April 29th, 2022

I think I will kick off your happy weekend with one more Photo Safari Report.  This week Joy and I tackled Deer Prairie Preserve, a place we have been quite a few times and therefore, assumed, that we knew it well.  We did not bring a map and I no longer have the All Trails App on my phone (which was removed in an effort to make a little space as I seem to be running out!).  As it turns out we do not know that particular Preserve quite as well as we thought.

This post will be rather short even though the hike ending up being rather long.  I will call this the "We Shoulda Brought a Map" hike, coz we shoulda.  I cannot honestly say that we were lost.  We knew where we were.  We were at the Deer Prairie Preserve........................................somewhere.  It's a magnificent preserve with more than six thousand acres and 70 miles of trails!  And the entire time we were somewhere inside that space.  See?  Not Lost! Just temporarily misplaced.

The problem is that we are curious.  There we are hiking along, breathing that gorgeous early morning spring air, looking all around while traversing the, very familiar, main trail.  And then we spy an interesting side trail. Ooooo, what do you suppose is down there?  And that leads to a side trial off of a side trail which leads to another and........well..... you see the problem.  We always start out remembering how many lefts and rights we took but after awhile, it gets a little confuzled.

At some point, we the sun gets higher in the sky and the temperature rises, suddenly  we realize that it's been several hours and multiple miles and we are getting hot and tired.  Which means it's time to turn back.  And that's where the trouble starts. Was it three lefts and a right?  Or three rights and a left?  We are crazygirls.  Obviously, eventually we did get back. And we were smart enough to bring water. Just not a map.

But we did see some pretty things along the way. You ready?

First of all, the water.  This is one of the prettiest of all ponds.  In fact, I don't think it's a pond, I think it's just a wide spot in a river. But don't quote me on that as I do not know it for fact. Whatever it is, it's beautiful:

Then of course, as always, there were birds.  Because there is so much lush foliage, while we can hear the chirping little feathered fiends, we cannot always see them.  But we know that they are up there in the sprills and the fronds laughing at us.  Sometimes we can see the movement as they hoppity hop from branch to branch and then suddenly launch themselves like tiny rockets to another tree where they do the same dance.  I got a few photos, but they are not particularly good ones. Still a bird is a bird:

There were a lot of butterflies and dragonflies all around us but I only got one photo of a butterfly, zero dragonflies and one unidentified bug.  It seems that thistles are very popular with the insect crowd:

I do have a few other botanicals to show you.   By now you are well aware of how much I love flowers!

Most of the trails are very long and very straight and thickly lined with trees.  The largest percentage of those trees are old, noble, tall and straight But every once in awhile there are some unexpected curves in the road and some unexpected tree shapes.  Of course they all catch my eye;

Other wildlife?  Well there was a squirrel and a rabbit.  I suppose that counts.  I have no doubt that there were a LOT of other wild critters about but they are smart enough to be far away when humans are around.

The rest are just randos which are, of course, my favourites:

There you have it, the "We Shoulda Brought a Map"  Photo Safari Report.  Next time, we will remember to bring the dang map. We had a great (Very Long) hike, got some good exercise, decent photos and of course had the pleasure of each other's company, so it was a success in my eyes.

​I wish you a Happy Weekend!  Hugs all 'round.