Sounds of Spring

I haven't had as much time as I should to run lately with 13.1 miles coming up in just over three weeks and a 10K just two weeks after that. The weekend up to New York City took three days out of my long distance running schedule. But last night, I got my house cleaning done after work and stepped out the door about 6:30 to get in a three-miler. Naturally, it was dark, but for February 23rd, unnaturally, it was very mild. I was dressed in shorts and a running tee, which was a welcome change from long running pants and multiple layers.

As it turns out, I wasn't the only one noticing the warm weather. As soon as I stepped out my door into the night, I heard them, one of the surest signs that spring is on the way - spring peepers! Loud and urgent they were, as if calling: "I'm here! I'm here! Pick me! I'm your ideal mate! Pick me! I'm here!" It is amazing that such a tiny frog - about the size of a thumbnail - could have such a loud voice.

We had our first real snow of the winter this past Sunday while I was in New York. Then, just four days later, it is over 70 degrees out and the spring peepers are calling as if their lives depend on it - which, of course, the lives of their future generations do. I've always loved that sound, and look forward to it each year. And even though February 23rd seems rather ridiculous to hear it, I enjoyed the little concert as I ran through the dark. It kept me company on my solitary run.

Footloose in the Big Apple

We Americans talk about honoring our forefathers, but I jokingly say that I honor my "four mothers." My father was married four times, one less than his five kids put together so far. Two of these were happy, and two "un." Unfortunately, the two happy marriages were both very short, one ending with him becoming a widower after five years, and the other resulting in my last step-mother becoming a widow in less than a year. (I can't complain about the length of his unhappy marriages, for if the first of these had been shorter than 12 years, I would not be writing this.)

My step-mother Rhoda is moving to Long Island in a week or so, and I wanted to visit her in New York City, and also see the apartment that has been in my family for 42 years one last time. It had been a long while since I was there. I hopped on the train, which took 4 hours longer than it should have (don't ask!) to get to NYC Saturday from Richmond. (Okay, ask - the snowplow on the front of the train caught on a road crossing and bent under the train in Ashland, just minutes after leaving the station. It took three hours to remove the mangled plow.) But I finally got there. Rhoda is slowing down and didn't much feel like doing anything other than conversation, so I decided to take a walk about in Manhattan for three hours Sunday while she took a nap. If I were walking straight out, I could cover about 13 miles in that time, but with frequent stops, a slower pace, traffic lights, and so forth, I probably only walked seven or so miles.

From the apartment on the Upper East Side, I first headed east to Carl Shurtz Park on the East River. I had walked there many times with my father on visits to the Big Apple, and it was a bit like a walk down Memory Lane to long gone times. I took plenty of photos during my walk, and share some of them here.

The Gracie Mansion in Carl Shurtz Park is the home to New York City's Mayors, although I imagine the current mayor has an even nicer place of his own. This mansion was once the residence of Theodore Roosevelt's Aunt, Anna Bulloch Gracie:I think this is the Triboro Bridge:Views along the East River in the park. Lots of walkers, runners, and dogs were enjoying the fairly mild weather.From Carl Shurtz Park, I headed west to check out "The Met." I was sorely tempted to go through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but at $25 a pop, my limited time could not justify this expense, so I headed to Central Park. The Met is less than a half mile from my step-mother's apartment:Spring is coming to New York!There were so many pretty paths in the park:I saw lots of birds from this spots, including tufted titmice and a downy woodpecker:No kidding!Central Park views:Two fierce eagles celebrate their kill of a bighorn sheep:I keep feeling like I saw a statue like this, an Indian brave hunting with his dog, in Cooperstown, New York a couple of years ago:This looks like a great way to see the park:"The Bard" probably never set foot in the New World, but here he is now:How iconic a Central Park image is this?This beautiful building, the Dairy, is a gift shop:Balto was the Siberian Husky that led one of the teams to deliver diphtheria serum to Nome in 1925. The exploit of the brave men and dogs that made this possible are now commemorated in the Iditarod sled dog race. This musician brought back memories of walking here with my dad listening to people making music, and how much he enjoyed that:Central Park has beautiful landscaping:

What Am I?

I saw this animal on a short hike yesterday in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I have never been so close to one of these in the wild, and will explain at the end.

I have a color in my name.

I have feathers.

I am usually spotted soaring through the air, always on the alert.

I am much bigger than a pigeon. In fact, pigeons would cower if I came within sight.

Did I mention that the color in my name is a primary color?

Keep your nasty salad and fruits. I want meat, and I want it fresh - mice, squirrels, rats, snakes, and other birds will be on my menu.

I am named after the color of my tail.

