Leisurely Photo Hike

I met a friend at noon and we took the blue to the upper, then headed north on the tadpole. Our goal: butterfly photos. She currently has a painful knee, so when we arrived at the first steep grade drop we decided to turn around and head west. We got a few pics along the tadpole.

We crossed just north of the upper and noticed a huge wasp nest in a dead tree. Stopped for some shots then continued on to the gate and headed north. There were a few butterflies along that trail, then we took the 3rd left. We stopped to look at the 3rd of the 3 lakes, and went on to Rock City where we lounged on the resting wall for quite a while. We saw a large butterfly that I believe to be a red spotted purple admiral, but it eluded us. Of course.

I showed her the circular big boulder area and the crazy scary bike ramps on the west. I couldn't believe it, because people have been adding on to them! We would love to see some riders there.

We looped around, headed towards the gate, then back down to the lower. Total hike: 3.9 miles, 3 hrs 42 min. We took a lot of time standing and composing, focusing, and waiting for a good shot. I didn't turn the timer off during any of our stops, so my Garmin says we averaged 1.1 mph. Heee.

I got a few shots of new things: true katydid, american field cricket, reakirts blue, another blue-like cutie that I can't ID, and a big brown, oily, yellow-winged grasshopper. We also got some time with a common buckeye, pearl crescent, and red-banded hairstreak, as well as various other things.

Some pics from this hike are in an album on Hooly's Facebook.

This was my first hike/walk since the plantar fasciitis episode. I took preventive 800 mg ibuprofen and it still was noticeably sore. At about 3 hrs I had to take 600 mg more. In the parking lot I started favoring my right foot. I wore my Asics and my new Tuli's pro heel cups. We leave for vacation in less than 2 weeks and I'm thinking of getting a corticosteroid shot in that heel. After months of planning it would be frustrating and disappointing to not get to do all of our hikes because of my stupid heel.

Even though I hated my CrocsRx Relief for the first few days, they really feel good now. In fact, I've had them on since I got home, I've played outside with the dogs a few times, and my foot is feeling pretty good. Maybe the Crocs are OK.