. I took in some views and kept walking. I saw rain moving in, so instead of stopping in a sheltered area to enjoy a delicious beverage I brought with me to celebrate the first day after January, I just hiked out. It only rained a little bit. Not enough to even pull out my rain gear. But the sun was still shining from an angle, so I got rainbows.
The gym isn't too far out of the way from the trail, so I figured I'd go get a steam. I went in, put on some "swim trunks" and walked out by the pool to the steam. There was only one lane occupied. I wasn't planning to swim, but there was ONLY ONE LANE OCCUPIED. I went back to the locker room, put on my swimming pants and grabbed my gear and got in a half hour swim. I mixed up my strokes, and even realized I'm able to swim a bit better than I used to be able to.
Then it was time for the steam I came for. I waited until my stopwatch said 22:22 and left. I got a quick shower and went the sauna because - why not? I turned the stopwatch back on until it said 31:31, rinsed off, got dressed, and that was it.
I for sure wasn't sore from the weights yesterday, so that's good too.
I'm planning to meet some folks tomorrow morning to do a little mild whitewater. I'll take a canoe. I know the trip organizer paddles an inflatable kayak. I'm not sure who else will be there. It's a very short drive, and even though it's very mild whitewater, the river is beautiful.
Yep. Another good day.
Hiking mid-week is awesome, especially in the winter. It was surprisingly crowded down near the parking area and lower trails. Once I got past the first mile and up into the forest, I saw almost nobody else. I love that. It's what keeps me away on weekends. Unfortunately, there are some people who feel exempt from the rules or entitled in some way and just ignore the signs that tell people that they can't ride their bikes on the unpaved portion of the trails from October until May. Another group felt exempt from the signs up near the top that ask people (and their furry friends) to stay on the trail and explain why. A group of adult women with a bunch of very young girls couldn't be bothered and were not only off trail climbing one of the native oaks but also just running wild across the meadow that is actually a rare and surprisingly fragile habitat. I really dislike people sometimes. There's an easy access from up top, and that's where those folks came from.3 -
Happy GroundHog Day!
Had a lovely first SUP paddle of 2024! Low winds, and tide just high enough I could launch from my dock meant I could get out without getting my feet wet (even though I had my thermal booties on). Not many boats today. Tomorrow will be busy, I'm sure.
I need about a 0.6 ft tide to get in and out, and still my fin drags through the muck. In the winter, we often have low tides of about -1 to -1.5 feet, so I get a couple feet of mucky "beach" in front of my dock. I really need to get it dredged, but we all do in the neighborhood especially after the erosion from Hurricane Ian. County is supposed to do it, but it's never been done per the people that have lived here decades.
My canal - you can see the low tide on the sides:
My playground, the creek at the end of the canal. You can see that the water is low because the oyster beds are showing between the mangroves. The mangroves are recovering well since Hurricane Ian. Probably about 75-80% there. Good to see, last summer they were still pretty thin.
Still some boat lifts need fixing from Ian damage, but the birds don't seem to mind...
My bigger playground, the bay - great for me when the winds are down which means the chop is low. I can spend hours out here when the water is warmer (so I can jump in to cool down). Usually I see manatees and dolphins too, but the water is still too chilly for them too today.
Some pelicans on the pilings and one coming in for a landing to join them at the local marina.
Saw a few osprey too, but wasn't quick enough to get the camera out for them. All in all, a glorious first paddle for 2024. Only about 2.12 miles of paddleboarding because I didn't want to overdo it, but still nice to get out on the water!
~b3achy 😎3 -
I also had my first paddle of 2024, but I was kneeling not standing.
I got out my whitewater canoe and joined a friend for a nine-mile paddle on a local river. It's no more than Class 2 whitewater. The water was up, but not dangerously so. We had a nice time. We saw the sun. We got some rain. We saw Acorn woodpeckers, squirrels, hooded mergansers, wood ducks, hawks, jays, and lots of trees.
I got a few pictures where we were floating through areas between rapids.
This river doesn't get paddled much. It's been years since I've been. I used to lead a trip there every year on December 25. We would do a longer section starting upstream from where we started today and ending at the same location.
