After years of trouble-free operation, my inReach is no longer mapping my tracks accurately much of the time, adding all sorts of additional track lines and garbling the results, so I won't show a map. We did hike about 8 miles and did a bit of exploring in the woods when we could not find the connection between the Old Cabin and Pine Trails. Eventually we did, although unlike is normally the case in our state parks, it was very poorly marked.
Here are some photos of this hike. As far as wildlife, we didn't see any but did hear a number of birds (lots of the big pileated woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina wren).
Doug on the trail...
Stark winter tree branches
The snow of two weekends ago was all but gone.
The old cabin site. I wonder who lived here and how their lives were?
Hiking along the Pine Trail.
Skunk cabbage bulb. Yeah, they smell a bit like skunks, but a sure sign of the spring to come.
Interesting fungi, almost like a fan.
All of the above photos were of the first hike of the day. The second was along the River and Gold Mine Trails, and was shorter.
We saw at least 3-4 places where the rarely seen moles, a star-nosed perhaps, tunneled in the darkness hunting for worms and grubs.
There is a memorial to our friend Holly Walker, who did exceptional work for State Parks as a naturalist, along the River Trail. She is gone too soon and missed by many people.
It's a lovely spot to memorialize our friend.
The River Trail is scenic and easy to hike.
I'm glad that Doug suggested on hiking together last Friday and doing so before the rains of Saturday arrived.
Such a nice place to hike. I can see myself walking up that path.
ReplyDeleteI think you would love these trails, Happy-K!
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