No Need for a Camera on a Hot Day, Unless...

It's my last day of vacation, and as I lay in bed last night I mentally hiked the full yellow loop with Eddie. So we set out with no camera, went up the craggy way to the top to take the ridge trail to the end and loop around on a lower trail. I didn't plan on it being so hot, and once again I forgot my sweat rag. We ended up turning into the mountaintop and moseying around, eventually finding ourselves at the yoshi pond. We sat on the snacking rock, I had my 1/2 sandwich, Ed had a bowl of water, and we saw 3 folks go by on the other side of the pond.


The only critter things we saw were loads of grasshoppers, so I was glad I didn't have my camera dangling. We took the blue back down, and cut to the parking lot through the back way, thus avoiding the trailhead area. But we didn't avoid everything! Me without my camera, and we apparently interrupted a couple of BBs. They obviously heard us coming first (at least I wasn't singing) and we came upon them, rather suddenly, standing several yards apart and acting all casual. Ha! And another Ha! to the do-gooders who think they are making the area nicer.


I read a post recently on the TM site asking for suggestions on how to handle the crowded paths and keep peace among the bikers, horsers, hikers, and no one said it, but screaming kids with screaming parents. Did you not see this coming, folks? As for me and my dog, we prefer the BBs.


Total hike was 1 hr, 3 miles.

Osage Hills State Park

Yesterday we decided to visit Osage Hills State Park sans Eddie. I forgot my Garmin and hiking pole, but I made up for it by taking about 45 minutes to decide which other gear to take, and another 15 deciding which lens/lenses to take. I finally decided on my DAJO waist pack so I could carry an extra lens without having to use a backpack, and my walk-around lens.  For what it's worth, I didn't actually use the extra lens (ultra wide zoom), but it was comforting to know I had it with me. Plus I had another lens (macro) in the car, just in case.


The park is lovely in October, and the temperature and breeze were perfect. We came across very few other folks which is always a bonus. After parking past the swimming pool we headed down the trail to the falls area, and almost immediately took a little side path down to the creek. We poked our way along the creek bank on the rocks, seeing a plethora of itty bitty tiny buggy things. I took some pics, but w/o my macro lens on I just couldn't get any decent shots. Damselflies were all over the place, a few large hopping spiders, and many small leaping frogs.

The trail leading to the falls area

We took a little side path that went down to the creek

Hundreds of little mussel shells dotted the rocks along the bank

We followed the stepping stones along the creek for a while, hoping we could make it all the way around to the falls area without having to climb back up to the main trail; it didn't work out that way, so up we came

 We were duly warned!

We found this one mistflower, or mist flower, blooming, otherwise there were mostly the little asters

A view up the creek to the falls area; when we arrived my cousin looked around, a bit puzzled, and asked/stated, "This is the waterfall?" Initially disappointed, she did find them lovely and relaxing

The view up the creek, including the rope swing on the left

View down the creek; if you enlarge this you may see a little blue speck, which is my cousin relaxing and enjoying the falls

Little pastel moth

Pearl crescent on the asters (just like Turkey Mountain)

Reakirt's blue, I believe

Fiery skippers on asters; they were a good number of them, and they were all playful

Lookout Lake, where we watched a man load the middle row boat, then take it out with his trolling motor to do a little fishing

As we were leaving the park we encountered this tarantula crossing the road; of course I hopped out for my snippity-snap routine, looked up and saw a car coming our way; luckily they were older folks who slowed down, so I continued snapping until the tarantula made it safely to the other side; when the car pulled up the man drawled, "That thar's a TAR-ANCH-chula" and his wife piped in, "Dijoo git a PITcher?" Well, yes I did, thank you for waiting.

We had a lovely day, and stopped to eat BBQ at Dinks in Bartlesville. 

Ed Gets to Hike

When Eddie realized he was going hiking he turned into a lunatic. I finally had to harness him into the back while we finished getting ready, and when we realized there would be a little delay before leaving I had to bring Ed back in. At first he refused to get out of the car - he knew he was being cheated.