That should be enough clues, make your guess, and scroll down....


down....


down....



to here:

I am a red-tailed hawk.

In the refuge, there is a large blind that looks out over the marsh. Part of it is indoors with a glass front. Sitting less than a foot from the glass was this hawk. We were convinced that it was a dead, stuffed one, placed there to scare birds from the glass. He did not move. Suddenly, he blinked his eyes! No stuffed bird does that! I snapped a shot - this one - through the glass with a lot of glare. I stepped outside the building at the end and slowly rounded the corner. The second I came into view, this large hawk - less than a dozen feet away - took off. Even so, it was a very neat experience!

Lunch at Great Shiplock Park

As mild as it was today, even should that Pennsylvania groundhog sees his shadow tomorrow and we end up having six more weeks of winter, we have nothing to complain about! I took advantage of the mild weather and a longer lunch hour to do a walk to Great Shiplock Park past Shockoe Bottom. It is about 1.7 miles each way from work, and while there, I explored about and ate my PB&J sandwich and my Greek yogurt - yum! Along the way, I took a number of photos, some of which I show here. And at the end, on this "winter" day where the high was close to 70 Fahrenheit, I hated to return to work - but I did.

This is the Tidewater Connection Lock in the downtown. It was once used to lower and raise boats between two canals at different levels.
I'm looking back from whence I came along the Canal Walk.
If you were enslaved, how badly would you want freedom? How far would you go to taste it? Well, in the 1850's, Henry "Box" Brown had himself nailed shut into a box and shipped to Philadelphia from Richmond. This box is the same size as the one Brown, with the help of friends, used to escape slavery. The local white man who helped him was eventually caught and punished. I put my day pack in there so you can gauge the size, but trust me, it would be a miserable trip even for an hour, much less for more than a day on a bumpy train.
Because I was shooting into the sun, I had to put the camera very close and on the ground in the shadow of the box to get my photo inside the box. And even then, my foot was sticking out. I cannot imagine how anyone could have endured the long trip to Philly nailed shut in a box - even one much larger than this one.
Here is the view back to Richmond from my arrival in this little park. See the tall building left of center? That is the James Monroe Building, where I worked as a contractor for six months in 2000. It is 29 stories tall. I know this because I used to walk to the top once a day - after I was able to do it. It took me about four months of working there, adding a floor a week, to make it to the very top, and it took about seven or eight minutes to walk to the top!
The mighty James River, the reason there is a city here, runs by. The purpose of the old locks here were to allow ships access to the river below the unnavigable rapids that Richmond is famed for. The James is, I believe, the longest river in the United States that flows in only one state.
February 1st???? Really!??
These geese and ducks are enjoying the spring-like weather.
Part of the path I walked to get here is on the Capital to Capital (or Cap 2 Cap) bike trail. When completed, it will run for 50 miles and connect Richmond with Virginia's original capital, Williamsburg.
The last time I saw "Connecticut", the Big Indian, he was being evicted from our baseball stadium. It is good to know he has a new home with nice river views.

An Early Sign of Spring

Winter in these parts is pretty mild compared to the seventeen years I lived in Maine, where the standing joke was: "We have two seasons in the State of Maine - winter, and last winter!" But even so, winter is still winter, and yesterday, I saw an early - way too early, I think - sign that spring is coming.

It was during my nine mile half marathon training run. As we ran up Libbie, a tiny splash of color in the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street caught my eye. I stopped and bent over to look at it. Yep, it was single frail little crocus, a light purple color, in bloom by the road. A crocus? On January 28? Way too early, even for here. But it is a sign that spring, which usually starts here in late February, is coming.

What Am I?

See if you can figure out what I saw last weekend on my short hike near Back Bay.

Let's eliminate the entire plant kingdom and more than a million animal species right off the bat. I have feathers.

Unlike many of you humans (and most of my feathered friends), I mate for life.

As an adult, I weigh about 7 to 10 pounds (3.2 to 4.5 kg).

I nest in colonies, way up in northern Greenland, Canada, and Alaska - above the timber line.

For the winter, I migrate thousands of miles - with no map or GPS or compass - to areas where I can survive and get enough to eat (including Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia, USA).

I am usually white as snow with black wingtips, although I have a bluish color phase as well.

One of my close relatives is named after a very large North American country.

I fear eagles but little else as an adult, other than you humans that hunt me. But my chicks lead a perilous life to reach adulthood. Arctic foxes and skuas are deadly enemies of my young.

You might confuse me with a similar large migratory bird that is also white, but this species has a longer neck.

OK, enough clues - time to guess. Scroll down....



I am a snow goose!

