Yesterday was our second day in Yellowstone. We did a lot of shit, but I will try to cover all the highlights.
Driving in along the West Entrance Road, we stopped to see a bald eagle perched on a tree next to the river. They really are huge birds. I got some good looks with my binocs and Melissa took some good pictures. It was very cool, even if we did not get to see it fly. Next we stopped for a buffalo that was only about 10 yards from the road. He then started walking towards the car, so we got back in, and he passed withing less than 10 yards off us - again, Melissa got some good pics. I think we've decided at this point to no longer stop for elk or buffalo - we see them next to the road about every 5 minutes. We still need to see moose, bighorn sheep, bears, and wolves, though.
The hike we went on is past lots of big geyser fields, so we stopped at several of them. The geysers are very cool, but they all tend to run together in your mind - lots of bubbling pools of water, colorful drainage areas, boiling mud, spurting water, and tons of steam. I'll have Melissa post some pics. We also did see Old Faithful erupt from about a third of a mile away - it certainly is big and cool - very few of the geysers spurt the water more than a few feet into the air - but I dunno if it is worth all the hoopla. The geyser fields we saw today were, the Fountain Paint Pots group, Firehole Lake Drive, and Lower Geyser Basin. We skipped a few geyser fields, including the one with Grand Pismatic spring, so we have to go back to see a few more geysers sometime this week.
Our main hike of the day was a 6-mile (round-trip) there-and-back along the Delacey Creek Trail to Shoshone Lake, Yellowstone's second largest lake. We didn't exactly have the trail to ourselves - we passed several other hikers along the trail, but compared to the geyser fields we had just been at, we felt pleasantly alone. The trail is mostly flat with just a few small rolling hills, and very well marked and easy to follow. The only slight hitch was finding the trailhead - there is a turnout on the north side of the road about a quarter mile west of the picnic area (where we ate lunch) - the trailhead is on the opposite side of the road across from the western side of the turnout area. Basically, the trail itself is just a pleasant walk in the woods. It basically just cuts a path through the lodgepole forest just to the east of the meadow valley created by the rather small Delacey Creek. The first half of the trail is almost entirely forested, while the second half is mostly along the edge of the meadow - it makes for a good mix of forest and meadow scenery. At about the half way point, you can see the start to see the lake through the trees. Shoshone Lake itself is beautiful, completely ringed by forested mountains. There are lots of washed up logs to sit down on to enjoy the view. It was noticeably colder and windier by the lake - we hadn't brought our fleeces, so we resorted to rain jackets. All in all, a nice, relatively short hike.
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
North Chagrin Reservation Metropark
I just got back from my first trip to a Cleveland Metropark (CMP)- a 7 mile hike in North Chagrin Reservation. It was me and Melissa today, and this was our longest hike yet. It was an absolutely beautiful day - around 70 degrees even at midday.
I downloaded a pretty good map from the website. However, the map is definitely lacking in detail around the parking lots, and got confusing over near the nature center where the density of trails was very high. Anyway, once we got on the trails they were pretty easy to follow, with only a couple of exceptions. However, the trails are really only marked at the major trail intersections, making it somewhat ambiguous at intersections with minor trails and with unmarked trails.
Anyway, we parked over at the nature center so we could look around the little ponds that are over there. They are pretty neat - the one was almost covered with lily pads. I used my new binocs to spot a small heron-ish bird, and there was a fun little turtle who kept hiding whenever Melissa tried to take a picture.
Our main path around the park consisted of the Castle Trail, up to the Scenic Loop Trail, (including a brief stint on Squire's Lane Trail), and then down Hemlock trail back to the parking lot. All of the trails were really pretty simlar - well-trodden trails through beech-maple forest with some hemlock groves. Most of the trails were on the edges of ravines with little creeks at the bottom. For the most part, the creeks were very small with very little water flow, but I can imagine they would be a bit more impressive after some good rain or snow-melt. Occasionally, the paths would dip into the ravines and back up, and the paths were well chosen to make for quite reasonable gradients. This added a bit of ruggedness to the trails, but the total elevation change from highest to lowest point was probably less than 200 feet. We saw very little wildlife on the trails, except for frogs and some fish, but we heard some interesting birds, including woodpeckers. For the most part we were alone on the trails and only passed someone occasionally, except there were noticeably more people within about half a mile of any parking lot.
