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!