The Trillium Hunt....

First off...
we had these guys

visit !!!!

Indigo Buntings!

These blue beauties visited for a day and then...well, we haven't seen them again at the feeders. However blue was the theme of the day as Blue Birds flew through in groups. Hopefully some stayed again this year.

Friday morning I had to make a decision. Did I want to go look for Trillium and other Ephemeral flowers? Or did I want to go to the gym and work my butt off and then go shopping. 
Bleh.

Decisions, Decisions.

Shay, the Home Health Aide was curious. She doesn't have a background in nature, but she knows a lot about home health care. I explained I needed [was driven] to go find Ephemeral flowers that would only present themselves for a few weeks...and then...
I'd have to wait for another spring.

Charlie and I hit the ground running [okay walking fast] when we got to KVR. Years ago when I started my Trail Challenge, I'd randomly chosen the West Ridge Trail to start one of my mid May hikes. I recall seeing more Trillium that I'd ever seen in my life.

At that time I was hiking with my friend Bill and we were putting in 'mileage' and not concentrating on the wildflowers. Covid was ravaging the country and we were doing Distance Hiking.  

Anyway... I have never gotten back to that area in May. I've gone to other spots and have been overwhelmed by Virginia Bluebells and Spring Beauties. I decided to go see if I could get lucky with the Trillium.

I hit the Jackpot!

I hit the Jackpot in several ways.

We were surrounded by everything wild and flowering.

Here is a shot of Charlie On Guard. We were sitting on the forest floor when suddenly we heard something crashing through the forest. It literally sounded like an elephant. I saw it was a large doe running straight at us like a ninny.

I raised my hands and hollered, "Hey!" The doe never missed a step, but instead of running through us, she took a hard left and disappeared through the forest. 

Charlie growled and jumped into my lap. Brave dog that he is. I can't say that I've ever experienced that before.

It seems that finding spring forest flowers has become an obsession of mine.

Last year, I'd chosen a different trail to find Trillium. I found a few but the choices of light, position, and interesting-ness of shooting them was not very good.
This year I was so overwhelmed with choices and opportunities.

Even better?
Charlie and I were the only ones there. We spent two hours alongside this trail and never encountered another human or animal. We did hear a variety of birds and an owl.

I did wish I'd had ALL day. Charlie and I had a snack, watched our time and got home on schedule.

I may have satisfied my Trillium Itch for this year and will send myself a note to make sure I go back to this trail next year.

Trilliums....☑

Next wild flowers up will be the Wild Geraniums. 

 

Distance Hiking?

I know there is a huge issue with public lands, state parks, and social distancing. We happen to live in an area where crowding is not an issue, especially during the weekdays.
Going hiking together with friends can present with problems...

However my good friend from CrossFit [and a neighbor who lives about a mile away], and I have figured out something that has given us both as very active 60+ people ... how to hike together and apart!

We have set up a goal to hike together/apart once a week. Four weeks ago Bill was feeling rather down and out. We discussed this on the first 'hike' we did with Charlie and decided that we were both having a hard time dealing with Social Isolation and the huge disruption in our daily routines of being able to work out and hang out at the gym.

Bill and I have decided to limit our exposures [hiking] to our two households. Our county is starting to show up with some serious cases so we are practicing mental and physical support for each other.
We've found that this once a week event help us deal with everything else in our lives.
Interestingly enough, while hiking with Bill, I don't feel compelled to complain or even gossip!
Bill is recently retired and is all about exploring this new natural world that he lives in.

Our hikes our with Charlie and for the sole purpose of discovering plants, new trails, ... and easy trails that he can find to take his wife on.

Getting partially lost on new trails seems to be a thing we do.

Here is Charlie tied to a tree while I climbed out on an out cropping of rocks.

It looks more dangerous than it was.

Having another person along is so much safer. Rich doesn't mind as I normally come back with such a calm laid back attitude that it makes our life in Isolation much nicer.

Our focus is Charlie. The little tiny dog with 3 inch front legs who trots along the trail and leads the way.

Well, not entirely. Exploring the spring flowers was something that stopped us both in our tracks.

Bill said it best. He stood amazed and said, "I don't think I've ever in my life seen as many Trillium as I see in this spot. In fact I think this is more Trillium than I've ever seen in my entire life!"

We both just stood there admiring the forest of thousands of trillium interspersed with Spring Beauties and Bellwort.

I mean we literally just stood and took it all in!

I found some of the old horse/mule trails to get on top of the rocks. At one time we used to actually ride to the top of these places.

I got Bill to ham it up for me.

He is not at the very edge. I just angled it so it appears that way.

When we reached the 'Loop Lookout' Trail we realized that we didn't have enough time to actually hike the loop and get back home before our spouses would wonder if we fell off the earth.

I sat on the trail and pulled out the map. I noted that the trail we had been following skirted a ridge and a crop field. I showed Bill that if we simply crossed the field we'd cut shorten our time hiking back.

Let me say that I am so grateful for all of the time I've spent learning about maps and the way this land is formed.
We walked around the field and were only 15 minutes from where we had parked.

Next trip out, we'll take the short cut and proceed to the loop we intended to do in the first place.
Now that we know about the short cut, we can explore more rock out crops.

Here we are failing at keeping 6 feet apart.

I set up my little red camera on the log as we stopped to have an apple and share some bits with our Trail Boss, Charlie.

Our Distance Hiking/Safe Socializing is working pretty well for us.

I showed Rich the photos and he quipped, "Finally! You have found someone your own age to play with!"

I am grateful to have a friend like this who is genuine and who likes hiking and exploring as well as I do.

And...
now
we wait to see what next week brings.

"I want to be improbable
beautiful and afraid
of nothing,
as though I had wings"
~~ Mary Oliver