Tag: Hiking

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Glade Exploring

Glades are special places often with plants found no where else. There is a small one near my home, so I went glade exploring.

What Is a Glade?

The ones I have visited have lots of rocks, thin soil and lots of dryness and heat. They are sloped. Chiggers love them as numerous lizards often live there, the preferred host for the minute biters. Before going glad exploring, be sure to spray to discourage these little attackers.

My small one is up on the side of a hill. It would seem unusual in that it is not far from the bottom of a small ravine. Yet it is definitely very dry much of the time with no trees other than some invading red cedars – the enemy of a glade.

Missouri Coneflower found when glade exploring
There are so many yellow aster type flowers. Although Missouri Coneflower reminds you of Purple Coneflower, it is in a different group, Rudebekia. They are still lovely to see especially when there are several dozen blooming.

What Did I Find?

No real rain has fallen in several weeks so all the plants were wilted to dried up, even the grass. Still, a few plants were still surviving. I was mostly interested in a yellow coneflower and the blazing star blooming among the rocks.

What I hope to find is an Adder’s Tongue, a type of fern. This grows in glades, but, being a fern, likes moisture. When the weather is dry, it withers away.

This fern puts up a single leaf, not a frond. It is usually seen in spring and fall when rain is supposed to fall.

Blazing Star Liatris
Three of these small Liatris flowers grow in my area. This one is officially called Blazing Star, although the others are often called that too. What sets this flower apart is the calyx below the tube flowers with the fat and pointed scales plus lots of hairs on the edges. To me this flower is purple, but it is often listed under pink in the wildflower books.

Another Fern

I have found another wet weather fern. It’s called a Resurrection Fern and grows on a large rock outcrop. Whenever it rains during warm weather, this fern unrolls its fronds.

This gives me hope the Adder’s tongue will reappear in this small glade once fall rains decide to come and visit.

Will it rain soon? Actually almost an inch fell the other day and the temperatures dropped into the eighties.

The rain is still on a cloud to cloud basis. This is when a thunderstorm cloud floats by and drops rain in one small area, but leaves nearby areas dry.

That small rain means I will go glade exploring to see if the small area has perked up as much as my pasture.

Find out more about many Ozark plants in Exploring the Ozark Hills.

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First Spring Hike

The grass is starting to grow hinting at mower time coming. The wayside speedwell and early cress are blooming in the yard. So I went on my first spring hike looking for the earliest wildflowers.

Disappointment

The upper Meramec River is a short hike away. Usually I find harbinger of spring there.

Not this year. This year the river bank is totally different after the big flood that came through the end of last year.

Debris in the bushes marked the high water mark. It was over five feet up. Fallen logs were swept away through much of my hiking path. Sand was left behind.

Dreams of crossing onto the gravel bar in the center of the river were mostly cancelled. The river had cut into its bank, toppling trees and leaving sheer drops of four to ten feet into deep pools. This summer’s swimmers with their small children may not want to stay here this year. Already the party crowd has gone elsewhere as the far gravel bank is now inaccessible.

first spring hike find: American Elm flower
American elms aren’t doing well in my area of the Ozarks. Those near the house have all died. A few hang on in the river floodplain. My first spring hike was timed well as these trees were blooming. I was lucky to have a branch within reach to get a few pictures.

Only One Flower

A few spring plants are trying to force their way up through the sand. Some of the dirt areas are still clear. However, I found no early wildflowers.

Silver maples grow along the river. They had finished blooming. I don’t worry much about getting pictures of them as the flowers are thirty feet over my head.

The American elms had washed away in the area I had found. There does seem to be others further down and these trees were in bloom. One branch was even within reach of my walking stick-hooked on the end.

Later On

This first spring hike was mostly exercise and looking around. My next forays along here will hopefully find other flowers in bloom.

Some, like Virginia bluebells, rue anemone, false rue anemone, Confederate violets, are nice to see again. Another, Virginia waterleaf, is one I need more pictures of. I’ve found it along here in the past, but my return trips were thwarted by stinging nettle. Perhaps the flood swept most of these away. I can hope.

