November 11th, 2021

Welcome to this week's Photo Safari Report!  I am calling this one the "Once A Year Whether We Need It or Not Hike".  Joy and I are very fortunate because we live a county that has a lot of different hiking spots.  We like to mix things up and hike different trails every week.   This time, we hiked a local preserve that we only visit once a year. And because it's roughly 365+ days between visits, Joy and I always completely forget why we never go there. And then we wonder why that is the case, so we go and check it out again.  And then we remember.

It's called Jelks Preserve and we were happy when we arrived to see only two other cars.  No crowds!  That is a good thing!  And it was a beeyootiful day!  Cool but not cold, a breeze, but a gentle one,  sunny but not hot, it was a perfect hiking day!  The trails were wide, well marked and nicely maintained.  

Unfortunately, there were also a lot of wet spots.   Some were small enough to either hop over, wade through or go around and there was a rudimentary little bridge over one larger faster moving creek.  That was nice. But other wet spots were big. And not just wet, they were Boggy.  Yuck.  Dragging ourselves through ankle deep muck and mud is no bueno!   So we have a rule, if there is no hopping across, no quick little frond bridge to be made. no easy wading across, and no relatively simple way around, we find a different trail. Oh and also no swimming.  We absolutely have no desire to swim with alligators. I think that is a prudent decision, don't you?  

There were a few flowers, mostly yellow.  I wonder why there are always so many yellow flowers?  Is that an easier colour for Mother Nature to create? Or perhaps the yellow flowers are more attractive to bees and butterflies?  Are they more disease resistant? Hardier against unpleasant weather?  Clearly I will need to do some research!  I'll get back to you on that another time.

There were only a few butterflies and handful of dragonflies. We saw some birds but not the huge number and variety of other recent hikes.  

Aaaaannnnndddd that was it.  It was a lovely walk though not a particularly long one.  And I like the photos I got, but there were not very many of them.  By the end of the hike, we remembered why we don't usually go there. But it was a nice change of pace and we got our annual dose of Jelk's Perserve on the  "Once A Year Whether We Need It or Not Hike".

Thanks for coming along ;)  Stayed tuned for next week's Photo Safari.  It will not be at Jelk's.