Tuesday, May 29, 2012

257

I gotta say, the new Blogger is a lot better and easier to use.  I might actually keep up on my posts since it is so fast and I don't have to screw around with the pictures and formatting as much!  Today we went on a hike up along Beauty Creek near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  I have done a lot of stomping around up there but never on this trail.  It's a big mountain bike trail but since it was midweek we only saw 3 of them.  The chick smelled strongly of perfume and deodorant.  BEAR BAIT!!!  Sometimes people forget they are in the wild when they are so close to a city, but in this part of the country it does not matter.  At any rate, I did not see a bear or any sign of one.

A highlight was the number of flowers and fungus that we saw.  We went without any dogs which I realized gave me a chance to look around a lot more at stuff.  I was able to take a bunch of flower pictures.  Nancy and I were talking about how we both, in the past when we would see flower and bird geeks out on nature walks, we would sort of giggle because it was so nerdy.  As I am posting this, Nancy is looking through flower and fungi books.  Lifespan changes are really quite amazing.

The trail is well defined and hooks up to other trails in the area but I am not sure where all of them go.  I tend to not remember trails by their number but rather their name, like "Caribou Ridge" which hooks up to 257.  Before we went I tried to find the trail on the topo map but it is not there.  I will keep looking though.

We decided to spend some time this summer hiking in this area because it is so close.  If we can actually swing it we are planning on a hiking trip to Utah in October so we decided to start some training.  We are going to the Escalante which is a pretty harsh environment.  But enough of my blah, blah. blah.  Here are some pictures that may or may not be identified.

Nancy crossing Beauty Creek.  We were both too scared to walk on the top log.

The trail heads up quickly

Some sort of lichen or fungi thingie


Pore fungus (maybe)

Probably some kind of lichen

I read recently that humans are never more than 10 feet away from an arachnid.  I was a bit closer than that.  Her web was amazing.  The web was in the shape of a bell with multiple levels and varying patterns to the structure.  Totally weird.


Tons of these little guys.  He actually had a small insect on him.  His antenna are so cool.

Tons of these guys too.  We figured they were some sort of invasive creature responsible for the destruction of the Northwest forests.

Trillium

Lovely stream


Fairy Slipper: a type of orchid (Calypso bulbosa...since Nancy just looked it up)

Wood anemone...I think

False Solomon's seal

Dunno

Chrysanthemum sort of thing

Mock orange

Dunno

Wild strawberry



Thursday, May 24, 2012

Vacation all I ever wanted, Vacation had to get away...

Blue heron in the Mississippi River


I just spent a lovely week and a half in the midwest.  I visited the folks in the stunning hamlet of Quincy, Illinois.  I certainly got some very needed rest.  I spent time with family and friends and was able to have a short creek hike.  I took the train and slept through North Dakota.  On the way home I had a 4 hour layover in downtown Chicago.  I always stuff my belongings into a locker and go for lunch and then a walk.  This time, downtown was totally weird.  It was a couple of days before the NATO summit and there were cops and Homeland Security all over the place.  Really strange.

There are always things when I go back to Quincy that make me think of returning for good; my family, friends, the Mississippi River, thick green forest understory, the smell of damp rotting oak leaves, lightening bugs.  But when I step back and think about it, I am not sure my spirit could be fulfilled.  The wild places are few and far between.  I would have to drive for a long way to get to wilderness.  Here, I can easily be in the mountains is about 40 minutes.  But I guess I would go back if it was necessary...but I'd need a house boat that I could tool around in on the river and camp on uninhabited islands.  Yeah, a house boat...

My sister took me to a totally cool creek full of geodes, fossils and flint.  This is one of the many types of fossils and is about the size of a black bean (I know, a weird comparison)

Years ago when I first came to this creek it looked completely different.  One part by the road has been bulldozed and it is pretty obvious that it flooded pretty bad.

Lots of different rocks in the picture: flint, limestone, quartz, chalk, diatomite, and mudstone

There is a totally cool cemetery in town called Woodland Cemetery.  It is high on a bluff over looking the river.  It was built over a complex of Native American mounds.  While I was there with my friend Kim a flock of buzzards flew over us really close and one landed on top of the city vault.  It was pretty creepy.  No one really knows what the vault was for but it is built into the hillside and is cool inside (the door was actually open so I went it...it was full over gardening equipment).  Anyway, the most probable theory was that it was a storage spot for people who were killed on the river barges.  They were kept cool in there until their family could be notified.  It would also make a killer wine cellar.


Kayakers on the river.  It is becoming a more common sight.  I was there 12 years ago with my kayak for a trip down the Current River in Missouri and no one knew what the funny boat was on top of my truck.  I had fun with that.  Seeing these guys and being down by the river really makes me want to do a paddle trip on the Mississippi.

Totally cool butterfly in a tree.  I noticed it when I was watching a million bees flying into the blooms.

My sister and I went to Fall Creek which is some place we always go when I am there.  The rest area access was closed because Illinois is broke so we went to the upper access and walked down on the short little trail.  My sister did not want to walk a long way so I headed down the creek and she picked me up by the locked rest area gate.

The limestone cliffs are incredibly beautiful

The air was hot and the water was cold.  There are several spring that feed into the creek that keep it a bit cooler than most midwest creeks.

My sister waiting for me at the end

Ferns growing in cracks in the limestone



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