Outdoors
-
Rambling at Kleb Woods
It had been far too long since I’d spent any considerable amount of time outside, so last Sunday I decided to brave the 100* heat and go for a walk at Kleb Woods. I almost left to go at 1pm but waited an hour, thinking I would postpone until later in the evening, but I needed out and so at 2pm I left for the woods. Chris and I had been here back in the Fall on a weekend. It was busier then and the hummingbirds were around, sipping nectar from the feeders and the flowers in the hummingbird garden. This time the heat of the day brought stillness over…
-
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center | Part I
So way back in March when we went to Austin we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Sunday morning before driving home. And yes, here it is late June and I am just now posting photos from them! I can’t believe I have been so unattentive to my photo processing and writing about our adventures. Nonetheless here is round 1 of our trip: Lady Bird herself on the rain barrel. Not to be confused with this Ladybird. Lace cactus, Echinocereus caespitosus Horse rush Horse crippler cactus Echinocactus texensis Gregg dalea, Dalea greggii Foxglove, Penstemon cobaea Columbine Trumpet creeper Blackfoot Daisy, Melampodium leucanthum Antelopehorn (butterfly weed) Asclepias asperula And…
-
Eagle Rock Loop 3 | Ouachita National Forest
Did you miss Day 1 & Day 2? After leaving the campsite by the river the next morning we had about 9 miles left to return to the trailhead we started at two days before. It was overcast and looked like potential rain but at least it kept the heat down. There were going to be a couple of river fords that day as bounced back and forth across the river. The river in this section was already narrowing but was still flowing faster than the creeks we’d passed the days prior. At this crossing we meandered up and down looking for a possible rock-hop to avoid taking our boots…
-
Eagle Rock Loop Day 2 | Ouachita National Forest
Read Day 1 if you haven’t already…. We woke up the next morning around 6 a.m. Dawn had already broke and the sky was getting light. Some of the other hikers had begun to rouse before 6, knowing it would take them longer to get ready and drink their coffee that morning. We were hoping to make maybe 12 miles that day in order to ease our mileage for the third and final day so we wouldn’t be leaving the forest so late for our four to five hour drive back to DFW. The ups and downs of the previous day were mostly over; the topo map showed mostly level…
-
The San Bernard Oak
Prior to visiting the art show at the Migration Celebration at the San Bernard NWR I took a tour of the San Bernard Oak, the largest live oak in Texas. The trail had been freshly mowed and maintained so it was not nearly as buggy as I was expecting. I took my time, meandering along, snapping photos of the way the light hit the vegetation along the trail. Fairly certain this is a mustang grape… A gas pipeline provided a nice opening for the sun-loving plants to thrive like these Mexican hats Ratibida columnifera. Finally I arrived at the oak tree, however due to the tours (they were mostly self…
-
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…
-
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…
-
A Short Stint in the Swamp
What? A post from me on the weekend??? Swamp mallow leaves…. Two banded water snakes, well, this is the same snake, but there were two hanging out where we were in the swamp the last day I was out. +I ended up in the swamp for two days for work at the end of the week. Thought it was going to seep into the weekend but it thankfully didn’t. I was back in the Big Thicket where I was working last spring/early summer. It felt like coming home—which is funny because it is a swamp and very wet. +It got a little boring for awhile though because we had to…
-
An Evening with 1.5 Million Mexican Free-tailed Bats
While in Austin two weekends ago we took advantage of an opportunity to see the colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that live under the Congress Avenue bridge in downtown Austin. We didn’t really do much research when we got there only knowing about when to go (dusk—but earlier to get a spot in the crowd) and the location but when we arrived we quickly realized we didn’t know where to park. We ended up in the Austin American Statesman parking lot, which I am pretty sure we weren’t supposed to be in, but a few others were parked there and a gate was open to the little green space near…
-
The Climbing Canyon at Reimers Ranch Park
One of our favorite areas to visit in the Austin area has three parks right near each other making it optimal for seeing the a variety of ecosystems right around the Pedernales River. Westcave Preserve, Hamilton Pool, and Reimers Ranch Park. The latter we have not had much of a chance to explore as it is newly opened and Travis county is still working on finishing the park. It will have many biking trails, rock climbing areas, and water access to the Pedernales River. We popped in Reimers Ranch just to see what was in the climbing canyon, not having much time to explore the park before we had to…