Visit to the Wildflowers and... the Park!

There is this place that has a humongous amount of wildflowers.... right next to the freeway!So, yet again, mom made me pose amongst the flowers and here I am... Fortunately, after the shoot, I got to go to the park and play with my pals!



This is my pawsome pal, Wesley, who came from the same organization as me... Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue!
This is our own version of soccer a la dog parkie!
Ma! Find my kong! I'm really not into bumpers!

Beautyberry progression

The Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) was fantastic last fall. This year I was able to figure out what the bushes were when they first bloomed.
The blooms appear along the stems in bunches.

They're in this green-berry stage a LONG time.

Finally the berries are ripe, and flower arrangers everywhere rejoice.

But this year we had such a dry September that I had a hard time finding any decent berries to photograph. Everything's so droopy.
The scientific name Callicarpa comes from the Greek words kallos (beautiful) and karpos (fruit).
Other words using this root include:
calligraphy (beautiful writing),
calliope (beautiful voice)
and callipygian (having a shapely butt).

Riding to the Root: The war against wind

When I was in junior high, one of my favorite Vikings players was running back Leroy Hoard.
It wasn't because he blew anyone away statistically. Robert Smith was the Vikings featured back at the time and Randy Moss and Cris Carter were putting up far more illustrious offensive numbers. There also wasn't anything flashy about him. He wasn't a likely candidate to break for a 60-yard run a la Adrian Peterson, nor was he likely to blow through a defensive line like an in-his-prime Jerome Bettis.
No, Hoard endured himself to me for being what NFL analysts termed as a "grind-it-out" running back. He hardly ever broke for a long run, but he could always be counted on for 3-5 yards a pop and was one of the best at "moving the chains." Matter of fact, I distinctly remember a commentator saying this about Hoard: "If you need two yards, he'll give you three. But if you need 6 yards, he'll also give you three."
You're probably wondering what this little flashback has to do with my biking exploits to the Root River Trail. Well, as I sit in a gas station in Dexter, waiting for the rain to blow over, only one thing comes to mind when I look back on a full day of cycling: Wind.
Simply put, the wind has been relentless today, coming from the southeast all day and ranging in speeds from 15-25 mph (a woman in Lansing told me that Austin had a wind advisory today, I believe it). Given the direction of my travels (south and east), the wind was kind of like having an anchor attached to my bike.
I dealt with the wind fairly well at first. But as the day wore on, it drained my energy and sapped me of much of my enthusiasm.
However, rather than lamenting about how Mother Nature dealt me a crappy hand and calling it a day, I settled into a grind-it-out mode, much like Hoard back in the day. I didn't care if I had to downshift to lower gears of hop off my bike and walk for a stretch. All that I cared about was making forward progress.
This isn't a race, and I'm not trying to get to Lanesboro in record time. If I were going for speed, I wouldn't have packed most of the things that are currently bungeed/strapped to my bike. I also wouldn't have brought a laptop with to keep my readership entertained.
No, this trip is closer to the principles I lived by at RAGBRAI last summer. Nobody cares how you get there, just so long as you get there. If that means having to hop off the bike and walk, so be it.
Just keep moving the chains...
*On a positive note, my bike had zero malfunctions today and, up until now, I've had good luck with avoiding the rain that has apparently blanketed the state. The people I've met along the way have also been exceptionally nice. If the rain lets up, I might try to grind out a few more miles before setting up camp for the night.

Escalante River Hike

We were a little tired after our hike back up the hill from Upper Calf Creek Falls, so we decided to stop in the nearby town of Boulder for a snack. As luck would have it, we found a nice little store that sold bagels and smoothies. This was the perfect refreshment after our morning hike! After that we headed a few miles down the Burr Trail to Long Canyon, which I thought might be perfect for a short bike ride. Indeed it was, and we had a blast cruising down the canyon on our cross bikes. Our final adventure for the day was a hike upstream along the Escalante River to Escanlante Natural Bridge and Arch. This hike had a LOT of vegetation along the way, included some beautiful giant cottonwood trees and tons of sage. The trail also crossed the Escalante River several times, which was fun and refreshing each time wehad to cross :-)



After about 2.5 miles we came to Escalante Natural Bridge, which was fascinating to comprehend but really not all that photogenic, since the bridge blended into the background cliff and was not standing out against the sky like some other natural bridges. We contemplated the bridge for a while, then continued on up the trail to the arch. The arch was awesome, certainly unlike the other arches we've seen on this trip. This one was not very big, but it was extremely high up on top of a cliff. The lines in the rock running down the cliff were mesmerizing, and the bottom of the cliff was lined with beautiful cottonwood trees. After another full day of outdoor adventures, we were ready for a good meal so we headed back to the Escalante Outfitters and this time tried their calzones, which were just as goodas the pizza we had last night! This has been such an awesome trip already, I wonder what cool sights and experiences tomorrow will bring?

Catalpa worms

Poor little guys.
Almost every Catalpa worm (Ceratomia catalpae) on this tree had been parasitized by a Braconid wasp (Apanteles congregatus). The wasps lay eggs beneath the skin of the caterpillars, and the larvae feed on the them until they are ready to pupate. (The white cylinders are cocoons, not eggs.)
The wasps do the same thing to tomato and tobacco hornworms, amongst others, so are considered beneficial.
Poor little Catalpa worms, though.

Mightily encumbered.
More than you ever wanted to know about Catalpa worm anatomy is here.