We finally left with a joyous dog and arrived at noon. We took the craggy way to the top again, went on to the 2nd meadow before heading west. We didn't go up the tadpole, but poked around the upper enough to see there were indeed other flowers blooming on the mountain. We continued west (NW, to be exact) and headed toward Rock City. We decided to have a snack and a rest at the boy scout rocks, then took the full loop around and back to the gate.


I didn't take my camera because 1) I was tired of the dangling 2) it was windy today 3) Ed. On the big loop we saw a huge beetle of the bess family, a horned passalus (or something like that), but that was really the only thing for which I wished I had my camera. The hairstreaks, really all the butterflies, were not as thick on the asters today.


We were out about 2 1/2 hours but made it only a little over 3 miles. We're like the speed of grandmas! And my cousin is a grandma!

Butterfly Hike

My cousin and I were at TM for about 3 hrs early this afternoon, and had a wonderful, though tiring, hike with great weather. I chose my camera over Ed, poor boy. We took the craggy way to the top, spending lots of time in all the meadowy areas. 


Little asters are about the only flower blooming, and they were all over the place and teeming with butterflies. We saw lots of gray hairstreaks, skippers, pearl crescents, and a few tiny blues.

 I thought I saw an ant, but its butt says assassin bug, so I don't know

 On the trailhead we found this harvestman feasting on a dead grasshopper

 Some kind of bee on the little white asters

 Two gray hairstreaks

 Hairstreak bouquet, with a pennsylvania leatherwing in the middle!

 Katydid on asters

Dragonfly skimmer on wheat-looking grass

 Wasp on aster

 Skipper on asters; I tried to ID it but there are just too many

 Colorful poison oak

 While my cousin was on the phone conducting AZ business, I looked around and this exclamation point in the tree was the most interesting thing I found

 While returning on the ridge trail we noticed a dark area of the sky; forecast said chance of rain, and it finally did barely sprinkle as we were nearing the end

 Question mark

Monarch

A Bee Jigs in Pollen

My cousin is here and we had expected it to rain today, which it did - ever so slightly in the morning - so we made other plans. After those plans we did go on out to TM for about 1/2 hour, just to look around. I saw enough to become frustrated. 


The butterflies were more than plentiful because it had cooled off from the light rain, and we were treated to a special sight: after watching a lone monarch dancing on the asters, another equally large orange butterfly joined it, and I could have had a shot of the two of them on the same clump in full glory. (I've since looked in my ID book and I think it may have been a gulf fritillary.)


Then a few yards down the path we saw another, 3rd, different large orange butterfly which posed perfectly for us. We also saw lots and lots of gray hairstreaks, skippers, blues and pearl crescents. They were all flitting about the asters in the lower meadow areas of the blue and the yellow. So many butterflies and no camera! Tomorrow we will return with the camera, if it doesn't rain!


This evening while playing ball with Eddie I noticed a bumble bee rolling around inside one of the rose of sharon (or whatever it is... I think I read it may be swamp mallow or something like that.) I looked around at others along the retaining wall and I saw 3 bees in all, in various stages of being covered with pollen.

 The bee danced the maypole with the... the... middle sticky-out part that had all the little pollen circles on it. I just asked my cousin, who has advanced studies in biology, specifically botany, and she went into full-blown scientific jargon lecture mode. I asked her one more time, please simply tell me what this part is called... then she began a verbal essay on how flowers can get quite complicated blah, blah, blah, and when I rolled my eyes she hollered out "ITS THE PENIS, THE PENIS!"

