Today, being a nice spring-like day as would be expected a good two weeks into spring, we decided to get out and walk around a bit. Since Devils Den State Park is just down the road we decided to go there.
There is a trail called Yellow Rock that is advertised as being 3 miles long on the web page...sounded like a great place to go. So we loaded up the packs, stuffed some leftover fried chicken and Fig Newtons into the pack, and headed south.
We found the trail head...or what we thought was the trail head. Actually, we were kind of in the middle of the trail. The Yellow Rock Trail starts down near the river of Devils Den State Park, goes up the side of a hill, over to the rock, then loops to a small pavilion near one of the roads leading to the park. It was the part of the trail that is near this pavilion that we thought was the trail head and where we started out.
The one big advantage of hiking the whole trail starting from this mid point is the 1/2 mile climb from the river valley floor up the hill is done at the end of your hike when you're nice and tired, a bit footsore, and ready for that post hike Fig Newton and Guinness. It's easy to do the hard climb at the beginning of the hike...it takes a whole 'nother type of planning to put the hard part of the hike at the end...that's me, always thinking ahead.
Just as we were leaving the trail head a family of four plus pooch were also starting out. We chatted with them a bit..they had just moved to Tulsa from Alaska. Odd bit of coincidence...a family that used to live in state 49 and a family that used to live in state 50 (the last one there Barry, we didn't add another 7 after Hawaii) meeting at a trail head at the same time.
We don't get 200 feet down the trail and plus pooch manages to scare up the first snake of the hiking season. Mr. Snaky Snake retreats back into his hole before I can see him..but by making a bit of a pest of myself, I did manage to get a pretty iffy picture of him. Contrary to what many people seem to believe, I do NOT hate snakes.
The problem is I can't identify the particular species of a particular snake. Since I can't tell a poisonous snake from a non-poisonous snake with enough reliability to bet any of my appendages on the identification...I am forced to treat all snakes like they would stick 2" long fangs into my leg, inject a flesh rotting neuro-toxin deep within the selected appendage, and slither happily away to its snaky snake hole in the ground home. In other words, I try to stay away from ALL snakes, and as long as they stay away from me..we all remain happy and alive. However, if they attempt to get all snugly with me I will be forced to use these opposible thumbs and slightly expanded, tool creating brain pan to create or operate a tool and extinct that particular snake. Today Mr. Snaky Snake stayed curled up in his snaky snake hole and we parted company both alive and happy.
A bit down the trail we turned a corner and saw Yellow Rock from a distance. Back whenever Yellow Rock was named Yellow Rock, yellow must not have been the same yellow as the yellow we have today...it looked pretty orange to me, rather a dull, not so attractive orange. I suppose its possible that somehow, while on the Yellow Rock Trail, I managed to navigate us to a whole 'nother rock, Orange Rock. The trail was wide and well trodden though, I don't think even I, a person who managed to lose a trail in Panama for over a hour, only to discover it behind a bush, could actually make that type of mistake.
Upon arriving at the top of the Rock, (yellow, orange, or sandstone colored) we discovered that the actual name of this rock was immaterial..the view was great. At times we were looking DOWN at the birds flying around... tried to take photos but no matter the pleading or enticements, I couldn't get the birds to pause and strike a pose. I did delete a whole bunch of pics of trees with no birds in them (sure glad I'm no longer having to pay processing and printing for all those attempts, just to find out I missed).
Had some chicken, took a short nap, and proceeded along. We walked down to the beginning of the trail, in the river valley. Nice camping area at the end of the trail, interesting rock things on the way down...whole lot of huffing and puffing on the way out.
To end of hiking, after we returned to the car, we drove down to the park and ate the rest of the Newtons down by the spill way. Everything was great, until Cyrilee managed to stand up for us to go and bounced her cell phone down the rocks. It still works but has a cracked face....she needs to use the insurance we've paid for and get a replacement...of course she gets on a plane for a week in DC, tomorrow.
Lots of interesting stuff going on in Devils Den in the future...we've got our eyes on a hike back to the sandstone crevices with a ranger and then a talk about bats... Bats eat bugs...therefore bats are good.
..take care..t
snakes, YUK. broken cell phones and Sprint, YUK. Bats are GREAT. Hope Cyrilee has a good trip to DC.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind snakes in a domesticated situation. If someone else has identified the snake as of the harmless variety and is handling it...I have no problem with handling it also.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my "recognition" software in my brain functions minimally at best. Not just with snakes either.. I have a hard time recognizing people out of their normal context. I have difficulty recognizing co-workers outside of work or even a brother in law that I've known for 25+ years when he was walking up to my front door when I wasnt' expecting him.
Same thing with plants and birds. Any identification of them is tenuous at best..it's with the snakes when the differentiation between "harmless overgrown worm" and "evil serpent that can cause the removal of limbs" becomes important that I am most cautious.
Yeah, the Sprint store folks only help was...you can call *2 and they will help you get a replacement. Of course the *2 menu selection process is about 20 minutes long.. press 1 for this, press 2 for this, press 3 to hurl your broken phone at the salesclerk..
I'm not sure how much Cyrilee is going to enjoy this trip to DC. In some type of weird management theory, she is sitting in as her boss's boss this week. One the one hand it will put her in contact with a lot more aspects of the organization...but it's just a bit weird. I've always had a difficult time when I've gone from being a peer to a boss in an organization... to even temporarily become my boss's boss would be too far out there even for me.Isn't a boss at any given level the boss at that level because they know more than the people they are the boss of??
..take care..t