Fogbound in Maine

May 29. Well, this was not exactly an epic trip, but with my incredibly sore foot, it is probably the best I can do for a while. We were on a cruise with a friend for a week, from Boston to Montreal, and the second day out included a stop in Bar Harbor, Maine. We took a bus tour for a couple of hours that included several stops in Acadia National Park, one my favorite places in the world. One stop was on top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the Atlantic Coast north of Rio. On a clear day, the views here are spectacular, but this was a fogbound morning in Maine, with visibility less than 200 feet.

There was a short and paved loop trail at the top, about a half kilometer. I was the only one on the bus to walk it. You could barely see a thing, but it felt good to have boots on the ground in Maine (home once in a past lifetime for a lot of years) once again!

You could see relatively clearly for maybe 20 feet, and after that shapes looked like ghosts. Because of the paved path, you really couldn't get lost:

Maine granite in the fog:

Even these pretty purple flowers were muted by fog:

Back at sea level, I snapped a shop of Bar Island. At low tide, as it is now, you can walk to the island across this bar that gives Bar Harbor it's name. It is a popular thing to do, as you can see. But stay alert, because if the tide comes in - 12 foot range - you'd better be able to swim in the 50 degree water, or you're staying on the island for a while.

No, I've Not Fallen Off the Earth

I've not fallen off the earth. I'm just not hiking. When every step with one's left foot feels like a nail is being driven into your left heel, it takes some of the pleasure out of walking and hiking. This plantar fasciitis is no fun at all, and I've missed prime hiking weather this spring.

Other than that, many visits to my sister Ann, and her death on Memorial Day - I will miss her until I take my final breath some day - have taken time and desire away from other things. But I have faith that ultimately, I will heal my heel, and get out racing for a cure and hiking again. With only 107 days until my 3-Day, 60 mile walk, it has to happen soon.

Until then, Oh to be Hiking!!!!!!!

Return to the Great Blue Herons

May 11. I'd walked an easy mile and a half yesterday to see how the plantar fasciitis would do, and it was not bad. I'd gone past the heron rookery on the James River in downtown Richmond, and seen lots of great blue herons out fishing to provide for their ravenous youngsters. So I decided to return today (May 11) with a camera. I also learned that a mile and half two days in a row was amazingly painful for my sore foot, and have taken it very easy since then, but that is another story. Here are some photos of the herons (and one egret) along the James, along with a northern water snake - the wild side of a big city. As I watched traffic zipping by in the distance over the I-95 bridge, I wondered how many of the drivers had an inkling what they were driving right by just up-river!

These little ducklings seemed to be frantically searching for mom:

Northern water snake sunning itself amid rubble:

Paying My Respects

I got up yesterday at 4AM to catch the 5AM train to Washington, DC for a one day conference. It was ending at 3:30, and the training coming back wasn’t until 7PM, so I knew I would have about two and half hours to enjoy in our Capital. So I took my newly purchased New Balance shoes, a change of clothes, a book to read on the train, a windbreaker, and my camera all stuffed in a little day pack. But what should I do? I came up with four options, considering I am having a lot of pain from my plantar fasciitis and should not be on my feet a lot. In order of low to high stress on my feet, here were my choices:

1. Take the Metro to a place with a nice outdoor café, and nurse a beer or two as the world goes by, then head to Union Station.

2. Visit one of the many great museums within a half mile of my seminar site – American History was literally across the street from the Ronald Reagan building. Then catch the Metro to a café for a beer.

3. Take the Metro to Woodley, walk a half mile to the National Zoo, and spend a couple of hours walking slowly around the zoo before walking back to the Metro.

4. Oh, the heck with this inactivity stuff! Walk about seven miles seeing some of the great sites of our Capital City, even though it might cause me a lot of misery and pain later.

I think you can figure out what my choice was!

So, where to walk to? Well, I decided to walk to Arlington National Cemetery – you will see why later – and see some of the sights along the way. Yeah, I’m an idiot, and Mother Nature is now telling me to stay off my feet for a while, but my seven mile walk was enjoyable and well worth it. Here is what I saw during my time in Washington before catching the Metro to Union Station at 6:00. With Memorial Day later this month, I decided to concentrate on memorials and monuments to our country’s warriors.