I downloaded a pretty good map from the website. However, the map is definitely lacking in detail around the parking lots, and got confusing over near the nature center where the density of trails was very high. Anyway, once we got on the trails they were pretty easy to follow, with only a couple of exceptions. However, the trails are really only marked at the major trail intersections, making it somewhat ambiguous at intersections with minor trails and with unmarked trails.
Anyway, we parked over at the nature center so we could look around the little ponds that are over there. They are pretty neat - the one was almost covered with lily pads. I used my new binocs to spot a small heron-ish bird, and there was a fun little turtle who kept hiding whenever Melissa tried to take a picture.
Our main path around the park consisted of the Castle Trail, up to the Scenic Loop Trail, (including a brief stint on Squire's Lane Trail), and then down Hemlock trail back to the parking lot. All of the trails were really pretty simlar - well-trodden trails through beech-maple forest with some hemlock groves. Most of the trails were on the edges of ravines with little creeks at the bottom. For the most part, the creeks were very small with very little water flow, but I can imagine they would be a bit more impressive after some good rain or snow-melt. Occasionally, the paths would dip into the ravines and back up, and the paths were well chosen to make for quite reasonable gradients. This added a bit of ruggedness to the trails, but the total elevation change from highest to lowest point was probably less than 200 feet. We saw very little wildlife on the trails, except for frogs and some fish, but we heard some interesting birds, including woodpeckers. For the most part we were alone on the trails and only passed someone occasionally, except there were noticeably more people within about half a mile of any parking lot.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Library Books
Over the weekend I ordered a bunch of books from the library on Ohio hiking and wild life. Yesterday I got the Ohio State Park's Guidebook, but was very disappointed because it is almost exactly the same info as on the Ohio State Park's webpage, sometimes verbatim.
Tonight I just picked up the Trees of Ohio and Birds of Ohio field guides. They are both pocket sized books by the same author, Stan Tekiela, which are basically organized by one species per page (left side has pictures, right side descriptions). I have already used the bird book to help identify some of the birds that I saw at Tinker's Creek this weekend, including the gray catbird, eastern kingbird, and the possible northern harrier. Overall, it seems quite a nice book, but I am not a huge fan of the organizational scheme. It is organized primarily by color (loosely by size within colors), whereas I have always found sorting by bird type (such as the Audubon Society books) to be easier - it is easy to tell the difference between a hawk, a duck, and a finch, but not always easy to tell if a bird is predominantly grey, white, or brown. I have not had a chance to use the trees book, but am very excited about doing so.
I also got a hiking book, Hiking Ohio: Scenic Trails of the Buckeye State by Robert Folzenlogen. It's a bit old, but how much can the trails really change in 17 years? I just flipped through it briefly, but it seemed to have quite a few nice hikes in the area. I will probably take it to work and photocopy the hikes that look good.
I've got several more fun books coming!
Tonight I just picked up the Trees of Ohio and Birds of Ohio field guides. They are both pocket sized books by the same author, Stan Tekiela, which are basically organized by one species per page (left side has pictures, right side descriptions). I have already used the bird book to help identify some of the birds that I saw at Tinker's Creek this weekend, including the gray catbird, eastern kingbird, and the possible northern harrier. Overall, it seems quite a nice book, but I am not a huge fan of the organizational scheme. It is organized primarily by color (loosely by size within colors), whereas I have always found sorting by bird type (such as the Audubon Society books) to be easier - it is easy to tell the difference between a hawk, a duck, and a finch, but not always easy to tell if a bird is predominantly grey, white, or brown. I have not had a chance to use the trees book, but am very excited about doing so.
I also got a hiking book, Hiking Ohio: Scenic Trails of the Buckeye State by Robert Folzenlogen. It's a bit old, but how much can the trails really change in 17 years? I just flipped through it briefly, but it seemed to have quite a few nice hikes in the area. I will probably take it to work and photocopy the hikes that look good.
I've got several more fun books coming!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Tinker's Creek SP
Yesterday Melissa and I went hiking at Tinker's Creek State Park and Nature Preserve. That is, the SP and NP are adjacent but two separate areas.