Beau, the Wonder Dog

Our Bishypoo, Beau, is the dog of the hour. This morning he led us to the deer my husband killed right before dark last night. It ran off into the woods after being hit and couldn't be tracked in the dark.
It always makes me nervous when a deer is shot, runs off, and has to be tracked. Sometimes you find it and sometimes you don't. I can't stand to think that all that meat is lying in a ditch or the woods somewhere close by but can't be found.
My husband got up early this morning to go look for blood drops, but with so many red leaves on the ground, he wasn't very hopeful of finding any. I told him I wanted to go with him; not because I wanted to see a dead deer. I didn't. I just love getting out into the woods for any reason. It brings back many memories of my childhood when I would go rabbit hunting with my grandpa or just walk through the woods as quietly as possible with my daddy. Darcie wanted to go, too.
So the three of us piled into his pickup truck. I asked if he wanted Beau to go help us, since he's always chasing squirrels and running around a lot with his nose to the ground. I figured he might be a good tracker. He said to bring him, so we loaded Beau up, too.
We drove across our field to where my husband thought he hit the deer, and started looking there. No blood was seen, so we walked into the woods a little ways. I had my eye on Beau whose downed nose was going back and forth. I saw the minute he was on to something and was surprised that he didn't bark. I guess I'm used to Grandpa's beagles baying as soon as they lock onto a scent. I walked away from the other two following Beau deeper into the woods. He stopped and began sniffing like crazy. I walked over and saw dried blood spots. I called to Gayle and showed him what Beau had found. He was pretty excited to know we were on the right track.
We split up again with me just watching and following Beau. He went a little deeper into the woods and I saw the deer's body. He never did bark. Strange. I called everyone over to see, and Gayle began examining the buck to see where the bullet entered and all the other things men look for such as number of points on the rack, estimated weight, size of rack, etc. I was too busy praising Beau and scratching his ears to pay much attention to the deer. I don't like seeing dead animals but am glad for the meat for the freezer.
Later I heard Gayle talking to our son-in-law on the phone. He was just bragging on Beau and saying that we never would have found the deer if not for him. Not a bad morning's work for a furry, white lap dog.

Change of plans I

The plan on Christmas Eve was to clock up another 180km through Mebbin National Park, to the south of Uki. Things all started straight forward enough, as I headed south through Urliup and Murwillumbah, noting as I went that the streams around Urliup hadn't yet reached the heights that the rain suggested they might (this came two days later from what I've been told), and navigating a rather pleasant southerly wind that blew in my face and kept temperatures down to something pleasant. It was after food and sunscreen at Uki that things became more interesting.

The Tweed Shire Council have just spent an inordinate amount of money (and well over six months of time) 'upgrading' a stretch of road just south of Clarrie Hall Dam. I wouldn't normally note this, but it seems to have upset some of the locals. First a rather aggressive dog decided to chase me when probably 99% of them don't bother. I threw an imaginary "rock" at him, and he hesitated for long enough for me to make an escape. Shortly after this, I had another confrontation with the infamous Uki Bomber. Just why a magpie would have a go at someone at this time of year is beyond me, but for some reason it happened here. It was then that I decided I would do the old Tweed Valley Circuit, taking in the dirt roads out to the Pinnacle and through to Tyalgum, rather than deal with this crap all over again on the way home.


This ride turned out to be extremely pleasant in and of itself. Today I had good reason to make the most of it, after recently hearing of the council's plans to build a large dam in the area, which, I understand will see most of the route I now take flooded. The council it seems have already started removing some of the old hippie cottages that gave this area it's unique character, and it really seems to be a waste of time. Instead of trying to build more dams to cope with overpopulation (something that people strangely see as a virtue), they should be requiring water tanks to be build with new dwellings. It would most likely be a lot cheaper, and a lot more effective in the long term. Despite this rather annoying thought, I did manage to enjoy the ride, and commenced the descent to the area around Tyalgum, and The Pinnacle.



The detour out to the Pinnacle has replaced the side trip to Stokers Siding I used to do on this route for extra kilometres, and in my view, it's quite a bit more pleasant. On days like this, of course, any route that travels near the mountains will throw up all sorts of shapes that might not be seen on less cloudy days. The ride into and out of Tyalgum is quite hilly, with two note-worthy climbs to be navigated between Tyalgum and Chillingham. I was still feeling quite good at this stage, so I just ground them out at a steady rhythm, and headed back toward Murwillumbah, for the final stretch over Tomewin, and home.
The easterly wind picked up here, and I expected this to slow me down on the stretch toward Murwillumbah, but for some reason I got though this faster than I expected, maybe the numbers on the road signs overstate the distance here. The climb up Tomewin was made easier than I had planned because of the drenching, cooling and fresh rain that fell here. Although the height of this pass is a modest 355 metres, the clouds totally obscured any views of the surrounding coast and lowlands that might have been visible up here. Still, rainforest at the top here is particularly pleasant on days like this one.
All that was left now was the final stretch home along the coast after the descent. This was made easier by a tailwind that helped me get through suburbia a little quicker. All up, it was a very fulfilling 175km, and just what I needed as a diversion from the madness and insanity that generally represents this time of year. Bring on the next one.

Bring Your Own Kid Mountain Biking

Saturday was a blustery day for THOR's Bring Your Own Kid Mountain Biking day. This was held in conjunction IMBA's annual function. Temperatures hovered in the 40s with gusty winds from the NW. THOR's party was held in Tranquility Park, Omaha.

The photo is the kids on their bikes and ready to ride some singletrack.

The group headed out for a ride on the Tranquility Park trail. Then it was time for food. Dave, the THOR Grill Master, had grub ready.

After lunch, the kids tested their bike handling abilities with an obstacle course. The adults were ready to help learn techniques and offer some encouragement. The day ending with a pinata filled with candy.

There were plans for "smores" but folks were ready to call it a day, getting out if the cold. All-in-all, a good time was had by all.