The Washington Monument is always an impressive sight. I wonder what General Washington would say, by George?
The World War II Memorial is always impressive. When you are a kid watching war movies, it makes war look kind of adventuresome and fun. The good guys always win. When people die it looks painless and very quick. Even the wounded guys don’t look so bad – a little blood on their shirt, give ‘em a cigarette, and they are fine. I would guess that in reality, war is a pretty awful experience. The collective sacrifice of our World War II Vets is staggering, and this memorial attempts to pay tribute to them.Words of Admiral Nimitz on the WW II Memorial:My Stepdad, Stuart Silverman, was a World War II Vet, serving in New Guinea. He got to see this memorial three years before his death in 2008, and I will never forget how emotional it was for him, and for the rest of us present with him. He stood and saluted this part of the monument – saluting his long-gone comrades in arms – his body trembling with the stress of standing there as an elderly and infirm man.One of our “forgotten” wars is Korea. My godfather, Paul Edwards, was a soldier in this war.I walked past the Lincoln Memorial. What would our country be like had we never had the “Great Emancipator” or George Washington?The “Wall” at the Vietnam Memorial is always moving. There was a note and photos there at one spot addressed to a long gone father – maybe a father never known – that was really sad. My older brother spent a year in Vietnam in the US Army. He visited this place with a friend once, who asked what he felt when he saw the “Wall.” My brother said he replied, “Truthfully, I’m just glad my name isn’t up there.”This poignant statue honors the nurses during the Vietnam War. It is one of two monuments I can remember – the other being the Civil Rights Monument in Richmond – that features a woman (and an African-American woman):I walked over the Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery. On the way, I watched this boat cruise up-river towards Roosevelt Island, a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. This island has wonderful hiking trails, and if I had a few more hours (and two good feet) I would have headed there next. Where would conservation be in this country had we never had TR?By now, I had walked about four miles, and even at a much slower pace than my normal walking speed, back of my left foot was hurting with every step. But by this time, I was determined to walk into Arlington National Cemetery, for the main reason I decided to do this: to pay respects to a former neighbor: Shane Adcock.

When we moved to Richmond, Shane was our 13 year old next door neighbor. He was the nicest kid, always polite, never in trouble. He was a boy scout and went on campouts with his dad and his troop. He used to hop over the fence and come visit my water garden that I put in our backyard – he even added a fish to it. He went off to college at Longwood, became involved in ROTC, and got his commission in the US Army when he graduated. Eventually, he became a captain in the Army, and got married. Shortly after his wedding, he was sent with his unit to Iraq, and a couple of months later – in October, 2006 – he died when a rocket propelled grenade slammed into his Humvee. I have no doubt that his family will mourn his death for the rest of their lives.

Shane is buried now at Arlington, and I wanted to visit his grave and tell him that he is not forgotten by his neighbor of long ago. A beautiful bluebird sang and displayed in the sun near Shane’s grave. It was sad to look at this young man’s grave, and the so many tombstones near him, young men (and probably some women) killed in their prime in 2005, 2006, 2007.After paying my respect to Shane’s memory, I had just enough time left to hoof it up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers and catch the changing of the guard. I have seen this ceremony before but not for nearly 10 years, and it is always impressive to see the precision of the soldiers guarding the tomb. From there, I walked 15 minutes back to the Metro, got to Union Station, and caught the train home. According to my pedometer, I walked 20,000 steps that day. According to my left heel, the number was closer to 200,000.

Egret At Back Bay

Usually, when I spot an egret, it flies when I get within 100 - 150 meters. But this past Sunday, as I hiked six miles in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, one sensed I was no threat and just kept on fishing as I passed within 75 feet. I got some rare photos of this majestic bird. On my hike, I also saw coots, redwing blackbirds, Canada geese, a great blue heron (which flew), some type of duck, a red-bellied woodpecker, and the noses of many large turtles sticking out of the water. I heard, but did not see, a clapper rail - despite spending a good 15 minutes trying to spot him in the thick marsh growth.

My path involved the nature trail near headquarters, then a couple of miles down the West Dike Trail, where I left the trail and entered a wooded area for a short walk to the bay. It was in this area that I found the young copperhead almost exactly a year ago. As I walked along the nature trail, I missed a raccoon my mere minutes, as shown by his still-wet footprints on the boards of the raised path:

Red-winged blackbirds are a common sight and sound here:

I took many photos of the egret as it fished and looked for breakfast. Here are a couple of them:

A few feet in elevation makes a huge difference in habitat here, as shown by this woodland just a hundred meters from expansive marshland:

Wood Thrushes

Is there a sweeter sound than the melodious call of the wood thrush?

I've had a nasty little cold, but decided I needed at least a short walk yesterday, and I went back to Deep Run Park in the late afternoon to walk a single two mile loop. The trees are leafing out, and as I walked through the pleasant woodlands of the park, I tried picking out various bird song. One bird in particular stood out, the wood thrush. I don't think I have heard their song yet this year. They have a beautiful flute-like call. Beautiful to us, war-like and agressive to other male wood thrushes, and enticing to the females. I stood mesmerized for several minutes, listening and looking for some of the birds, which were well hidden in the forest. I wonder how many people walking and running along with headphones had any idea of the wonderful concert that they were missing. I love music as much as anyone - I am listening to Robert Schumann's magnificent Second Symphony as I write this - but also love Mother Nature's free concerts, whether it be the plaintive cries of the spring peeper that herald spring each year, or yesterday's wonderful wood thrush melodies.

