Marble Mountain Orchid Photo-Op Hike
Tags: Nature
Up the mountain we went yesterday, cameras in hand. It's a good thing that we brought cameras because there were numerous wild flowers to be preserved in photos. One of my old favorites is mountain laurel and it is just now coming into bloom. At one point we sat for a rest and noticed a most gorgeous bright yellow lady's slipper in the woods just off the side of the road. Being a very rare plant, this is very possibly the only time any of us will see a yellow lady's slipper in our entire lives. It was a thrill for we plant lovers. All lady's slippers are protected and they are not to be touched - it's a law that will get you a fine if you break it. Plus there's the wrong kind of karma of harming nature and possibly contributing to the extinction of a lovely plant. Picking the flowers kills the plant and it is a plant that does not transplant - try it and the plant will surely die. There were a few pink lady's slippers. That was on the south side, on the north side there were no flowers. I saw no mushrooms, the weather is too dry. There has been no substantial rain in a week - week and a half.
This wasn't an "official" community hike. In a casual conversation last week some people mentioned that they had never been up the mountain so we took them up yesterday. The hike began at the McCann's and ended in Valley Mills. The hike was more strenuous than previous hikes. The road is tremendously torn up in quite a few places where atv's have dug deep ruts that filled with water. What a mess. Getting past these flooded segments of road require either negotiating a narrow piece of roadside or hopping from tuft to tuft on low mini-hillocks along the road and, if we're lucky, we don't sink into the mud or water upon landing. Sometimes we had to forge our way through thick undergrowth on a side detour through the woods. At times the going was almost grueling. I don't remember the road being quite so damaged in past hikes. Atv's are a mixed blessing, they keep the road open but at the expense of the quality of the road.
From experience I know that we return famished so all of us ended up on my patio for a very informal repast. All is good.
Up the mountain we went yesterday, cameras in hand. It's a good thing that we brought cameras because there were numerous wild flowers to be preserved in photos. One of my old favorites is mountain laurel and it is just now coming into bloom. At one point we sat for a rest and noticed a most gorgeous bright yellow lady's slipper in the woods just off the side of the road. Being a very rare plant, this is very possibly the only time any of us will see a yellow lady's slipper in our entire lives. It was a thrill for we plant lovers. All lady's slippers are protected and they are not to be touched - it's a law that will get you a fine if you break it. Plus there's the wrong kind of karma of harming nature and possibly contributing to the extinction of a lovely plant. Picking the flowers kills the plant and it is a plant that does not transplant - try it and the plant will surely die. There were a few pink lady's slippers. That was on the south side, on the north side there were no flowers. I saw no mushrooms, the weather is too dry. There has been no substantial rain in a week - week and a half.
This wasn't an "official" community hike. In a casual conversation last week some people mentioned that they had never been up the mountain so we took them up yesterday. The hike began at the McCann's and ended in Valley Mills. The hike was more strenuous than previous hikes. The road is tremendously torn up in quite a few places where atv's have dug deep ruts that filled with water. What a mess. Getting past these flooded segments of road require either negotiating a narrow piece of roadside or hopping from tuft to tuft on low mini-hillocks along the road and, if we're lucky, we don't sink into the mud or water upon landing. Sometimes we had to forge our way through thick undergrowth on a side detour through the woods. At times the going was almost grueling. I don't remember the road being quite so damaged in past hikes. Atv's are a mixed blessing, they keep the road open but at the expense of the quality of the road.
From experience I know that we return famished so all of us ended up on my patio for a very informal repast. All is good.