Hiking
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Eagle Rock Loop Day 1 | Ouachita National Forest
Finally, some backpacking time! A week ago Chris and I went with my dad, brother and some of their friends from my brother’s old Boy Scout troop to the Eagle Rock Loop in Ouachita National Forest. I was very happy to be getting some hiking in—on mountains especially. I was hoping that part of it would be reminiscent of the Appalachian Trail and I was pleasantly rewarded with birds, vegetation and smells that we saw on our hike of the A.T. We split the drive up, leaving Houston for Dallas at noon one day, then jumping in the car that my dad, brother and another hiker were in to finish…
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The Weekend In A Series of Haikus
I. We followed the trail Up and over many peaks With sweet, humid views. II. Water crossed our path Hop, skip, jump, across the streams Splish, splash, don’t fall in! III. The woods smell divine Wafting heady aromas Can I soak it in? IV. Dusk falls, night begins The woods come alive with sound Who cooks for you all? V. Hiker stench sets in Sweat drips, bugs bite, stomach growls One more hill to go. VI. Back at the trail-head Feet ache, hiker hobble, tired Ready for some food. Been awhile since I’ve written a haiku—ok, probably since high school which was 14 years ago—so I hope I got the…
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Magic in the Woods
Finally sharing the rest of the photos I took when I went to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory a few weekends ago with Keely and her boyfriend. These photos are from the grounds of the GCBO and the Wilderness Park across the bayou from GCBO. Nature is my medicine. ~Sara Moss-Wolfe
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Rainy Weekend at Huntsville State Park
Early in the year Chris had scheduled out several camping trips throughout the spring. I had warned that he could potentially be in the field all spring—things hadn’t started up yet and he not received word about work. Even so, he made reservations to many state parks in anticipation of spring wildflower season. So far we’ve had to cancel most of them, but we rescheduled this trip to Huntsville State Park to a weekend sooner then planned since he was going to be off that weekend. Unfortunately a cool front with rain came through causing us to postpone leaving to the campground until early afternoon, when the rains had passed.…
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Thru-Hiker Deliciousness
I’ve been thinking about this post for a few days, mostly because I am waxing nostalgic on the Appalachian Trail since March is around the corner, peak time for thru-hikers to start. And it will be 2 years since we left Georgia for Maine. Seriously, where did the time go? Food is important on the trail and if we aren’t thinking about it, we’re talking about it. While I have been eating fairly healthy (with nice doses of cheese at restaurants) and mostly vegetarian for almost a year, my mind does wander to the junk food and not so healthy items that only people burning 5K+ calories a day can…
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An Enchanted New Years | Enchanted Rock Pt. 1
I’m kind of amazed that I grew up in Texas and never visited Enchanted Rock. My parents took us camping a couple times a year but I know we mostly drove within two hours of home. This would have been nearly five hours away, so probably not a feasible trip back then. I had mentioned this park as a place to go on our Texas Roadtrip in September 2010 but for some reason it didn’t make it to our list of places to visit. Well, we finally did make it. The park itself is in the boondocks between Llano and Fredericksburg, west of Austin. The road the entrance is on…
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Through the Rocks
One of the photos I processed from our weekend at Enchanted Rock last weekend. We were trying to find a supposed cave but instead we found a slot of rocks to walk/crawl through. I spent most of the weekend shooting in black and white with a red filter on my camera. The landscape seemed to beckon for that type of treatment, but Chris managed to get some color shots that were stunning! I’m going to slowly be working on the rest of the photos. I’m trying to get a baby blanket finished and it is trying my patience and frankly I just don’t want to do it. Instead I want…
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Pine Top Campsite via the Bush Mountain, Marcus and Tejas Trails
When we left Dog Canyon the next morning the sky was relatively clear. The forecast did not predict any significant problems so we left the campsite with an intent to take it easy along the way to our initial destination, the Tejas campsite. We planned on stopping along the way to enjoy the scenery, take lots of breaks and really soak it all in. On the Bush Mountain trail we headed in a westerly direction along the crease between two hill tops. We followed on the flat terrain for maybe a mile, perhaps less, before starting our wind up the hill. Initially we’d bundled up but as soon we we…
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Dog Canyon | Guadalupe Mountains National Park
We rose at the McKittrick Ridge campsite the following morning to clouds. It had been quite windy the previous night and a few times it sounded like rain outside, but despite all of that, the ground was relatively dry. We ate a hurried breakfast, taking the tent down first in case the bottom fell out of the sky, so that the tent wouldn’t be wet later. I asked Patrice and Justin if they were awake so they could get up if they wanted to get back down to the McKittrick Visitors Center before the rain came. We were expecting at least a 70% chance of rain for the day, as…
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McKittrick Canyon
When I told my dad we were going to Guadalupe Mountains National Park for Thanksgiving he recounted his tale of it being one of the hardest hikes he’d ever done. He regaled me with a story about my brother and him being ahead of the rest of the Boy Scout troop, and climbing and climbing to the McKittrick Ridge campsite they were all supposed to stay at that night, however night fell and they ended up laying out their sleeping bags somewhere in the middle of the trail. Eventually everyone got caught up together but then there was an issue of getting water and the only place was several miles…