Outdoors
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9 Miles at Nails Creek State Park
Lots of photos, details at the end… Last weekend, still wanting to stretch my legs after our failed attempt on the Northeast Texas Trail, Chris and I decided to hike the Somerville Trailway starting at Nails Creek State Park out west of Brenham. Our AT friend RedHat lives that direction and we invited her to join along. I had only seen her two other times since the AT, meeting her once for dinner and then hiking with her on the Lone Star Trail for a dayhike, but that had been almost two years ago! She’s always heading back to the AT to visit her boyfriend who is a ridgerunner in…
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(More) Canoe Explorations
We took the canoe out for another spin over the weekend. It was actually my first time on the pond. Yes, after living here for a year and a half, I still had not been on the pond. Of course now I think a spin in the pond needs to be a weekly ‘thing’. I think the only thing that ruins it for me is just how much Chinese tallow is on the pond and the little islands along the creek, upstream. It is really depressing and downright ugly. ” The stream narrows up the way and while Chris was able to get further upstream a few weekends ago, the…
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Final Thoughts + Photos & Video from the Northeast Texas Trail (NETT)
Final Thoughts: This trail is a great concept, just not ready to be fully executed yet. To be ready for hikers and bikers alike, there needs to be some organization in regards to trail maintenance. I’d venture to say that even the width of the railbed doesn’t need to be cleared, and really hikers only need a nice singletrack. Of course the bicyclists will desire more room to ride so more clearing will be needed. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that the trail alliance is as organized as other long distance trails, yet, and either the local cities or highly motiviated locals and trail users are the only ones who keep…
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Thru Hike FAIL: Part II | The Northeast Texas Trail (NETT)
On Sunday morning, though we had spent plenty of time in the tent already over 12 hours, we struggled to want to get out of the warmth of the sleeping bags. We hopped out, packed everything up, emptied bladders, and threw down a bar or two into our stomachs. We were around 2 miles from Avery which boasted a gas station that had a cafe and we hoped to stop there for a quick breakfast. The sun was out, which was an optimism booster, and though I was feeling sore from the day before I was ready to go. At this point in time I was still feeling that we…
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Thru-Hike FAIL: Part I | The Northeast Texas Trail (NETT)
Well, I debated writing this or not. I mean, it is a fail, and after all, who wants to write about their failures? Earlier this fall Chris and I decided we were going to thru-hike the Lone Star Trail. I did some research and it seemed some sections were closed because the Forest Service is being asinine and calling these sections ‘dangerous’ due to dead trees along the length of the trail. Nevermind that the rest of the forest immediately adjacent to the trail, in the forest, was open. Silly, silly, silly. We were going to hike it anyway. That us until we received our Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine…
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Canoe Explorations
Zoe and I hung out down by the pond while waiting for her dad (my brother) and Uncle Chris to get back from their canoe ride around the pond. Chris bought a canoe off of Craigslist last Friday and it was the canoe’s first spin around our pond. The pretty fall foliage behind them is the awful Chinese tallow. Its color in the fall is probably its only redeeming quality. When we first told Zoe about the canoe she wasn’t interested in going. Well, she wanted everyone, all six of us, to go in the canoe at once. She didn’t quite understand that it wasn’t really feasible and got upset…
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Quiet Evening on Barton Creek
Last week I was in Austin for a conference and on Wednesday evening I tried to capture what was left of the daylight at the end of the day for a little exploration around town. I had contemplated driving out to Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge but didn’t think I had enough time to get out there and do anything useful so I opted to head downtown to Barton Springs and Zilker Park. It was smooth sailing south down the Mo-Pac expressway until it wasn’t and then I found myself ducking off the highway and heading down the still congested Lamar Street that leads towards the west side of downtown.…
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Clematis crispa | Texas Native Plant Week
It wasn’t until we moved to Texas that I discovered the awesomeness of native clematis species. We encountered this species while working Big Thicket National Preserve two years ago and since then we’ve become enamoured with the plant, looking for them in nurseries we visit. Ours is growing well on a trellis in our garden having put on blooms multiple times this summer. The bottom photo is from a seed pod we found in the Big Thicket. In Texas the species is located in moist areas in the southeastern section of the state, while the similar appearing Clematis pitcherii is found in the central and western portion of the state…
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Gaillardia aestivalis var. winkleri | Texas Native Plant Week
I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of Gaillardia. Commonly it is known as Indian blanket or fire wheel however, I like to refer to it by its genus. This genus is relatively hands off in regards to fussiness; plant it and it thrives. You may see the more commong Gaillardia pulchella or aristata and even aestivalis, but other varieties such as this one are more rare. This particular species is endemic to southeast Texas—only. Here are a couple of interesting links in regards to its history. In our garden we, like always, had to fend off the deer and hope for the best. When the plants were finally…
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Calyptocarpus vialis | Texas Native Plant Week
Horseherb, aka: straggler daisy, is an interesting kinda-sorta native plant. You see, we have some *in* our flower garden from a pot that we bought, and where we bought it from called it native. It wasn’t long after we bought it that I actually paid attention to the grass around my yard and noticed that the same plant grew throughout the yard, intermingled with the grass and other weeds. It had been on my mind for awhile to check the plant out online and follow-up with digging more information on it, and finally a few weeks ago I actually looked it up. I had a suspicion that perhaps it wasn’t…