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Borrego Springs, CA

Sunday, June 2, 2013

National Trails Day

Yesterday, June 1, was National Trails Day and was celebrated country wide.  It was an extra special day here on the refuge for two reasons.

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First it was the grand opening, and ribbon cutting ceremony, for the Tamarac NWR section of the North Woods Trail.  This trail is similar to the Appalachian Trail and covers 4800 miles from the New York/Vermont border to the middle of North Dakota.  Over half of the trail has been officially completed at this point, and Saturday was the official opening of the 14.5 miles of the trail that traverses the refuge. 

Secondly, it coincided with the 75th Anniversary of the establishment of the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge.  What cold, wet, windy, and generally miserable weather we had for two such auspicious occasions.  Sad smile After listening to too many speeches by visiting big wigs, the ribbon was finally cut, and the anniversary cake was served.  We did have about six brave souls who did a through hike of the entire 14.5 miles during the day.

73 Tamarac NWR, 201316

My assignment for the afternoon was to help with the three hour photo hike.  When I’m helping with a hike that someone else is leading, I generally bring up the rear to keep any stragglers moving forward.  We had two places along the North Woods Trail that we would be hiking, and were bussed to each location.  At the rear was a good place for me especially on the first hike.  It was a very up and down hike.  One of the things about the type of hip surgery that I had in January is that they cut some of the muscles during surgery.  I’ve found that the most challenging thing to get back is the ability to easily go up and down stairs.  A steep up and down hike is similar to doing sets of stairs.  Needless to say, I was the last one back to the bus by a long shot.  However, I’m happy to report that the only straggler was me!  Disappointed smile

For the second hike, I told the group to go ahead, as I didn’t think I could keep up.  My muscles were telling me that I could most likely make it to the destination, but getting back might be iffy.  My total hike was probably two miles, and I’m happy with that at this point. 

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One important thing I learned on this excursion was to identify poison ivy.  It’s quite common in the woods here.  One of the participants pointed it out to me.  That’s about all I learned.  I don’t know.  Somehow I was expecting to learn something about photography on a photo hike, but the leader was too busy taking pictures of his own to be bothered with talking to the participants or give any hints or pointers.  Guess I was a little off base on my expectations.

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The sun finally came back today, so Emma and I returned to the second hike location from yesterday to complete it on our own.  The woods were just alive with singing birds.  Emma continues to have patience with me when I tell her I want to take a picture.  She stands still until I’m done.  That is so out of character for her it always amazes me.

IMG_3099 IMG_3101Once again, there seemed to be American redstarts in almost every tree.

We also found lots of mushrooms this afternoon, but sorry to say none of them were morels.  We sidetracked into the woods in several places to see if I could find some, but no luck.  Oddly, Emma is not a good shroom hunter.  Were I to let her off of the leash, she would zoom around all over the woods, but on leash she just wants to get back to the trail. 

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We stopped at one wetland area on the way back from our Sunday drive to admire this preening trumpeter swan and male wood duck.  It was so nice to have a calm sunny day, and further along one of the roads I stopped to pick a bouquet of fragrant lilacs.  I’m sure years ago before it became a refuge the place I stopped may have been a farmhouse location as the row of lilac trees was impressive.  The smell of lilacs is now permeating the rig.  Lovely!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

18 comments:

  1. always amazed at the clarity of your photos.
    Donna

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  2. Back in the early 1990's I met a guy who was one of the first to hike the complete trail. No trail guide had yet been published, and according to him, he wrote down lots of info to enable the writing and publication of a guide. He was one of the weirdest guys I ever met!

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  3. I just did a Google search for info on the North Woods Trail, and found a couple of links to "Travels With Emma". Google works fast!

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  4. So glad you got some lilacs after your comment on my blog about the lilacs in Calif. Love the smell!

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  5. Finally I got the comment box loaded ... I guess I should have been getting up at 4:00a while we were here to be able to comment ;-). Well, I'm now all caught up on your goings on these past two weeks ... moving on to another blog ... good thing we have a long drive ahead of us today; plenty of time to read.

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  6. The deer keep eating my lilacs before they have time to bloom! :( Poison ivy--YIKES for me!!

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  7. Don't you just LOVE listening to dignitaries give speeches?? Blah, blah, blah...

    It sounds like you completed a couple of tough hikes, and I love the fact that you've got American Redstarts hanging out in all of the trees. Funny that the photo hike was mainly so that the leader could take photos!! Hmmm.

    Mark

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  8. I can so relate with that step thing. After breaking my ankle and rupturing my Achilles tendon, it has just never worked correctly since. And steps are the hard ones. It doesn't want to bend correctly for me to go up and down them. Using that hip is the best thing you can do to force it to work better. I guess a photo tour is just to take pictures - not to learn anything. Too bad. Except I don't think there's much you can learn about taking a good picture. I love the smell of lilacs - probably my favorite along with carnations.

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  9. I also can identify with the stair issue. I found going up easier than down; same with hills. It's been 3 years now and I still have a little difficulty but nothing I can't live with.

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  10. The cake looks so good.

    Don't even write about poison ivy. I get it so easily. Excuse me, please, I now have to go shower.

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  11. It takes those wet and miserable days to make us stop and really appreciate the warmth of the sun :)

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  12. Reminds me of Den's classmate, Jean Lindner, who hiked the Appalachian Trail...You read the book too...That would be such an accomplishment, and just imaging the things you would experience...It just ain't happenin' for either one of us, Judy, but I'll enjoy the short hikes every time..Great photos as usual!!

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  13. Two miles!! That's pretty stinkin' respectable.

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  14. I bet you could do a very interesting photo hike! Ah, the smell of lilacs...so much better than you're latrines of yesterday!

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  15. Lilacs and poison ivy. Just itching to smell good...

    Congrats on all that hiking, even better, congrats that the bus didn't leave without you! ;c)

    What a great picture of the trumpeter swan! You never cease to amaze me with what you find on your travels to photograph. :c)

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  16. I'm in the wrong place to celebrate National Trails Day but you can be sure I'll be hugging as many trails as I can as soon as we get back to where they are. Oh Lilacs one of my very favorites. They are long gone here. Enjoy. Enjoy.

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  17. Photo tips? You? Judy! You could give the master class on composition.

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  18. I don't think the staff realizes the untapped resource of one of their volunteers!! You could have lead the photography hike. Love the swan photo. Watch out for that poison ivy... it can get ugly!!!

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