This morning, I got up early, having not slept well from my cold, and walked four miles. Along the way, I came across a red eft in the path. He was maturing into a newt, because he no longer had the fiery red-orange color of a young eft. He was more of the olive-brown color that he will become as an acquatic newt, but with the little orange spots. I moved him off the concrete path so no one else who came along would trample him.

Happy Easter! This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Along an Old Railroad

I was in New York, up in the Catskills, this weekend to visit my sister. It rained like crazy, with some snow, on Saturday. But Sunday had periods of sun mixed with periods of rain and sleet, and I took advantage of one of the former to get in a five mile walk. I walked along an old railroad bed for most of it, as it went along the raging Esopus Creek and through the woods. Spring is barely underway. In Virginia, our forsythia is long gone, but in the Catskills it is just now in bloom.

Here are some photos.

Here is the route of my hike, 2.5 miles out and 2.5 miles back:

I am sure that this harmless and beautiful spotted salamander - about seven inches long - was minding its business when someone senselessly killed it. I am not sure I will ever figure people out:

I wondered whether or not trains still used the tracks or not. I had been on the tracks less than a half mile when this question was clearly answered. This is where I was glad I was alone. If I had been with another couple of men, one of them - with too much testosterone - would have talked everyone into trying to walk across one of the rails. Instead, I climbed down into the washout and crossed the stream on rocks, barely getting just one foot wet when a rock shifted:

There were rivlets and water falls at many spots along the way:

A view looking back along the tracks, with the flank of Tremper Mountain in the distance:

The Esopus was raging along after Saturday's rains:

Views of Tremper Mountain beyond Esopus Creek:

Deep Run Park Turtles

Sunday April 10. My favorite little local park is Deep Run Park, a county park about seven miles from my house. I often go there to run. There is a great two mile circuit - 1.8 miles actually but I usually add some little spurs to bump it up - that included a few steep grades and a lot of variety. I enjoy people watching there as I run or walk along. You see all races, many national origins, all ages - everyone just getting along and enjoying life, which in my view is how it should be. There are also a lot of dogs, and it cool to see them with owners. So this past Sunday, I went there to walk four miles and see if I could see some wildlife, which I did: turtles! Here are some photos from my walk:

This looks like a slider of some kind:

View of the pond at Deep Run Park:

Suspicious eyes:

Turtle near the bank:

Typical of the trails running through Deep Run Park:

What Happened to Spring?

Saturday, April 9. I was down at the coast and walked six and two-thirds miles in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It was a raw and gray day, and as you will see from my photos, the colors of spring were not to be found, especially when contrasted with my walk to Hollywood Cemetery just a few days ago. This by far the longest distance I have walked since foot surgery with hiking boots, and my second longest distance over all next to the 10K race day just over a week ago. I didn't see anything spectacular, but I did see a fair amount of wildlife: ducks, coots, lots of egrets, and a big hawk in a forested area. I walked through several different biomes, and enjoyed walking along the dike trails again, which opened April 2.

Here are some photos:

An American coot warily looks me over:

While this handsome drake mallard provided color other than gray, brown, and black:

View of the marsh out towards Back Bay:

I can never get close to egrets. This one was at least 100 meters away when I immortalized him or her:

As I walked along, I came to a wood duck nest box. It reminded me of a "prior life" where every now and then, I got to spend the day with a wildlife technician and we spent the entire day in a canoe checking wood duck boxes. We would head out about 5AM and work until maybe 2 or 3. I saw so much wildlife on those Maine marshes on those few days, not just ducks but kestrels and tree swallows nesting in the boxes. And once, we came on a broken tree in the marsh with a great horned owl nest with a large and scared owlet. We got within feet of him, and it was so cool.

This maple provided about the only vegetative color I saw during my hike:

For a half mile or so, the path went through woodlands. Just a few feet of elevation can make a huge difference:

The start of False Cape State Park was my turn-around park. I think this is the only state park I have ever been to where you cannot drive to it. You can hike or bike in, or perhaps go by canoe. In the winter - from November 1 to March 31 - most of the refuge trails are closed and you can only get there with a long hike down the beach. It is beautiful down there, and someday I want to camp. Camping in bug season would be tortuous, though. The deer flies down there have won awards, I am pretty sure:

View of the marsh at FCSP: