Walking Stick Wisdom

Here's an original poem wood-burned into a walking stick that I made a few years back:


Wander frequently near or far.
Seek joy and beauty in each breath and step.
Dear traveler obey your heart's wise behest
And in life's journeys discover the soul's true rest.

Florida Fall Color

Winter hasn't quite arrived in Florida.  A cool snap during the last couple of weeks has brought out the colors of Fall.  Hickories and elms have turned yellow.  Sweet gums range from bronze to maroon to a decent orange color.  In this photo of an upland tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) one sees a pleasing medley of hues.  This is one of my favorite Florida trees.

Sneaking Around Christmas Walk

I had a very enjoyable night-time walk with a dear friend last night along the limerock country road she lives on.  Our task: sneaking a fresh pear dressed up in a bag with a bow-tied ribbon onto the porches, gates, and mailboxes of a dozen of her rural neighbors.  Sneaking around whispering and giggling in the dark was great fun.  It's the 12 Days of Christmas.  Tonight's stealthiness involves Dove-brand soaps and 2 turtles candies for "2 turtle doves..".  Hoping for a repeat of the whispery, giggly fun, and continued luck not getting caught, or shot.

Swan Falls Dam on the Snake River, Idaho

Just after Thanksgiving my father, youngest brother, and I walked across Swan Falls Dam on the Snake River southwest of Boise, Idaho and hiked for a few sunny hours along the river and the basalt cliffs that form the canyon walls.  It was a wonderfully crisp day and the cold wind, sweet with the fragrance of big sagebrush tugging at one's clothes and washing over one's face, was a long-anticipated soul-cleansing.  Cold-smudged by Nature in the dry desert of SW Idaho, as it were.

This area of the Snake River lies within the 600,000 acre (Morley) Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, home to the most diverse and dense concentration of raptors in the United States.  Among the 24 species of raptors encountered in the cliff and tablelands are peregrine and prairie falcons, the American Kestrel (also a falcon); red-tailed, ferruginous, Swainson's, sharp-shinned and rough-legged hawks; the golden eagle, and the northern harrier.  We saw quite a few common ravens on that cold day, but few raptors.  Along the cliffs high above the river we encountered many fish bones - evidence the birds were catching or scavenging fish from the river and taking them to safe perches in the cliffs to consume them or to feed to nestlings.  Favored perches were identifiable by the white stains on the cliffs below choice alcoves and/or nest sites.  At one site at the base of a cliff formed from water-lain ash and basalt cobbles I found a collection of owl pellets and jawbones of the Piute/Townsend ground squirrels that are so ubiquitous on the flat tablelands above the canyon.  Great horned and great gray owls are found here as well, as well as diminutive burrowing owls that inhabit abandoned ground squirrel or badger burrows on the flatlands about the canyon.  Morlan "Morley" Nelson was a famed falconer and tireless champion of raptor rehabilitation, preservation and research who lived in my home town of Boise until his death in 2005.  It is quite fitting that this important conservation area is named after him.

Portrait of a happy hiker.  It was so nice to go a-walking with Dad and Brother, to exert myself in the cold air.  Toward the end of the hike we flushed two big mule deer.  They bounded away with effortless speed and purpose that was the picture of grace and strength and agility.  Would that we humans could move like that through the world.  The graceful part, anyway.  We might, if we tried harder in body and spirit, I say.

As a parting gesture, or following a personal tradition, rather, I gathered a shock of sagebrush to take back to Florida before we left the area - one of my favorite fragrances in the whole world to savor in the weeks and months ahead, and to perhaps smudge my 1935 frame house with.  A strong reminder and precious memory cue of my happy youth in the West, the sweet smell of my home country.

Get Walking!

I don't walk much lately, and I'm the poorer for it.  Would like to find a new companion to get me out and moving.  The cool weather has my feet itching to get out.  For now, I'll need to go for long solo hikes.

