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Last weekend Chris and I met up in Lufkin, Texas to attend at Zoo Brew fundraiser at the Ellen Trout Zoo. Chris has been working in Beaumont again and one of our field coworkers lives in Lufkin and his wife was part of the Zoo Brew committee. It sounded like a great event and diversion for our weekend so Chris and I went and enjoyed ourselves. We didn’t get to see a lot of the zoo animals as most were put away to avoid being stressed too much. However, we saw and heard the zoo’s many peacocks. I’m pretty sure they need to invest in some peacock birth control; peacocks were everywhere and they were loud. If you’ve never heard a peacock they sound a bit like a distressed cat.

The following day our feet were itching for hiking so we headed for the Upland Island Wilderness in Angelina National Forest. Somehow we both ended up not bringing our laptops, each assuming the other would have theirs so researching the forest with a map and where to go was a no-go. However Chris knew where the sign was on the highway for the entrance to this particular area and so we drove down there and hoped for the best.

I know government agencies are spread thin these days, particularly lesser utilized parks, but is it that difficult to put a map of the forest service unit at the trail heads and campgrounds? We checked several places that we found display boards to see where we might find a trail or to even differentiate between some of the private inholdings that border the forest service lands, and found maps were nonexistent. Frustrating!

We came in from U.S. 69 and turned on what Google is calling Jasper County Line Road. We looked for somewhere safe to drop off my truck so we could ride together in Chris’ truck and found a small parking area maybe a mile or two down the road. I was a little bit skeptical of the site, a sort of parking area/campsite, but at least at the end of the day my truck was still there with tires in tact and no broken windows. After I jumped in his truck we first tried going down one road that headed south towards the Neches River only to find ourselves facing private property signs. There was a two-track that appeared to be on forest land that we could have hiked down but decided against it.

Back on the main road we came to these pitcher plants on the side of the road where a seep was flowing from the side of the hill. We had encountered a few more no trespassing signs here and there along the roadway and at this point we didn’t see any signs so we decided to get out and walk up the hill a bit and scope out the pitcher plants.

After our short excursion into the woods we got back into the truck and kept on driving down the road. The road teed and ran into more private lands, hunting clubs warning trespassers their area were wired with cameras. Chris and I had walked through a few hunting club lands on the Florida Trail. While the trail officially goes through these areas and we were ok to be there, there’s an uneasy feeling whenever you run into hunters because you never know how they will react to hikers. Needless to say I wasn’t interested in being anywhere near hunt club lands.

We took a right down the road towards the river again hoping to run into a forest service sign. Finally we saw the ubiquitous brown and tan forest service sign telling us we were entering the Bouton Lake Campground. Quickly we found a message board and a few campsites but again we were thwarted with no map or more information other than something saying the Sawmill Trail was closed in a few areas with bridges that were out of service. Well, that was a start, there was a trail somewhere if we could only find it. Finally we found a big open field on the east end of the lake with a few campers (including one guy who reminded us of our backpacking friend from the AT and FT, Speaker). I got out to investigate the possible trailhead and indeed it was the Sawmill Trail! Score!

The first couple hundred yards of the trail were wide and fairly clear but it was soon evident that few people went too far down the trail and that maintenance did not occur often.

Downed trees, overgrown shrubs and grass, poison ivy and Smilax reaching out to grab you, this trail had it all.

Since we had no idea how far the trail went and where we might end up we just walked until we couldn’t find the trail any longer, which happened to be at a clear cut area bordering private property. Suddenly the trail became so thick and any signs of people following a path disappeared. Shot gun shells along the path insinuated the only people who really used the trail were hunters.

Chasmanthium latifolium

We ran into a couple of really large pine trees where the trail sat above the Neches River on a bluff.

Found an interesting gall. Someone really needs to come up with a gall identification book. Of course only like the nerdiest of nerds, like us, would probably buy it, but still. Someone publish a gall book!—-or better yet publishers, I’ll be more than happy to team with with an expert in galls and take photos of galls. *hint hint* (For the uninitiated into insect galls)

We found a patch of green dragon, Arisaema dracontium. One of the plants had a spent flower and Chris was planning on coming back to take photos of it but we must have passed the patch of plants on our return back to the truck.

