April 29th, 2021

One of the really great things about the "hiking community" is that they are all very generous with information.  Without wearing badges of identification, we all seem to recognize a fellow hiker when we cross paths on the trails.  And I must pause here to say that there is a difference between hikers like Joy and I, who quietly hike through the woods with our cameras on a weekly basis and folks who are just killing some time but don't usually spend much time in the forest.  And of course neither of those groups of people are anything like the ones who are whopping and hollering and bashing trees with sticks, dropping lit cigars and starbucks cups (or beer cans) and being mean to the woodland creatures.  

And it goes without saying that I have no issue with casual strollers  or fellow hikers at all!  But we truly detest the ones who have zero respect for nature!  Shame on them!

Still those of us who are like minded, always seem to recognize kindred spirits and when we cross paths often will stop for a moment or two to ask questions and share tips.  Which is how we have learned of such things as new eagle nest sightings or flooded trails or an owl habitat.  Joy and I  recently were told of  a local hike that we honestly did not know existed even though it's right here in Venice.   How did we miss this one?  I have no idea.  But yesterday we decided to go check it out.

It was lovely, very thickly wooded with cool shady trails and loaded with spider webs!  I didn't realize it until I edited the photos how dang many pictures of spider webs that I took that  day!  Unprecedented.  They were strung from flower to flowers and from one blade of grass to another.  Sometimes several hung in the same tree.  We found them in the squares of fencing, along the sides of the trails and on one very ambitious occasion strung from one side of the trail to the other. Not quite sure how that one was managed.  Still impressive

For some reason, I seem to have been quite taken with fence posts yesterday as well.  Not sure what that was about, but you can see it here:

Most of the rest of the hike were things that were either very high up  or things that were down very low.  Either way we got a lot of exercise and sore necks.  Totally Worth it!  So I'm calling this the High/Low hike.

Here are some of the things that were very high up:

And then, by contrast, some of the things that were down very low:

And then there were just a few beautiful moments with light that caught my eye.  You will see what I mean:

There you have it, the Mostly High/Low Hike.  Hope you enjoyed coming along ;)