Any way, the bee stayed down in there, gradually moving around and around in order to cover its body with the pollen; since they end up carrying it as packed saddle bags on their thighs, the bee probably went somewhere to do the packing

 This is a same bee, just starting to fly out of the flower

 This is a different bee beginning to fly out

 And here is the 3rd bee, just starting his pollen-gathering work

I found a tiny leaf beetle on the only white sharon/swamp mallow I have, over in the other corner of the yard

Hiking vs Walking

My cousin is on her way and will arrive tonight, and we plan to do some light hiking while she is here. Recently I've been reading some other hiking blogs, and by "other" I mean REAL hiking blogs by REAL hikers. So I've been thinking... if I haven't been really hiking, have I just been walking?

After some thought I have decided that if you can do it in clothes you wear to work, it is walking. If you have gear purchased for the sole purpose of walking in the woods, even if it is only one thing, then it is hiking. If you are walking on a paved or maintained path, it is walking, but if you are negotiating rocks and roots, going up and down, and you could not push a baby stroller on it, you are hiking.

I do not wear my work clothes or shoes when I go out, and I have:
1) a garmin 250 
2) trail shoes that should not be worn on concrete 
3) two pair of hiking boots (one for regular, one for wet and muddy)
4) hiking poles 
5) a camelbak hydration pack for longer outings 
6) two double-bottle waist packs for shorter outings (one can also hold an extra lens, if I so desire) 
7) one of those safari-style hats with a little neck hangy-down part to protect the back of your neck from the sun 
8) an emergency medicine pack that I carry with me in case of back spasms or vertigo. 


I may have more, but this is all I can remember at the moment. Where I go you could not push a baby stroller.

I go hiking.

Dog on a Log

Ann drove over for a hike today, and we arrived before noon. Temp ended up warmer than we had expected, and we didn't like it, but the hike was still great. We took the lowest trail to the last trail up, which is a long, steep, slippy trail. I decided I was too tired to go up, so we turned around and went back. It had been about 1 1/2 years since we had taken the lowest trail, and on the way out we mistakenly took the wrong trail down to the lower. With my camera dangling and swinging around my neck, I never would have made it down safely without my pole. We won't be making that mistake again.


Ann and Ed led the entire time because Eddie has to be in the lead. It was too hot for butterflies, but I did get a few pics.

 The oddest thing we came across was this perfectly laid out animal fur. It was practically in the shape of a body, I'm thinking rabbit, with tail and leg fur. There was no skin and no bones, only a perfect wig of fur

 Ann stopped and squealed early in the hike when she saw a long skinny green snake sticking the upper part of its body up and out of this hole. We had a stand-off for a few seconds, but by the time I lifted and focused my camera it had disappeared back down; we waited a while but it didn't come back up. This was the best thing we saw today

It looked a lot like this

 On our way back I was hanging back a ways from Ann and Ed, and I saw this huge ant struggling and shaking, then wobbling, then recuping and scurrying off the trail; I think either Ann or Ed must have stepped on it

  I believe this is a green stinkbug nymph; I've seen a few little ones similar to this, but never this one. It's especially cute!

 Down in the shadows of the lower trail, just off the path, Ann found this book-in-a-bag. The title is Dead Runner. Ooooh, kinda scary; it's probably left-over booty from a scavenger hunt one of the organizations held at some time - I can always count on trash and marker debris left on the trails after their events

Near the end of the hike I took many pics of this bee on the aster-type flower; on our way out there was a bee on this very same aster clump, don't know if it was the same bee, but at least I took the time to shoot him on the way back in

 This log on the lower trail has hatch marks and even a smile, I guess to resemble an alligator, and of course I had to walk across it both times; here Ann is trying to get Ed to go across, but he is afraid of it; I shot the whole series of her trying to coax him across, and he finally made it about half-way before hopping off

Here he just sat, stared and refused to get on; I think Ann is sweet-talking him

Ann, near the end of our hike, looking fresh as a daisy! Well, not so much her looking fresh as it was her stopping to make sure I hadn't collapsed while hoisting my carcass uphill to the next level of trails; snapping her pic was merely a delay tactic to get a chance to lean against a tree and rest!