Updating my Nature Journal

 Nearly four years ago, a friend of mine with Virginia Master Naturalists gave a short "class" on keeping a nature journal.  The class gave us a journal with about 60 or so pages, and a set of 12 watercolor pencils.  I started writing in it, and although I'd not drawn anything since elementary school art class (just after the Civil War), I tried a few sketches of birds and plants.  These were mediocre at best, dreadful at worst, and I kind of put the journal aside, more or less for three years.  I did, however, make written observations from time to time.

With the pandemic and my forced quarantine for health reasons, my friend said "why don't you try again?"  She brought me some more stuff, and I finally got to the point in July where I wasn't feeling sick and in pain pretty much constantly, so I opened up the journal and started adding drawings.  My first sketch was a blackberry plant in my backyard that the catbirds and robins loved to eat from, and it turned out pretty good (well, my opinion.)  It's the first thing I tried to draw in three years, plus I did it on my birthday!

I went back to my Shenandoah experiences and did a few sketches of things I encountered while hiking.  And I also added many entries and sketches of things I see in my backyard.  Bottom line - in just about a month, I had filled the final 1/3 of the journal (it had taken me 3.5 years to do the first two thirds), and I've started a second nature journal, one that is not only larger with 100 pages to fill, but each page is nearly twice the size as those in my first one.

So I thought I'd share a few of the sketches I made of things I saw while hiking, mostly in Shenandoah National Park.

Here is a fungus (Heartrot fungus) that I saw on a rotten log in the park while leading Road Scholar hikes last July.

While leading Road Scholar hikes in July and October, I saw various insects on milkweed plants, and sketched them in late July.

I also had enjoyed finding a monarch caterpillar in October on one of the hikes, and had seen a monarch on a milkweed flower in the July hikes, so I decided to sketch the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

During the October hikes, I was delighted to find not only some small American chestnut trees, but also some chestnuts.  This tree was once the most common tree in the southern Appalachians until the Chinese blight wiped them out.  One in three trees was once a chestnut.  I also saw a bumblebee getting a late nectar snack from a thistle.  So I added these to my nature journal.

Finally, for now from Shenandoah, a couple of springs ago, I was hiking in the park with very few signs of spring at higher elevations, but at the lower elevations, I saw a dwarf iris in bloom with a wintergreen just next to it.  So I added these to the journal where I had written about that hike.

Several years ago, I took my granddaughter backpacking in Michigan.  I'd made a few sketches of the forest and lake in the field, but decided to add this sketch last month of some painted turtles on a log near our campsite.

Halfway There!

A year or two ago, I started keeping track of which trails I have hiked in Shenandoah National Park, with the aim of hiking them all eventually.  With a couple of hikes over the last week and a half, I've completed half the miles in the park.  263 down, 248 to go!  When I complete them all, I earn a patch, the SNP 500 patch.

I hiked on September 14 and September 22, concentrating on the Appalachian Trail (and a few offshoot trails) in the northern most part of the southern district: Swift Run Gap to Simmons Gap.  The arrow shows the turnaround point of the first hike and the starting point of the second hike at Smith Roach Gap.  These hikes were out and back, covering mostly the same ground coming and going.  So while I only got credit for about 12 or so miles against the park total, I hiked about 22 or 23 miles.

Here is the elevation profile of the first hike, going over Hightop Mountain, an 1,100 foot climb on the way out and a 900 foot climb on the way back.  My friend Doug and I hiked this together.

My second hike had this profile, starting at the gap on the right (Smith Roach Gap) and turning around at Simmons Gap.  I gained and lost about 1,800 feet on this hike, which I did solo.

The weather on the two hikes was totally different.  On the first one, it was foggy, misty and cool.  The second one was in total sunshine with highs close to 82.  Neither hike had good views, but the view from Hightop Mountain would have been very nice without the fog.

These two hikes were only my second and third hikes in the mountains since the July Road Scholars hikes, so I was out of shape and struggled a bit on the climbs.  Here are a few photos from the first hike, done in the fog and mist.

Doug hikes up the trail to Hightop Mountain.

In SNP, concrete posts mark every trail junction with information about how far, with the direction, other points are.

Mature yellow birch, more typically found in northern hardwood forests.

We had lunch at the Hightop Shelter.

Even in the afternoon, the fog continued.

Hightop Mountain summit.

We crossed over Hightop in the morning and again in the afternoon.  This is the view in the afternoon, which was a lot better than the morning view.

