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.

The Birth of a New Volksmarch? - Sun., Aug. 10

A couple of weeks ago, Bob showed me a great trail where near where we live. It's shady which is a plus in the 100-degree South Texas heat. South Side Lions Park is near the intersection of Southcross and Pecan Valley in south San Antonio.

This morning Bob, my friend Susan, and I took the walk to see if it fit the criteria for a new Volksmarch in San Antonio. We started out with a one-mile circle around the lake in the park and then crossed the bridge over Salado Creek on the Salado Creek Greenway Trail. On the lake, we saw a momma black-bellied whistling duck with 13 (!) ducklings. Cutest sight of the day. Enlarge the photo to see how adorable the ducklings are. The momma was whistling to her brood as they moved away from the shore.

Black-bellied whistling duck and 13 ducklings

The walk passes through a densely forested area from South Side Lions Park, through Comanche Park to Covington Park. To make a complete 10K Volksmarch, we continued on 1/2 mile past Covington Park, then turned around and walked back to the start point. The trail follows Salado Creek most of the way.

Trail sign with the usual flash flood warning

A patch of Pigeon-Berry (Rivina humilis).

We did the 6.2 mile walk in two hours. Time flew by because we had great conversations along the way.

The trail is very popular with bicyclists who did a good job announcing their presence on the trail today. That makes it a lot less stressful for us walkers who fear getting hit by a bike that we don't hear coming.

Susan will present the proposed new Volksmarch to the Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club in San Antonio to see if they would like to add it as a year-round event (YRE).

Bob went in for his follow-up with the cardiologist. While in the doctor's office, he was in atrial fibrillation again. His doctor wants him to have another cardioversion. That is scheduled for August 19. After cardioversion, if his heart goes back into normal sinus rhythm, all is good. If his heart doesn't cardiovert to normal sinus rhythm, then the doctor is recommending a more thorough ablation procedure which will scar more of his heart tissue. We're pretty disappointed in this turn of events. Bob truly hoped his last procedure would make his heart "like a 17 year old." (Kidding of course.)

Thursday through Saturday I worked in the RV park office. It was pretty quiet so I was able to complete Carefree RV Resorts Training Program with three modules: hospitality, the front desk, and reservations. I learned some good information; namely, that I tend to be too business-like and efficient, and need to be more fun and friendly. That gives me something to do to improve myself.

Susan and I plan to see "The Hundred-Foot Journey" this week. I also want to see "Guardians of the Galaxy."

That's about it from this neck of the woods. I'll write again in a few days, probably with some movie reviews.

Travel Bug out.

Grumble, grumble - Sun., July 27

First, Happy Birthday to my sister, Jan. She is celebrating with mom on a four-day trip to Redwoods National Park and Eureka, California. Have fun! Wish I was there too.

Last night, Bob suggested going for a walk this morning. He wanted to show me Southside Lions Park's Salado Park Greenway Trail. Okay, sounds like a plan.

This morning when the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. the plan didn't sound so great, especially after the cats woke me up ay 2:30 a.m. (because they were hungry), and then again just before 6:00 a.m. (because that's the routine, don't you know?). Bob said, "Do you want me to reset the alarm to 7:00 a.m.?"

That sounded like a better plan, so I sleepily said, "Mmmph" (translated as "yes"). Up at 7:00 a.m., ate breakfast, but no shower because we would be sweaty and hot on the trail.  Shower later.

It's a six-mile drive to the park and we started walking by 8:00 a.m. Temperature 74 degrees and humid with a marine layer of clouds which would soon burn off.

The park was a complete surprise to me. I had no idea we had such a nice park so close to us, and it's shady! We ended up walking approximately 4-1/4 miles round trip. Bob did very well until we reached the parking lot at the end. Then he felt very tired. I'm glad we were back at the car so he could cool off in the air conditioning. Temperature was close to 90 and very humid.

Once again, the mantra is true, "You never know what you're going to find or learn on a walk." But more on that later.

Here are photos from our walk this morning...

Palmettos in San Antonio??

They sure look like palmettos.

Below is a fruit I've never seen before and had no clue what it might be. Google search can find almost anything. What we saw is an Osage orange (Maclura promifera), also known as a horse apple or hedge apple, a member of the fig family. Some people say don't park your car under one of these trees. I wouldn't try eating these fruits; they're hard and heavy. Squirrels might eat them after they have ripened enough to rot which makes them easier to open. Horses and livestock sometimes eat the fruit.

The reason for the hedge apple moniker? During Roosevelt's "Great Plains Shelterbelt" WPA project, launched in 1934 to prevent soil erosion in the Great Plains states, osage oranges were one of the main trees planted (about 220 million). (I learned the above from Jim Conrad's "Naturalist Newsletter.")

Osage orange

Big beautiful trees provide shade!

Comanche County Park

Comanche County Park

Salado Park Greenway Trail in Comanche Park

Here's something else we knew nothing about in our day-to-day lives: United States Auto Club's (USAC) Quarter Midget Racing. Comanche Park in San Antonio has the Lone Star Quarter Midget Association (LSQMA) racing track. Bob and I had no idea what quarter midget racing might be, so I Googled that too. Following is information from their website.

USAC Quarter Midget Racing is a family-oriented sport that involves racing in specially prepared cars. The cars, rules and safety procedures are specifically designed for kids. They race on oval tracks approximately 1/20 mile. Children ages 5 to 16 years can race. Safety features on the cars include full roll cages, multi-point seat harnesses, full face helmets, and other gear. According to the LSQMA website, this sport has fewer injuries than little-league football.

A Quarter Midget car is a .25 scaled-down version of an actual midget racer. The cars are built around a tubular frame and are fully suspended with springs or torsion bars and shocks. The bodies are fiberglas. Surrounding the driver is a chrome-moly roll cage and nerf bars. The engines are single cylinder and are manufactured by Honda, Continental, Briggs 7 Stratton, and Deco. In stock configuration they produce between 2.5 and 4 horse power.

Now wasn't that educational?

Lone Star Quarter Midget Association track in Comanche Park

Winner's Circle

Huge playground equipment.

If you want to find the park, here are the coordinates.

Turk's cap flowers are in bloom.

In the photo below you can see flattened grasses from the flash flood 1-1/2 weeks ago. This trail would not be a good one to walk if there is a big rainstorm predicted or happening!

Knobby tree bark. Anyone know what
kind of tree this is?

Molting cicada

Our walk was interesting and fun. It got rid of my "early morning grumpies." Thanks, Bob, for sharing this good walk.

As I'm typing my blog, the kitties have decided they BOTH have to be next to me. They have taken over the top of the box and are adorable. I HAVE to share some pics of the fur-kids. It's been a while since I've put their furry mugs in my blog.

Regal Sunnie

Bowie and Sunnie: hugs.

Bowie and Sunnie

Snuggle bugs.

Yin and yang, kind of.

Have an awesome week. Travel Bug out.