We started in the state park area and basically just did the main loop around the pond (EDIT: actually, not the short loop that just goes around the edge of the main lake, but the longer loop that goes back through the marshes and ponds to the
northeast), including a few detours and spur trails, totalling maybe two miles. The parking area had a porta-john and the admin building was closed up and looked completely disused. The trail was obvious and easy to follow in all but one or two areas, but it was not well kept - fairly overgrown with grass (if I go again I will know to wear long pants) and several of the bridges/boardwalks were in pretty bad disrepair. The worst section was a little stream crossing right before the first natural pond (the main lake at the parking lot is man-made) where there was no obvious path and there was only a few remains of an old wooden bridge. Still, overall it was a nice trail, and not at all what I would call difficult. Very much more secluded than at Nelson-Kennedy last week - after we left the main lake we didn't see anyone else on the trail. The natural ponds had a cool swampy overgrown feeling, and the surfaces were covered in green plants and algae. We saw more wildlife too - lots of frogs and toads; geese, including fledglings, on the main lake; a great blue heron; a snake; and at least a half dozen different other birds. Melissa seemed pretty out of it, so we didn't go back and do all of the rest of the trails. After we got back, we rested for a few minutes and I had lunch in the picnic pavilion while Melissa played on the swingset! The map of the park I downloaded was decent enough, but it is tough with a map like that without more detail. For instance, when we were finishing the trail coming back to the parking lot from the west side, the end of the trail was actually gravel road. But this wasn't marked at all on the map, so I got confused for a while trying to figure out what the map was calling a trail and what was a road. It turns out that those gravel roads are the trails (there are two leading to different trails). It was a moment when it was clear to me just how useful a GPS would be - but I will write more about GPS's later.
The second half of the hike was in the nature preserve area, which starts from a different trailhead a couple miles down the road, with a small parking area. This trail was much more well kept with wider paths and newish boardwalks - again I think we totalled something like two miles (EDIT: The Hiking Ohio book lists this complete hike as 2.75 miles). A couple hundred yards from the trailhead there is a little information post with pamphlets that include some interesting detail about the area and a decent trail map. The trail starts with a deciduous/conifer forest area, but quickly gets to the ponds, marshes, and wetlands that are the main feature of the preserve. The wetlands are really beautiful. Along the path there are several cool small ponds, but there are several places where you can see the exanse of open marsh for half a mile or more - especially at the far southern tip of the trail and the observation deck built just off a small eastern spur trail. It's really a shame that the signs of civilization are so close, however - a railroad track marks one edge of the swamp while on the other side the back of a strip mall is visible. We saw dozens of cool bird species, including a beautiful green heron (see picture) from just about 30 yards. There were also a couple of great blue herons (although we never got closer than a hundred yards or so), geese and wood ducks both with fledglings, an eastern kingbird, a gray catbird, a cardinal, a few red winged blackbirds, and plenty of other smaller birds that I can't identify. I saw one soaring bird from about a quarter of a mile, which kind of looked like a northern harrier, which makes sense because they like swamps, but they are supposed to only be around in the winter - I dunno. We also saw frogs, turtles, fishes, a raccoon, dragon flies, butterflies, and unfortunately plenty of mosquitoes and buzzing bugs. There were several beautiful wildflower species, my favorite being some bright yellow flowers growing from the lily pads (Melissa was getting pretty worn out by this point, so she didn't get me a picture of them). There is a small spur loop trail that goes to a pond that is supposed to be a beaver pond with a lodge (Lonesome Pond), but other than some stripped and gnawed trees, we didn't see any signs of the beavers or the lodge- but then again we don't really know what to look for. With all of the wildlife, I got good use out of my binocs. Overall, this was my favorite trail of the season so far.
This was also our first chance to try out our new packs. They are definitely a little heavy filled with water, but the packs are well designed and do a great job of distributing the weight well. I also brought along my binocs, emergency kit, and a sandwich, and had plenty of room for a sweatshirt or whatever had I needed it. Melissa fit her camera with room for a few extras as well. After the hike we both still had 1/2 - 2/3 of our resevoirs full of water, and neither of us felt that we conserved in any way. This bodes well for longer trips when we will need to carry that much water.
My boots were feeling quite good again. While my feet were definitely getting sore by the end, I could tell they would have been a lot worse without the good boots. The only even slight problem was just a little bit of pinching in my right little toe - but its possible that I was just imagining it since me feet hurt in general. Had we been doing an all-day hike, it would have been about time for an hour or so to sit down, eat lunch, and let our feet air out.
As usual, all of these pictures are Melissa's. I should note, however, that I blew up the green heron picture quite a bit, even though she generally disapproves of such "cheating". I say it's using your equipment to it's full capabilities!