The second hike, from Smith Roach Gap to Simmons Gap, was solo.  I've hiked 275 miles this year, and before this hike, only 33 of them were by myself.  This hike made it 45.  I prefer hiking with others, but now and then, I like getting out by myself.  This is especially true if I am a little out of shape, because I can go at my own pace and stop for pictures or to study something.

It was a nice, warm day on the AT - note the lack of fog.  I saw a lot of hikers on this day, including a number of backpackers.

This butterfly is a comma.

On both hikes, we noted lots of hickory nut shells.  There appears to be a bumper crop, good for squirrels and bears.

I've not identified this, but I liked the purple color.

And I liked the muted colors in this fungus on a tree.

This hike had one nice view, looking northwest, about a half mile south on the AT from Powell Gap.

I enjoyed hiking in the mountains again, although I clearly could be in lots better shape.  We saw minimal wildlife - squirrels and chipmunks - although a woman hiking north on our first hike had just seen two bears about a half mile from us near Hightop Mountain.  The birds are mostly finished calling, although I saw a raven, and heard pileated, red-bellied, and downy woodpeckers, as well as a barred owl.  Stream levels are really low - unlike last year.

This is my last hike for another 10 days, when I go back to SNP for a weeks to lead more Road Scholars hikes.

Scholars on the Road

While I mull over what I will do with this blog, I think that I will write a post about a fairly unique set of hikes.  This opportunity kind of fell into my lap, but the bottom line is that I was asked to lead hikes in Shenandoah National Park for about a week in June and July for the Road Scholar program.  I really enjoyed this.  My general duties were to (1) lead a hike each day of a distance from 4.5 to 9.5 miles (2) make sure that my participants - up to a dozen at a time - were safe, stayed together, and didn't get lost (3) answer as many questions as I could - birds, wildlife, history, flowers, general plants, geology (4) interact with the hikers and keep them engaged and involved and included (5) give a talk one night to the participants (my talk was on common wildlife - mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians - of the park.)  In return, I got to go hiking every day, got a room at Big Meadows Lodge for the week, got three squares a day, and got paid some money.  Plus I got to enjoy the company of some really fun and wonderful people from all over the place!

The hikes were led by two of us.  Each day, one of us lead a shorter hike and one of us led a longer hike, and we switched every day.  The hikes were in the Big Meadows area, generally along the Appalachian Trail, but we threw in a bonus hike or two along the way.  The general schedule was: Monday - Big Meadows Falls loop; Tuesday - Hike from Lewis Mountain north on the Appalachian Trail until either Bootens Gap or Milam Gap; Wednesday - hike north along the AT from either Fishers Gap (longer) or Hawksbill Gap (shorter) to Stony Man; Thursday - Camp Rapidan (a 4.5 mile out and back or an 8 mile loop).  Here is a high level view of the trails.  The arrow points to the general location of the Big Meadows Lodge:

For the two weeks, I hiked about 30 miles each four day session.  We had wonderful weather almost all of the time, even in July.  98% of the people were great and a lot of fun to be with.  I'll be going back in October for one more week.  In June, the wildflowers and birds were great, and in July, we continued with great wildflowers and also butterflies.  Here are some photos from the two weeks:

JUNE -

Bumblebee approaching flowers

Fly poison, so named because earlier settlers ground the toxic plant parts and mixed them with surag water to poison flies in their cabins.

Dark Hollow Falls

Cave family cemetery in the park

View from Bear Fence Mountain

View from Hawksbill, the highest point in the park:

Views from Stony Man, the second highest point in the park:

"The Creel," one of the cabins at President Herbert Hoover's camp:

Cottontail rabbit:

Sunset from Big Meadows Lodge:

JULY:

Dark-eyed junco nest on ground in the base of a hollow tree:

Monarch:

Question mark:

Unidentified mushrooms

Syrphid fly on flower:

Eastern tiger swallowtail:

Silver-spotted skipper:

Dark form female, and male, eastern tiger swallowtails:

Orange fungus on dead log:

Indian Peace Pipe:

Turk's cap lilies:

Beetles on milkweed:

Turk's cap lily:

Yellow and green:

White-tailed deer:

Yours truly on Little Stony Man cliffs:

The sun sets on the week:

Polyphemus Moth:

I enjoyed my two weeks helping to lead hikes for the Road Scholar program.  It was great fun with wonderful folks on beautiful hikes.  I look forward to going back in early October.