On my hike last weekend, I came across a marsh with several hundred snow geese (and some Canada geese and ducks). Several hundred more arrived while I was there. The sight and wild sound of so many creatures so close was amazing!

What Am I?

What was it I saw on my hike yesterday?

As my name implies, I have no hair.

But on the other hand, that is kind of a misleading clue, because nothing that is related to me has hair. Only mammals do, and I am no mammal.

But on the other hand, it is a great clue, because now you have part of my name, or should.

No, I am not an eagle or even a bird.

I don't eat things. In fact, I use the amazing chemical process of photosynthesis to make food.

I have no feet, I have no legs, but I do have knees.

I have needles, but I don't sew.

My wood is amazingly resistant to rot if you humans make something out of it.

You would be miserable standing around in swamp water all day, but I love it.

In the summer, you might think that I am a kind of pine tree, with my evergreen look. But evergreen is fleeting. This time of year, I am naked as an oak.

Figure it out?

Scroll down....

I am a bald cypress:
Bald cypress knees:

A Lucky Wildlife Sighting on Friday the 13th

The animal stepped slowly from the brush onto the side of the gravel road that I was walking along during a return from an hour and a half hike in Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. The creature was about 100 feet away as the day rapidly headed towards twilight. It did not appear to see me as I stopped in my tracks. "What is that?" I thought. "Maybe a feral hog?" I reached down to start up my camera and looked down to start zooming with the camera while simultaneously starting to raise the camera up. I figured I could get a better look through the zoom and maybe get a photo. At that exact instant, the animal alertly looked towards me, and a split second later, it ran across the road and disappeared into the brush. At that moment, seeing it move, I realized that I had just seen a bobcat, the first I have ever seen in hundreds of hours roaming around the outdoors. I didn't get a photo, but it is an amazing memory all the same.

It was a cool and very windy day. I did not see much wildlife during the first part of my hike, which started about 4PM and ended just after sunset. But later, the bobcat and some other spectacular wildlife sightings more than made up for that. I will write about some of those later, but here are a couple of photos of the sky today over the marsh and Back Bay:

Where Would You Like to Hike in 2012?

I passed up a last chance to hike in 2011. The Meetup Group I sometimes hike with had a hike to Reed's Gap planned on a beautiful day that felt more like spring than winter. And they had room for people to still join, which is unusual. But I am running the Shamrock Half-Marathon in less than three months, to celebrate 10 years surviving cancer this spring. And I have not run much at all. So instead, I joined Team in Training for seven badly needed miles this morning. Hiking will have to wait until 2012.

So, here we are, on the cusp of 2012. Where would you like to hike in 2012? Be realistic, taking into account your time availability, finances, and physical condition. In my case, I work full time and have very little time off other than some weekends that I can hike. So although it is not like I have the money to drop everything and leave for the Rockies or South America or Alaska, vacation time limits what I can do more than anything else. So that being said, here are some places I would love to get to in 2012 - and have at least a realistic shot of attaining many of them:

• Mt. Rogers - the highest mountain in Virginia, there are dozens of miles of trail in the National Forest there. I'd love to spend a few days hiking there and in Grayson Highlands State Park.



• Do another loop in Shenandoah National Park, similar to my three day trip over Trayfoot Mountain a couple of months ago.



• White Mountains in New Hampshire - I'd love to do a multi-day-trip to New Hampshire and hike in the Whites, staying at the (by hiking standards) luxurious huts maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club. But it is at least an all day drive each way from home.



• Hike one of Manitou Islands in Lake Michigan, maybe on a trip to see my granddaughter.



• Hike or backpack in the Dolly Sods area of West Virginia.



• Make it to Trail Days in Damascus, Virginia this coming May. Lots of kindred spirits, bluegrass music, day hiking, and - rumor has it - cold beer.



• A bonus would be a trip to a new National Park, and do some hiking - but that is a lot of time and money.

Those are some of my ideas. How about you - where do you hope to hike to in the brand new year? Oh - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here are some of the things I am considering from a foot racing point of view in 2012.

Black Rocks Panoramas

During my three day backpacking circuit over Trayfoot Mountain last month, I visited Black Rocks on the third day. While there, I took a series of photos, side by side, hoping to make a panorama at some point. Having gotten some photo editing software for Christmas, some point is now.

The first panorama combines three photos and shows our approximate camping location from the night before, tucked in behind Horsehead Mountain, well below us down in the Paine Run Valley. The ridgeline of Trayfoot Mountain takes up the rightmost third of the photo.My second panorama combines six photos side by side to show views going from the southwest to the east-northeast. You can see Trayfoot Mountain near the right side of the photo, with a little bit of the Black Rocks in the foreground right.