Hiking Big Shoals - Suwannee River FL

My wife and I took advantage of a sunny day after Christmas to hike some trails that we'd not been on before. We drove through White Springs, then east a mile or two to the Big Shoals entrance to the 3772-acre Big Shoals tract managed by the Suwannee River Water Management District. The upper Suwannee is a tannin-stained blackwater river in this area, gentle with the exception of the Big and Little Shoals, and for the most part flows lazily between high sandy banks. There are 28 miles of trails and trail roads on the tract, so the 4 or so miles that we hiked only scratched the surface of the hiking possibilities there.

We wanted to see the only stretch of "whitewater rapids" in the state of Florida. At Big Shoals the shallow river (during low water) steps down 5 feet or so over a series of limestone ledges that would present a challenge to folks in a kayak or canoe. These rapids are nothing like the big water rapids we have negotiated on the Green and Colorado Rivers in Utah or the Snake River in Wyoming and Idaho. The Suwannee River is a popular multi-day canoe/kayak trail. There is a 3.4 mile paved trail that connects Big and Little Shoals, so bicyclers, rollerbladers and visitors in wheelchairs can also enjoy the park. Several of the trails and trail roads are designated for equine use as well. Hunting is even allowed at some times of the year, with proper permits.

There were many lovely American holly trees growing along the trails we hiked. I was moved to paraphrase thusly one of A.E. Houseman's poems in his signature work A Shropshire Lad:

Loveliest of trees, the hollies now
Are hung with berries along the bough,
And stand upon the Suwannee-side
Wearing red for Christmastide.

We had a lovely afternoon hike, and finished it with sandwiches and water at picnic benches near the parking area. On the way back towards White Springs, we stopped to observe dozens of Lesser Scaup ducks paddling in a vast marshland.

The trail maintenance crews had been through not too many days before we were there. I found a nice freshly-cut, robust length of sparkleberry (an arborescent blueberry) that I've already begun to fashion into a walking staff. We found one individual whose single trunk was as big around as my thigh. Being a forester by profession, I'm curious to see how this small tree blueberry measures up to the state and national champions. The wood is tight-grained, quite dense and reminiscent of the light-colored wood of southern red cedar. I once fashioned a machete handle from a good-sized piece of sparkleberry that had been cut back by a colleague.

Walking O'Leno in Early Summer

My wife and I visited O'Leno State Park on Fathers' Day. The week's weather was mostly rainy but on this day there were only patchy clouds. Although the temperature was below the 90's of the week or two before, the humidity was way up on account of all the rain on days previous.

We walked sections of the River and Parener's Branch trails for a distance of about 3 miles. Highlights of the walk: We saw two 4-foot long alligator garfish holding in deeper pools south of the suspension footbridge and the two rock shoals marking old milldams of the former village of Keno. We also saw an alligator there too, intently watching members of a picnicking family that were watching it. We heard and saw many yellow-bellied vireos, eastern towhees, ruby-crowned kinglets, Carolina chickadees, and a first for me, the barking tree frog (Quicktime required). Botanist/Urban Forester-Planner by profession, I was un-nerved to find a broad-leafed tree in fruit that completely stumped me. Largish leaves like a Styrax but fruits resembling those of Sweetleaf (Symplocaceae) [I ruled out upland tupelo based on the smooth bark and large leaf size]. I'm still stumped. Me - who thought he could identify every tree that grows in this part of the state!

We'd have traversed the entire trail system in the park had my dancer wife not been suffering from a bout of plantar fasciitis that appeared after years of percussive dance performing. As it was, we limited our ramble to 3 miles - enough for a good stretch and a walk among most of the habitat types in the park.

O'Leno is notorious for its ticks so if you go there, be on the lookout constantly. We found just one on this trip and none in the days following, but I managed to pick up a few chiggers around the ankles and backsides of knees on this hike. We don't use any sort of repellent - so there you go.

Florida, O'Leno, State Park, tick, chigger, tree frog, Towhee, Florida trails, hiking, summer rambles