There were several beech trees that had been marked upon. Apparently this place does get a bit of activity from time to time, probably not recent times though. Some people need to learn to leave what you find.

After we hit the overgrown section of trail that was impossible to follow we stopped for lunch at the beech tree.

Gotta throw in a self portrait.

It’s always a good day when you find an orchid. Spiranthes…Chris says vernalis and since he’s more orchid knowing than I am I’m going with it.

The trail got confusing in one spot on the way back; we’d detoured around treefall and other debris on the way in but forgot how we’d approached going around it so we made a bigger detour and went to check out a slough nearby.

There was evidence of feral pigs rooting around.

This area was a little muddy but not too bad and the best part of walking in areas where water comes through is that typically the walking is clear and free from debris.

A side creek coming off the east end of Bouton Lake.

Once we returned to the truck we weren’t sure where we were going to go and just followed the GPS to see what roads we could take, also checking for private property signs along the way. Eventually we came to a two track that didn’t have a gate and no signs were posted so we decided to take the chance and get out. A creek was nearby and Chris was looking for azaleas.

I’m not quite sure which Asclepias this is….anyone?

We followed the creek bed for awhile, climbing the steep slopes up to the top when there was no sand bar to jump around the water.

Chris pointed out a green tree frog, Hyla cinerea, clinging to a plant. I was a little surprised to see it there as I’m used to seeing them in marshes and really wet-wetlands.

Finally we moseyed on down the road driving slowly and entering more pine uplands instead of bottomland hardwood areas.

Chris walked past some jack-in-the-pulpits and I pointed them out to him as we quickly explored another creek.

And more galls!

It was getting towards late afternoon and we both had two hour drives back to our respective end points for the day—home for me, and Chris’ home-away-from-home hotel.

I would definitely love to go back through here sometime with a map to scope out a few more interesting and rare habitats.

A couple of weekends ago I was in Fort Worth visiting my folks and I really wanted to go for a short hike, get out and stretch my legs. I managed to convince my dad and mom to come along to Tandy Hills for an hour long jaunt to see what was blooming, if anything.

I noticed paintbrush coming up but not yet ready to bloom.

We found a different pocket of trout lilies than we normally visit, but I couldn’t even find an old flowering spike. They would have bloomed in early to mid February. I wonder if the drier winter prohibited their blooming this year.

Lots of yucca seedpods all over the place.

This is mostly definitely some kind of planted bulb that likely came from either an old homesite or from a home across the street from the park. Being as it is in an urban/suburban environment this doesn’t seem unlikely.

Prickly things on the prairie!

Mom wasn’t used to the walking and had to take a few breaks, but I think Dad could have pulled a 20.

The park is covered with all sorts of dry drainages that run fast when the rain is falling. There are probably a few low areas that I wouldn’t want to be near in a heavy downpour, a recipe for flash floods.

This cleverly framed shot doesn’t allude to the fact that to the left is a street with houses, to the right is a highway (I-30), and beyond that hill is a view of downtown Fort Worth.

I still can’t believe the first time I ever went there was only three years ago, especially after I spent years driving practically right by it going to my grandparent’s houses!

Ah, Galveston. I love this island. For those who haven’t been reading long, my history with the island is that I spent four years there while in college. The island is equal parts old money, spring break, summer vacation, and ratty hole-in-the-wall. It’s still a little bit of a place called home for me, though.

Chris and I spent a little bit of time down at the beach that we got engaged at. We think.. You see, when we got engaged there were more dunes and vegetation and a sign for riding horses on the beach. That was back in 2001. Since then Hurricane Ike came through and well, the scenery has changed.

I believe this is a snowy plover. I was hoping for piping plover but the eye patch threw me off and my guidebook suggests snowy plover instead.

This pods of jelly are some kind of comb jelly I believe. I’m having flashbacks to invertebrate zoology right now and memorizing taxonomy.

