Winter Solstice Hike

One of the new traditions I am starting this year is taking a Solstice Hike. I got the idea from a guided hike conducted by the Howard County Conservancy yesterday (yes - a day early…but Saturday was a better day for the event than Sunday). The hike started at Belmont Manor and Historic Park and hiked down to the Patapsco River through the Patapsco Valley State Park that almost surrounds Belmont. The keyword about the trail is down; it was that getting to the river and then uphill for the way back!  My Fitbit counted about 9,000 steps and the equivalent of 40 flights of stairs. The pace was comfortable and there were no difficult parts of the trail.

It was about right for a winter hike. I bundled up and stopped periodically to take pictures. The first stop was the pond and the cypress tree. We had noticed on a hike before last fall’s BioBlitz at Belmont that there were knees by the pond and then noticed the large trees at the water’s edge. Some of the knees are in the water but most of them are in the grass around the pond and are scared from mowers.

As we started into the forest we noticed a tree with distinctive bark. I took a picture of the trunk and up into the tree to help with identification. I think I is a black tupelo/black gum since the bark does look like ‘alligator’ hide and the branches make a pinwheel pattern coming out from the trunk.

With the vegetation of summer gone, I started looking more closely at the base of trees. They usually provide a firm hold to the earth for the tree. There was one tree with a splintered trunk that still had a stump firmly in the ground.

I like the winter scenes that still have a bit of green from moss

Or ferns.

I photograph just about every shelf fungus I see as well!

Finally we see the Patapsco River.

At the water’s edge there are sycamores with their roots being undermined by the river.

As we begin the hike back we see the distinctive trunk of a Honey Locust.

Next year I might do another guided Solstice Hike…or I may just hike with friends. The point is some outdoor time on the shortest day of the year!

Another new tradition I want to try this year is a First Day Hike in a State Park. There are parks all over the US participating. To find one near you - check the http://naspd.org/  site (the logo at the bottom of the page goes to a form to select your state)! I hope the weather on January 1 is as good for hiking as the weather was for the Solstice Hike.

Catoctin and Cunningham Falls

Just prior to write this blog post, I wrote a simple poem one about the scene from my office window and plan for the day. Do you see the title down the middle?

It sets the stage for my collection of images from Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park - now about 2 weeks old.  We stopped at the Catoctin Mountain visitor’s center as we usually do and then walked across the street to the short Blue Blazes Still Trail. There was a tree riddled with woodpecker holes and several kinds of shelf fungus (one fungus group had a slug feasting) that I include in the slide show below. The trees still had quite a few leaves. There was lots of color.

We drove over to Cunningham Falls State Park and took the steeper trail to the falls (I was sore for the next few days from that scramble).

As usual - there were a lot of people at the falls….and they were crawling all over the falls. It was hard to get any waterfalls without people!

I settled for the smaller scenes of moss, leaves, and fungus. Enjoy the slideshow!

Great Falls of the Potomac - Part 2

Day before yesterday I posted about our visit to the Maryland side of Great Falls with a focus primarily on the water. Today my focus shifts to plants.

There are rocks on both sides of the boardwalk out to the viewing area for the falls. These rocks may have been scoured by the river at some point but it has been quite some time. Lichens are quite thick in many places and tiny leaves have found enough decayed rock and dust in some cracks to support their roots.

Mosses carpet some areas - usually a lower place in the rocks that holds water.

Taking a broader view of a side channel of the river that is still enough to reflect the rocks and small trees - the size of the trees tells the tale of how long it has been since the last big flood along this stretch of the river.

The water of the C&O Canal bed is placid and it is late enough in the season that some of the grasses are heavy with seeds. Do you see the moth resting on the top of this one?

Jewel weed is still blooming. It is interesting that the plant was used to sooth poison ivy but often grows in the midst of the itch producing bane of summer for many.

Lichen and Moss

Lichen and moss are plants that are easier to appreciate with some magnification. My first project simply captured them in the ‘wild’ - on trees or rocks or soil. The collage below shows lichen growing on tree trunks. The images on the left are using the 8x loupe. The one on the right was using the 22x loupe.

The mosses were awakening during March and April when I began the project and I was surprised at the variety that becomes apparent when the plants are viewed through even a the lower (8x) magnification.