February 19th, 2021

Since that is Joy holding a camera in the above photo, it must be time for another Photo Safari Report!  By the time we finished our nearly 6 mile hike yesterday, we were filthy, sweaty, smelly, muddy, tired and more than a little thirsty.  In other words, It. Was. Great !  Because those are all indicators of a terrific day.

It was unseasonably warm which certainly explains the sweaty and therefore smelly part.  But dirt came largely just from being outside tramping around the forest. The mud?  Well there were soggy parts.  Tired?  Hello, nearly a six mile trek!  And neither of us remembered to bring water so naturally we were thirsty.

But it was still a glorious hike which shall be known as the yellow flower hike because when I went back through my photos I realized that I had more photos of yellow flowers than anything else!   You doubt me?  See for yourself:

Although this is a preserve we've hiked many times before, we found new, unfamiliar, trails and that is always a bonus.  It also means that sometimes we get a little turned around.  Every time there was an intersection of trails we would stop and gaze ahead in all directions, trying to decide which would be the best way to go:

And since we made these decisions rather arbitrarily, after awhile it's hard to keep track, in our heads, of how many lefts or rights we took.  And of course all of those lefts and rights on the return trip are actually rights and lefts. It can get a wee bit confusering.  But no we did not get lost, per se.  We did get a little turned around and while we were 100% correct about the general direction we were headed in, meaning that we did end NEAR where we began, it wasn't the exact same spot.  No big deal.  We laughed and hoofed it a little farther to get back to the car. 

There were flowers other than yellow naturally.  Bear in mind that I have no idea what any of these flowers are. I just like 'em.

But it's fairly obvious that spring is well on it's way.  We did see a lot more butterflies and dragonflies. I got photos of exactly none of them.  But I did manage to snap  a few birds.  There were sooo many others that I did not get but I'm satisfied with these.

There were such a wide variety of environments too. Heavily wooded, open fields, marshes, lakes, ponds...  A little something for everyone.  That's nice :)

One truly bizarre thing we found was a bone.  Yup, something that appears to be a leg bone in fact.  Ick.  I know that is how nature works, but I really only want to see the pretty part.  And then there was the plant completely engulfed in webs.   And, well here are the other rando shots: (including the icky bone)

So anyway, that's it for this weeks' hike.  Hope you enjoyed the travelogue!  

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!  See ya back here on Monday!  

​Hugs all 'round