Here’s your run-of-the-mill laughing gull….he wants some food.

The fishing was good out there!

I’m going to go with ring-billed gull for this one….flying on by.

I love the feathers on the wing tips of this brown pelican as it is flying by; very poetic and graceful.

But poetry and grace take the backseat when dinner calls!

Last Saturday Chris and I drove down Sportsman Road on the west end of Galveston Island to scope out the birds before we went home from a couple of days on the island for a conference. We are familiar with Sportsman Road as it was a place Chris fished regularly while in college (we went to TAMUG) and a place I went to for a few field labs. It is a popular place to not only fish but to launch kayaks too.

There were quite a few birds out in the marsh that morning and a few of them let me take their photos. These were all shot via our car which lets you know that the birds are relatively close in the marsh.

Tricolored heron

Ducks hiding behind the Spartina. They didn’t want their picture taken apparently.

Roseate spoonbills conjuring up some breakfast.

A majestic great blue heron.

This belted kingfisher is probably the closest I’ve come to an actual decent photograph of this species. They are notorious for being camera shy and will move at any hint of a camera lens being pointed in their direction. When we drove by this pond the first time the bird was actually hovering over the pond and it would have been a great photo opportunity had we been going the other direction with me on the other side of the road. Oh well.

This kestrel was flying at the west end of the Seawall and Chris pulled over into the parking lot for me to get a few shots of it. The bird was hovering over the grass as it spotted something that must have looked tasty for breakfast.

I zoomed and cropped the next few photos.

They are such beautiful birds!

Ready to dive towards the grass, but spooked at the last minute. That was a fun interaction to see, though!

I’m loving this time of year so far and hope I can take advantage of the birds around the area more often in the next few weeks.

Since our hiking mileage wasn’t large, maybe six miles or something, we took several breaks during the hike to campsite H. We got behind a slow group of hikers on a very narrow trail, stopped to check out a clematis, and refilled our water at the last place before climbing up the bluff. It was the furthest campsite out at the park and I thought maybe we’d be alone….which of course was dumb of me to think.

The campsite is up a bluff and we took the long way around to see what the rest of the trail in that area looked like. Unfortunately we were mostly socked in with Ashe juniper all around us, but no matter we still made the best of it and it probably blocked the wind for the night. If there is a hated tree in Texas I think it might be the juniper. First of all it is the preferred nest tree for the golden cheeked warbler an endangered bird that pisses all land developers off in central Texas. Secondly, it has become a nuisance tree in the form of its second and third growth as it has colonized what used to be more open spaces. I’ve done a little bit of reading about this tree and its supposed problems (supposed because I don’t necessarily take the view of the land managers) and I’ll have to do more in the future, but I find the politics behind it fascinating. There’s even a website called People Against Cedars….now what I want to know more appropriately is where is the People Against Chinese Tallow/Brazilian Pepper/Melaleuca/Australian Pine at? But all of this is another rant for another day.

So, yes, socked in we were. But we pitched our tent around the corner in a nice thicket of cedars, away from the Boy Scout group, and took a nap. Chris napped a little while longer but I went around exploring, seeing what I could find.

We had dinner along a downed cedar log and retired early when the sun set. Makes for a long night but we planned on getting up early in order to make our way out of the park before the crowds arrived.

Missed a post? See these: Along the Sabinal, Hale Hollow Creek, The View, and Monkey Rock.

I had thought that perhaps when we left the main area of the park and embarked on the West Trail that we would leave the crowds behind. There was a slight incline as we hiked up the trail which I thought might deter folks, and for awhile we didn’t see anyone. Then we saw one family, then another, and another until we knew this was not going to be our time for peace. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by going to so many natural areas and not seeing a soul, or very few at least.

This (what I think) phaon crescent butterfly was among many butterflies swarming the blooming bushes in the creek bed.

A gall of some kind.

The trail meandered around the creek bed for most of the way, sometimes cairns leading the way.

