The Nature of Things - Sat., Nov. 25, 2017

It's not often I get out of bed earlier than necessary, but it happened today. I hadn't read our walk instructions closely enough, which said our start time was 9:00-11:00 a.m. I was there at 8:15 a.m.

Other club members were already at the pavilion at Southside Lions Park to mark the trail, set up for a hot dog lunch, put out flyers, and get ready to register the walkers. I was asked to set up the upcoming event flyers. 

Having walked the Southside Lions Park Salado Creek Greenway Trail many times before, I signed in early and started walking.

Today, Bob did his last training run (10 miles) for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon next Sunday, December 3. He wasn't able to join us on the walk.

If you know me at all, you know I'm a nature girl at heart. I'll share photos of the natural beauty (and some man-made) that we saw today. Off we go...

The path crossing Salado Creek upstream
from Pecan Valley Lake

Early-morning sun silhouetting trees

Fisherman at Pecan Valley Lake

Southside Lions Park

Pecan Valley Lake is a very nice size. Early in the morning, there are always fishermen lining its banks. The birds hang out here, so the fishing must be good. Today, I saw neotropic cormorants, Northern shovelers, double-crested cormorants, American coot, and great egrets.

A fountain in the lake

Water lines

Double-crested cormorants

A little fall color

Double-crested cormorant and Northern shoveler

Pecan Vally Lake - a halcyon sight

Neotropic cormorant "displaying"

The path around Pecan Valley Lake is one mile, marked at one-tenth mile intervals. From the lake, we took off on the Salado Creek Greenway Trail. 

Map of the park, we started at #2.

Wide, paved path

Trail markers all along the way

I'm sure most of you know what a "nurse log" is, but in case you don't, the photo below is a perfect example of one. A nurse log is a fallen tree that becomes a nursery for new plants that live off the nutrients of that fallen tree. They are an important part of forest ecology. We saw these a lot in the Pacific Northwest, but I haven't seee many in Texas.

Nurse log nurturing new plants

A very nice feature of many bike paths in San Antonio are the "turn-outs" (one is pictured below). They are multipurpose: use the rocks as a place to sit and rest or eat a snack, stretch, tie your shoelaces, or just chat with friends. 

Path turn-out

I wonder what lives in this snag?

Along part of the creek are palmetto palms. This is in a particularly cool, grotto-like area. 

Palmettos

Pretty rapids

Comanche County Park

Entering Covington Park

South Salado Creek Greenway -
Rigsby Avenue to Southside Lions Park sign

J Street Park Trailhead, our turn-around point

Beautiful Spanish moss at the turn-around point

And bamboo along the trail!

Charlie from the New Braunfels club

Andy coming under Rigsby Road overpass

Andy carrying walk essentials:
water and a cell phone

Salado Creek glistens in the sun

The hot dog lunch for $5.00 was very good. In additon to the hot dog, we had chips, soda, home-made dill pickles, and home-made pumpkin crunch dessert or blueberry-pineapple crunch dessert with Cool Whip. (Most of us sampled each of the desserts which were provided by our Southwest Regional Director Susan Medlin. Thank you, Susan. The desserts were wonderful! Thanks, too, to John Ives for barbecuing the hot dogs.)

Hot dog lunch bunch

Chatting after lunch

Pavilion #2 - used for our start, finish, and lunch 

It was a lovely day for a walk. After walking, I went home and wrote blogs.