We started in the state park area and basically just did the main loop around the pond (EDIT: actually, not the short loop that just goes around the edge of the main lake, but the longer loop that goes back through the marshes and ponds to the
northeast), including a few detours and spur trails, totalling maybe two miles. The parking area had a porta-john and the admin building was closed up and looked completely disused. The trail was obvious and easy to follow in all but one or two areas, but it was not well kept - fairly overgrown with grass (if I go again I will know to wear long pants) and several of the bridges/boardwalks were in pretty bad disrepair. The worst section was a little stream crossing right before the first natural pond (the main lake at the parking lot is man-made) where there was no obvious path and there was only a few remains of an old wooden bridge. Still, overall it was a nice trail, and not at all what I would call difficult. Very much more secluded than at Nelson-Kennedy last week - after we left the main lake we didn't see anyone else on the trail. The natural ponds had a cool swampy overgrown feeling, and the surfaces were covered in green plants and algae. We saw more wildlife too - lots of frogs and toads; geese, including fledglings, on the main lake; a great blue heron; a snake; and at least a half dozen different other birds. Melissa seemed pretty out of it, so we didn't go back and do all of the rest of the trails. After we got back, we rested for a few minutes and I had lunch in the picnic pavilion while Melissa played on the swingset! The map of the park I downloaded was decent enough, but it is tough with a map like that without more detail. For instance, when we were finishing the trail coming back to the parking lot from the west side, the end of the trail was actually gravel road. But this wasn't marked at all on the map, so I got confused for a while trying to figure out what the map was calling a trail and what was a road. It turns out that those gravel roads are the trails (there are two leading to different trails). It was a moment when it was clear to me just how useful a GPS would be - but I will write more about GPS's later.
The second half of the hike was in the nature preserve area, which starts from a different trailhead a couple miles down the road, with a small parking area. This trail was much more well kept with wider paths and newish boardwalks - again I think we totalled something like two miles (EDIT: The Hiking Ohio book lists this complete hike as 2.75 miles). A couple hundred yards from the trailhead there is a little information post with pamphlets that include some interesting detail about the area and a decent trail map. The trail starts with a deciduous/conifer forest area, but quickly gets to the ponds, marshes, and wetlands that are the main feature of the preserve. The wetlands are really beautiful. Along the path there are several cool small ponds, but there are several places where you can see the exanse of open marsh for half a mile or more - especially at the far southern tip of the trail and the observation deck built just off a small eastern spur trail. It's really a shame that the signs of civilization are so close, however - a railroad track marks one edge of the swamp while on the other side the back of a strip mall is visible. We saw dozens of cool bird species, including a beautiful green heron (see picture) from just about 30 yards. There were also a couple of great blue herons (although we never got closer than a hundred yards or so), geese and wood ducks both with fledglings, an eastern kingbird, a gray catbird, a cardinal, a few red winged blackbirds, and plenty of other smaller birds that I can't identify. I saw one soaring bird from about a quarter of a mile, which kind of looked like a northern harrier, which makes sense because they like swamps, but they are supposed to only be around in the winter - I dunno. We also saw frogs, turtles, fishes, a raccoon, dragon flies, butterflies, and unfortunately plenty of mosquitoes and buzzing bugs. There were several beautiful wildflower species, my favorite being some bright yellow flowers growing from the lily pads (Melissa was getting pretty worn out by this point, so she didn't get me a picture of them). There is a small spur loop trail that goes to a pond that is supposed to be a beaver pond with a lodge (Lonesome Pond), but other than some stripped and gnawed trees, we didn't see any signs of the beavers or the lodge- but then again we don't really know what to look for. With all of the wildlife, I got good use out of my binocs. Overall, this was my favorite trail of the season so far.
This was also our first chance to try out our new packs. They are definitely a little heavy filled with water, but the packs are well designed and do a great job of distributing the weight well. I also brought along my binocs, emergency kit, and a sandwich, and had plenty of room for a sweatshirt or whatever had I needed it. Melissa fit her camera with room for a few extras as well. After the hike we both still had 1/2 - 2/3 of our resevoirs full of water, and neither of us felt that we conserved in any way. This bodes well for longer trips when we will need to carry that much water.
My boots were feeling quite good again. While my feet were definitely getting sore by the end, I could tell they would have been a lot worse without the good boots. The only even slight problem was just a little bit of pinching in my right little toe - but its possible that I was just imagining it since me feet hurt in general. Had we been doing an all-day hike, it would have been about time for an hour or so to sit down, eat lunch, and let our feet air out.
As usual, all of these pictures are Melissa's. I should note, however, that I blew up the green heron picture quite a bit, even though she generally disapproves of such "cheating". I say it's using your equipment to it's full capabilities!
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