I think there's several reasons it doesn't get much use. First, access is awful. The put-in wasn't bad. There's another access that isn't bad that's about a mile downstream. Then the next place to get out is very difficult. My partner was in an inflatable kayak, and he could get close enough to shore to step out. My canoe wouldn't fit in that eddy. The water was more than waist deep. I was wearing a drysuit, but to try to hop out of the canoe would have capsized it. It took me between five and ten minutes to get to a place I could actually get out.
Another reason, I think, is that the whitewater is pretty mild. For people seeking big rapids, this isn't the place. That said, the whitewater is enough that people without skills to navigate it would have trouble - to say the least. There's also always the possibility of a log jam to portage around. Most of the time, the river is far away from any road. I think that's nice. It's in an interesting geologic setting. Much of it is twists and turns with a steep rocky slope on the outside of the bends, almost like a canyon wall. On the opposite side is a riparian gallery forest that floods annually. There are native oak trees all the way to the shore.
We paddled under two large trees spanning the river that eventually will be issues. One sooner than the other. There were other places where there was some wood in the river, but there was always a clean line through. We had no portages.
We stopped for lunch along the shore where there's a land trust property I sometimes hike on. Super bonus - there was a picnic table! How fun. I'll post another club trip for a weekend so people who still work can go. We had sun and rain. We had cool but not cold temperatures. I only had one layer of thermal underwear under my drysuit. I stayed warm enough. I hate to be too hot, but one more layer might have been fine. I had finger-less neoprene gloves that I swapped out for full gloves at lunch. After that I couldn't use the camera on my phone. I also put on a helmet liner. Then I stayed nice and comfy.
It really is a nice river. I bet the fish would bite if I had a rod and reel.
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You water babies are making me almost jealous!! For all I grew up and lived most of my life close to oceans, lakes and/or rivers, I haven't canoed or kayaked since I was a teen. I quite enjoyed it then but I don't feel much desire to such now... until I see how much fun you guys have... hmmm....2
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If you get a chance to go paddle, I encourage you to do it.
I had to laugh a little bit yesterday about a third of the way into our trip. I looked up through a clearing and saw open space and the hills beyond. I then thought to myself, "Hey - I was just up there yesterday." It's true. My hike on Thursday was up at the top of a peak that had an open meadow. I remember looking down at the river, and I don't remember if that's when I decided I'd join the trip. It might have been when I made the decision. Good thing I did otherwise the other guy wouldn't have gone alone....
This picture shows the route from green (put-in) to red (take-out) with the meadow at the top of the trail in a yellow circle.
The distance along the highway between the put-in and take-out is about four miles. My device measured about 8.8 river miles. Fun fact; that is the longest road in the USA at 3365 miles. Route 66 is "only" 2448 miles.
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I went back up to that yellow circle today. I'm going back to that same stretch of river tomorrow, so I thought it would be a fun repeat.
I found a different trailhead. There's one really close to the top, but then you have less than a two mile walk. I often go from the bottom, but the first 1.2 miles (and last 1.2 miles) aren't that much fun. It's a gravel trail along a road. Shortly after you enter the forest, there's another access. That was the way to the top before they completed the trail all the way through. That trail used to just go to a smaller top of a ridge, but now because a land trust got some more property and opened it up, you can hike to the top without going on roads.
From this middle trailhead, I still got a 10K hike. I still got over 1100 feet of elevation gain. I still got to see the forest and Acorn woodpeckers.
This trailhead requires more driving though - you almost have to go right past the upper trailhead and back down some gravel roads to get to it. There's only a few places to park, and I was surprised how many people were out there today.
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Note in the picture above that little "circle" about a third of the way from the left. That used to be the top of the trail that goes from the bottom. It's a ridge, and there's actually nice views from there. You can see the dashed green line in the top right corner - that's the trail that goes down to the lower access. That old trail was maybe four or five miles up and back.
From that spot, they built new trail along the ridge, down through a drainage, and up to the upper ridge. They also did a lot of restoration work removing planted conifer trees to release the native oaks. Native oaks here are a very under represented forest type, and these trees will slowly respond and become more amazing.
Used to be that to get to the top, even after the land trust bought that property, you'd hike up that dashed green line, then up the gravel road, along another gravel road, and eventually up to the upper access that's still available. It's where you take the short little green dashed line trail west from the parking area to the top.
