February 21st, 2022

Apparently Tim and I are prepared to travel farther and farther on our weekend hiking excursions just to find a new place to be.  This weekend we drove about an hour to arrive at Robinson Nature Preserve.   It was totally worth the drive.

As it turns out Robinson Nature Preserve  is 679 acres of grasslands, saltern, marsh and mangrove and quite the variety of trails along with 5 different bodies of water.  There was a great deal of kayaking going on as well as a 40 foot high observation tower to climb.  And oh yes, we did!  

I will start with a partial list of the things I did not manage to get a picture of  just to get that out of the way.   The List:  Bees, butterflies, ladybugs, squirrels, woodpeckers, eagles, lots of other birds that I just wasn't quick enough to catch, dang it.
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But there were things  I did manage to capture. For instance, while I didn't get any woodpecker of eagle photos, I did snappitysnap a few others:

Some wildflowers. I do love them:

Let's see what else:  Horseshoe crabs, lizards (lots of lizards), a snail and one very shy bunny:

The trails themselves were interesting.  The variety was so much more than anticipated.  They were at times, wide, flat, straight sandy thoroughfares.  The sort of places that encourage a person to break into a run.  Which we actually did, for a bit!  Sometimes we are crazy.  Other parts of the trail were paved with high bicycle traffic.  Some parts of the trail were narrow, single file and primitive where even I had to duck under low tree branches or step high over even lower tree branches.    There were sunny bits and shady parts, raised wooden board walks and and crushed shell.  Some were fairly crowded with walkers,  bicyclers and dogs and others had nobody but us.   There was a little something for everyone.

We walked beside the bay, along side a marsh, over creeks and near ponds.   We admired complex mangrove root systems and small natural beaches, light dappled creeks and inviting bay inlets.  

And of course we climbed the tower.  How could we not?  We saw it from a long way off so it was calling to us for awhile before we got there.  As we approached it got bigger and taller and then suddenly there it was.  There were some whimsical carvings on the corners of the roof and views of well, everything from the observation deck.  Absolutely worth the climb.

And now of course, it's time for my favourite part, the rando file.  One of the photos I was most tickled to get is in this file.  I found a tree with a bee hive, fully loaded, inside, a honey comb au naturel as it were:

All in all, it was a terrific hike, a little more than 5 miles of exercise, a beautiful day and we had a grand time. But then, we almost always do.

Hope you had some sort of adventure on your weekend too!