We stopped maybe a quarter of the way down the creek for a lunch break, finding a slab of limestone out of the way of the main hiking traffic to start our stove up and make burritos for lunch. A nap was had in the dappled sunshine afterwards.

The trail leaves the creek and climbs upward to the bluffs where another panoramic view awaits. Up top there is a privy and campsites E & F. Several groups of hikers were on the bluffs taking in the view, while we didn’t stop and continued along the way back downhill again towards Mystic Canyon.

After leaving campsite A the East Trail climbs steadily for maybe a quarter to a half mile before plateauing on top of the ridge (which I wouldn’t really call it a ridge, definitely let’s go with plateau…hence plateauing). The climb itself isn’t difficult, just steady, and since I am a slow hill climber and because my nose loves to run when I’m climbing a hill, I take my time.

Up top we were rewarded with sweeping views in all directions. The trail itself stays level on top for maybe a mile, probably a smidge less, before descending down towards the West Trail and Can Creek.

There wasn’t a whole lot going on up top, the wind was blowing and the day started out overcast, and not a lot was blooming up there.

Missed the other Lost Maples posts? See Along the Sabinal River, Monkey Rock, Hale Hollow Creek.

Hale Hollow Creek branches off the Sabinal River near Campsite A and heads west through the northern portion of the park before running into private property. We didn’t walk that far down it, but to kill some time before setting up our tent and waiting on our friends we decided to explore the creek bed a little bit.

Maidenhair fern line the walls of the creek, some in better shape than others.

Virginia creeper provided a nice contrast in color along the way.

Even the maidenhair fern were providing some fall colors throughout the creek.

We are fairly certain this is an orchid, in particular I think the chatterbox orchid. Maybe this spring we can get out and see them in bloom.

Some stalactites growing from the sides of the creek walls.

We stopped when we reached this tree and Chris took a few shots. I sat and lingered, taking in the light coming through the maples.

Passiflora lutea I believe.

I love ducking into quiet and seemingly unexplored regions of a park. I’m sure that people have explored this area, but the rest of the general population there that weekend wasn’t there exploring it and that is what mattered to me.

Some quiet time with nature.

We arrived at Lost Maples, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere west of San Antonio, to find we were definitely not the only people at the park. This park is known for its fall color and people from all over flock for day or overnight use. A line to check in, lines for the bathroom up front, a full parking lot—this place was busy! There are few and far between state parks that I have been too that have ever been this crowded and usually they involve a beach (Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park comes to mind).

We found a parking spot and got our gear together to head off down the trail. We were planning on spending two nights in the backcountry, which isn’t all that backcountry-ish as the park is relatively small, but it was hiking! Two of our friends/colleagues were coming too but would be meeting us later so we were in no rush to make miles or get anywhere in particular. We’d pegged the first campsite, A, to be our destination for the night knowing that the other two would be coming later, possibly during dusk.

We meandered about along the Maple Trail which was supposed to have the highest fall color with the bigtooth maples in this area. I think we were off by a week with the color, but it was still beautiful.

Lunch was a dry spot in the middle of the low-flowing Sabinal River. The trail was busy with people.

We stopped here and there to look at plants, trying to identify ones we knew and becoming curious about the ones we didn’t.

Our next stop was Monkey Rock and after that we still had plenty of time to explore before setting up camp for the night.

A couple of weekends ago we went to Lost Maples State Natural Area which is located in Vanderpool, Texas, a town west-northwest of San Antonio and south of I-10.

Along the east loop, not far from campsite A, we found a sign delineating something called Monkey Rock. A middle aged couple were coming from the opposite direction headed towards the rock too, and I asked them if they had been before, to which they replied they hadn’t and were just as curious as us. The sign didn’t specify distance or anything else so I had no idea if we were in for a hike up the bluffs or what.

Instead we found ourselves descending into the creek bed and found ourselves face to face with….a monkey rock!

I tried to find some legitimate information on Monkey Rock but I didn’t find anything other than a lot of other hikers, campers, and outdoor enthusiasts writing on blogs or sharing photos. This monkey rock is probably the most photographed monkey rock in the world….or at least Texas!