Beaver and Lime Sink Trails

We were happy to see sunshine yesterday. Don't let all that brightness fool you into thinking it was warm, however. It was not. It's supposed to warm up a little bit today, but even the cold temperature didn't dampen our enthusiasm for the bright light. What a different world when we can see color.

Smitty and I took our shadow selves for a walk.

It was a short walk. A huge family showed up for the weekend, renting out all the cabins available. If I had to guess, I'd think the each person drove a separate car...including the youngest of the children...because there were enough cars for a convention. There were lots of kids yelling and riding bicycles and, as you might guess, dratted woofies. Shadow Smitty did not like that at all.

When we had Smitty's shadow back inside, we took our own shadow selves on a hike. The Beaver Trail was just a few steps away from the RV.

Here's where we saw the sign about alligators climbing trees. There was a lot of information about gators on the sign, but I only included the most important parts related to whether we would get eaten.

It kind of makes sense that they would be able to climb trees if you think about it because they're just big lizards, and lizards climb trees and walls and anything else vertically oriented. Heck, I've seen them walk across the ceiling when we lived in Hawaii...lizards, that is.

So the hike began with a boardwalk over a little part of the lake that jutted into the forest.

It was a loop hike and so fairly quickly, we had to decide which way we were traveling. We opted for the waterfront portion first. It would take us to an observation deck.

Beyond, the trail turned back to the familiar sand, and it was marked with white blazes.

We were keeping a weather eye out overhead for any tree-climbing alligators. We saw none, but we did see plenty of abandoned birds' nests.

Eventually, we came to a small observation deck, scaring away a couple of ducks in the process.

We sat here for a few minutes, but the only thing we saw were our shadow selves. It gives them a Messianic complex when they realize they can walk on water without getting wet.

Walking on, we couldn't watch for alligators too much because we had to watch where we put our feet. The trails here are a network of tree roots, and it's easy to trip or twist an ankle.

On the other hand, they also form natural stairways where running water has eroded away the sand.

Here was something else interesting. These trees grow up about 10 feet, then bend over. There were a few places along the trail where they formed tunnels.

There were informational signs all along the way about different things we might see; i.e., birds, animals, plants, trees. We were interested in this one because it talked about the length of the pine needles carpeting the forest floor.

Sure enough...it's a little hard to see it from end to end, and so I've marked the ends of this pine needle in the image below.

Walking on, the Lime Sink Trail came into view. We could head back to the RV here, or turn around and go back the way we came.

We decided on the third option...the left fork.

That took us to the Lime Sink Trail. You can see where we walked on the trail map below. Our RV is where the smaller of the two red circles is close to the middle of the image.

We followed the two trails around to where the spring is located, marked with a larger red circle, and then we walked along the road back to the RV. You can also see the Woodpecker Trail, marked in a brown-dotted line, just above the spring. That's the trail we took the day before.

Okay, the Lime Sink Trail it was. After walking a little ways, we had one final chance to head back to the campground. We hadn't seen any tree-climbing alligators, and we were away from the water at this point, so we soldiered on.

There were pine cones littering the trail. Most were about five inches in length. It's always tempting to pick them up, but then...what would I do with them? Who among us hasn't collected dozens of pine cones, only to store them for decades to be thrown out when we move to a new house? Raise your hand.

Also, we saw these deer tracks.

We'd seen a white-tailed deer dash across the trail in front of us. Really, we only saw the flash of his white tail, but it was thrilling nonetheless.

He was way too fast for me to hope to get a picture of him, and so I swiped the one below off the internet. Take away the fence in the foreground, and you're seeing what we saw.

We did manage to spy this Red-headed Woodpecker.

He kept flying away from and then back to this tree stump. Then he'd crawl around to the back side where he was hidden. Still, I caught him one more time when he stuck his head up high enough.

When we saw the woodpecker, we'd come to a change in the scenery that was marked with this sign.

Looking ahead, we could see a more open area, and the trees were draped with Spanish Moss. We've learned from informational signs that Spanish Moss is neither Spanish nor moss or lichen. Instead it is a flowering plant. You can read more about it right here.

We'd nearly reached the end of the trail at this point, but we wanted to stop off again at the spring I spoke of in yesterday's post. We started farther down river and spied this large bird sunning itself and warming its wings. It appears to be a Great Blue Heron.

Here, we also saw several turtles swimming beneath the surface, but no alligators.

Beyond was another large bird...possibly another Great Blue Heron...and it too was standing with its wings spread wide.

Walking to the platform where we stood the day before, we noticed these two large fish...only one appears in the image below. They were not identified by any of the informational signs. Each was at least three feet long. I've since done some talking with my friend Google, and I believe these might be the longnose gar. You can click on that link and tell me if you agree.

The water is very clear, making it easy to see things beneath the surface. The longer we stood there, the more we saw.

We saw several turtles. They appeared to be looking right at us and deliberately swimming toward us.

We believe these are the yellow-bellied slider. For sure the one in the first image is because I could see the yellow flash near the eye.

Like I said, they appeared to be swimming toward us deliberately...

and looking right at us.

Got any fritos? Doritos? Cheetohs? What? Nothing but Clif bars? No thanks.

There were lots of little minnows and other larger fish swimming below the surface. The sign told us we could see large-mouth bass, but I don't think we saw any.

While we were there, three of these guys flew in, making quite a racket. Google tells me that these are Common Gallinule.

Also, we're pretty sure we saw a few of these guys.

Here's one...their shells seemed smoother than the sliders.

At about the same time, Mike and I spotted several of the sliders sunning themselves on the far bank.

Look how this guy has his legs stretched out behind. The warm sun must feel good. They looked like large rocks...larger than a bowling ball.

From there, we walked back to the RV. Across the lake and far away, we could see another large bird. I'm guessing this is a Great Egret, but it was hard to tell from this distance.

Inside the RV was some domesticated wildlife. Sadie was still napping right where we'd left her hours earlier.

And that was our hiking day. We spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Today's journey will take us about half an hour down the road to George L. Smith State Park. There, we're expecting to see the refurbished Parrish Mill and Pond, a combination gristmill, saw mill, covered bridge and dam built in 1880. On the way back home, we'll stop off to pick up a few things we need. Tomorrow, we'll be moving on down the road again.