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Falling for Autumn

Picking out a picture book I found “Pete the Cat Falling for Autumn” and cringed a bit. Still, I checked it out as appropriate to the season.

My Opinion of Autumn

Autumn is a prelude to winter. Going out to the barn in the dark and cold is not my idea of fun. Dealing with cold animals is no fun for them or me.

Then there is putting on all those layers of clothes in the attempt to stay warm. When it really gets cold, my layers include long johns, jeans, flannel shirt, vest, hoodie and jacket. It takes almost as long putting everything on as it does to do chores!

In addition, autumn is the end of the summer garden, wildflower hikes and basking in the warmth. It brings killing frost and clearing out the dead plants from the garden.

Such thoughts make autumn one of my least favorite times of year.

falling for autumn colors
Hiking one of the trails at Montauk State Park, we crossed this ravine. It was mid-afternoon with the sun lighting up the colors on the hill above us.

“Pete the Cat Falling for Autumn”

I do enjoy the Pete the Cat picture books. I opened this book. Guess what? Pete wasn’t thrilled with the end of summer, beginning of autumn either.

As I turned the pages to see Pete’s discoveries, I found many of them resonated with me. It wasn’t just the colorful leaves. There were many things to like about autumn.

It made me think of some of the things I do like about autumn. Pumpkin cookies top my list. This is one of the recipes in “The Pumpkin Project”.

There may not be lots of flowers, but nature hikes are still good. I’ve been out admiring the fall colors around home and at Montauk State Park.

Autumn colors glow on the hill
Fall colors are really vivid this fall for some reason. The only real rain in months was when remnants of Hurricane Helene went by. Yet, even the oaks that normally turn a dusky red are glowing reds and oranges. This view was worth the walk up and around the hill above our house.

A New Opinion?

Autumn will still not be a favorite season. However, after thinking about the nice things in autumn, it isn’t so bad. The problem wasn’t with autumn. It was with winter cold and dark.

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Montauk State Park Trip

One thing about dairy goats is how they tie you to home. My free day begins at the end of morning chores and ends with the beginning of evening chores. That made my Montauk State Park trip short.

There were several reasons for going to the park. Somehow, they never added up enough to take a whole day. This time the need to get away from the unending “To Do’ list was enough.

Montauk Mill
The Montauk Mill is open during the summer, a time I’ve never been to Montauk State Park. Looking in the windows and reading the brochure, it look interesting.

The Grist Mill

Montauk was a small community that grew up near the big springs forming the headwaters of the Current River. The water allowed a grist mill for grinding corn and wheat to operate. Several mills were built and destroyed until the present one was built in 1896.

The mill is intact, but no longer operates. Over the summer, tours go through. This is fall, so the mill was closed during my Montauk State Park trip.

Montauk spring
The blue of the water in Montauk spring is from dissolved limestone. Karst springs flow through limestone often dissolving large amounts of stone to form caves.

Montauk Springs

Fifty-three million gallons of water flow out of the springs every day. This flow goes out to form the Current River.

Because the water has a constant cold temperature, it’s used for a trout hatchery. The river is stocked with rainbow trout and is very popular with fishermen and women. Opening day, March 1st, draws hundreds to thousands of fishermen to kick off the season.

trout seen during Montauk State Park trip
Montauk State Park is one of three rainbow trout hatcheries in Missouri. The trout are stocked in places around the area as well as in the Current River. These are two of many I saw, most of dinner size.

Wild Plants

Montauk State Park trip fisherman with trout
Wandering around near the Montauk springs, I came out on the river where these men were fishing. One caught a trout.

I’m not a fisherman, although my father tried hard to hook me into the sport. I am interested in wild plants. This is one of the big draws for me for a Montauk State Park trip.

Some years back I found a fire-on-the-mountain along a parking lot. I needed more pictures of it. This time the fire-on-the-mountain was elusive. However, I found a new plant totally new to me and a yellow coneflower along with some more familiar plants.

One other thing I found out. Monday is a good day to visit as the weekend crowd has gone home. That made it a lovely quiet escape from my unending list.