Fun thing is that if you keep hiking north from that area, you descend through another property that is owned by another land trust. That trust does a different kind of conservation that actually includes running cattle very lightly. Eventually you get down to the river. You can drive a long way and hike up from that side, and there's an extensive trail system. Down near one of the places the railroad crosses the river is a picnic table, and that's where I'll probably stop for lunch today.2 -
I have encountered some native plants in bloom on my walks. This one is a red-flowering currant and suggests, along with the Osoberry (Indian plum) that springtime may be upon us.
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I have encountered some native plants in bloom on my walks. This one is a red-flowering currant and suggests, along with the Osoberry (Indian plum) that springtime may be upon us.
Already? Oh wait... Pacific northwest... Makes sense!!
If the proliferation of plants is indicative, we're going to have a bumper crop of bluebonnets this year!!1 -
Went to visit a friend and did a hike by his house about 8.3 miles with about 1560 feet of elevation gain. Some nice views. Saw some nice birds. Mostly gravel roads, but some trails. My friend also pointed out some other trails and where they went.
He's been exploring this area since the early or mid '90s. It's the reason he bought the property he lives, and now that he's retired, he can hike around there (and bike) often. When I buy a gravel bike, I'll look forward to getting out there and checking that out too.
Part of the trail is on private industrial forest, and part is on a university research forest.
He said this is his go-to hike/bike trail. Sweet!
Then he gave me some more duck eggs.
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Active retirement done right!!
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I did a 10+ mile hike yesterday in an amazing state park with ten huge waterfalls. It was, all in all, a GREAT day. Best in a long time. I tried to not be too impacted by the litter. There will always be some. It wasn't THAT bad. I want to volunteer to go pick it up once a week....
As I approached the start of the trail, where it's closest to the parking so more busy, I heard some amplified sound. I wondered if maybe there was an interpretive presentation. Nope. As I got closer, I realized it was two adults with a small child and a speaker blasting sound out to people who may or may not have wanted to share. Totally inappropriate.
I channeled my inner nine-year-old and looked them right in the face and said, "REALLY?" They said "Really what?" I said, "You're in the *kitten* forest, turn off the *kitten* *kitten* radio and listen to the sounds of nature." They packed up and left, which was good for the people still up there. I walked off shaking my head.
But really - best February day for me in YEARS. It was sunny out. My little 2011 RAV4 is actually fun to drive, and there wasn't much traffic. I took a back route that is about three miles longer but eliminates several miles on an interstate and more miles on a state highway - instead I took scenic county roads through the country and across rivers and through some small towns. The radio was boring me, so I turned on the CD. When the John Lee Hooker CD was done, "Dead Letter Office" from REM came on. The sunroof was open. It was just great. In the moment I realized how good I felt, I was crossing a river and looked to my left to see a pair of bald eagles in a tree. Oh yeah. Then I really needed to find a restroom. I crossed another river and saw a boat launch with a vault toilet. It was clean and just in time. Even though the trails were more crowded than I expected, there was plenty of parking pretty close in. I bought an annual parking pass for state parks, and this is one of the few that charge a fee. I'll probably go back when it's not so nice weather and thus fewer people - no way will I go in summer on a weekend. But yesterday was just fantastic.
Oh. Yeah - pictures from outdoor exercise. Here's a few:
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Gorgeous waterfalls!! So much awesome!!
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This is not the usual thing for this thread, but it was a fun part of my walk with a friend today.
There's a house on the trail that always has a big plastic box with multi-colored fat sticks of sidewalk chalk in it, and an invitation written on the box to make sidewalk art. (Yup, people do.)
For this season, there's a second box, as shown below:
I do LOTS of chalk coloring on the sidewalk. Am so going to borrow this idea for one of the bare-squares and see if I get any takers! (Lots little school kids walk by)
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Pics from my hike today...
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My wife and I had two wonderful weeks in Jamaica at our favourite resort in January. Daily 5k run on the beach before breakfast, and a dive each day. Lots of quality beach time together.4 -
After 34 years, I’ve retired from active service at my fire department. I’ve left it in the hands of this fine young firefighter, my grandson Tucker.
I’m still in good shape and work out constantly, but I’ll be 68 in May. It’s time to hang up the spurs and let the younguns have at it.
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