Ohio Day 5 - The Last of Our Ohio Hikes - Highlands Nature Sanctuary and Miller State Nature Preserve

Here is your country. 

Cherish these natural wonders, 

cherish the natural resources, 

cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, 

for your children and your children's children. 

Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country 

of its beauty, 

its riches 

or its romance.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

The birds woke us. Well, the birds woke me and I took my cup of coffee out on the deck and listened as first one and then another bird joined the morning chorus. They had to compete a bit with the sounds of Rocky Fork Creek burbling far below. A few times I heard what I knew must be a frog calling. But the frogs never called long enough for me to investigate further.

A sign for the preserve

Morning coffee on the deck.

Our trees

What a place to escape!

We had watched this grey squirrel for two days. It had been removing nuts from a cache at the base of a tree on Sunday. Today it climbed into a tree with a nut.

I love these grey squirrels. They have strangely long legs and appear almost black when in the forest shade.

A nuthatch showed up at the same time as the titmice. Of course, I did not know it was a nuthatch.

I madly took photos as the bird made its way madly around the trees. I was shocked to get these two photos. A birds of North America book provided the identity. After I determined it wasn't a sapsucker or woodpecker I paged through the photos until I found the right bird - White-breasted Nuthatch.

Barrett's Rim Trail (part of Highlands Nature Sanctuary):

We ate our breakfast and headed out. We planned to hike four trails starting with Barrett's Rim Trail. To reach the trail head we walked across a large field that is wild save for the one mowed path. A cardinal flitted from one small tree to another - one of ten cardinals we would see that day. We would take this longest trail first during the coolest part of the day.

The bugs were already upon us, but we hurried along to keep just ahead of the swarm. We hiked along the edge of the creek and then along the edge of the gorge cliff. The hike is moderately challenging - rocks and tree roots that threaten a trip on the narrow trail. We were glad to have our trekking poles with us all day as they made a difference in keeping our balance and managing the changing elevation. 

There's a cardinal in this photo.

The path was bordered by this grass. I wonder if the plan is for this area to return to prairie.

The signpost for Barrett's Rim trail and another. We did not notice the walking sticks until we were finished with the hike. We had our trekking poles and they did make a huge difference...seems some kind folks provide these sticks for them what forget theirs.

We "crossed water" a number of times. Some were just rock crossings.

There were many plants we saw only here.

Solomon Seal

Woodland Stonecrop

Woodland Stonecrop

Eastern Shooting Star

Eastern Shooting Star

Stonecrop, columbine, ferns, and more (and that guy who seems to get in my photos all the time).

Rocky Fork Creek

This is a favorite hike - especially during the wildflower season. It was gorgeous.

Jack! You're back! Jack-in-the-pulpit

Miller State Nature Preserve

The Miller family created this preserve from their vacation home property. Three easy and lovely hikes are laid out here. The paths are good with some new bridging. Signage throughout provides information on the flora.

We started down the Falls Trail and saw what we thought was a boulder on the path. Then the boulder flicked its tail. I was a few feet ahead of DH and stepped back and slightly off the trail to keep a tree between me and whatever was on the path. "Is it a boar?" asked DH. And then the creature turned its face to me, looking over its shoulder. It was a bull. Then it stood - no question it was a bull. He was only in minor confrontation mode. There was no snorting or "male posturing" or whatever bulls do besides run you down.

The bull wandering away. [It was a bull! No bull!] You can see I had no intention of allowing it to get very close.

I kept the tree between me and old "Ferdinand."* He was deciding if we were a threat as we made the same judgment about him. Then he turned and ambled along down the left turn of the trail. We chose to take the right, knowing that in 2.5 miles we would be looking for him again.

The wildflowers were much the same as we had seen on other hikes - trillium, wild geranium, columbine, cancer root, and scouring rush. The wildlife showed up but didn't stand still. There was a Great Blue Heron, cardinal pair, chipmunks (or something very like them) and something dark that flitted through the woods just far enough away for us to see it and then disappear. It was a little creepy.**

This is one of my favorite photos of DH.

Great Waterleaf [There were times I felt the wildflowers "hung on" because they knew I was there.

We found the bull again  - he was further into the woods and up-hill from where we had last seen him. He saw us, but then ignored us. We felt comfortable enough to hike a second trail, the shorter Arch Loop.

This too was a lovely and easy hike with arches/natural bridges along the way. We started hearing voices as we neared the turn-around on the loop. That was a little surprising, because we had seen no other cars in the parking area. As we came around the turn at the creek we observed two fishermen across the creek, fishing from a large rock jutting out from the bank.

They appeared to be father and son. The boy's bare feet hung out of his cuffed pants. He had a straw hat on his head. I waved and shared a "good morning." Then I asked, "catchin' anything?" Well, the young man was off. He  told me what he'd caught and jumped up to pull up the stringer and show me 10 or 12 good-sized fish. "These on the bottom are all mine!" We talked a little about how he liked to cook them before I headed down the creek-side trail and he went back to fishing.

An arch

Cancer-root, also known by other names. It is a type of broomrape (they are all parasitic) that grows on oak roots.

More Eastern Shooting Star.

This may have been the final trillium.

Carpet Bugle

It is hard to see, but this is a natural bridge.

We saw quite a few of this bracket fungus.

Some kind of oxalis/woodsorrel. I haven't looked it up yet.

Bluebells. This was the only blossom I found still on a plant. They must have been gorgeous.

Yellow wildflowers in a meadow - I have to admit that these were either some wild mustard akin to our bastard cabbage or a ragweed. Those were the two flowers blooming in masses like this. My allergies knew all about it.

Ohio is proud of their tiger beetles.

We headed to town to check messages, send messages (it was Mothers' Day, after all) and eat. When in Bainbridge eat at Doc's. Really. Doc's is a diner with a good variety of food and a helpful staff. I suspect that burger was one of the top 10 I have eaten (get the bacon cheeseburger deluxe). We headed back to Highlands where our oldest child managed to get through on the phone as we rested for what would be our final hike.


Etawah Woods Trail

We thought this was to be a short hike, but we took an extension and got tired before we gave up and turned around. These trails close at 5 p.m. and we also didn't want to make the volunteers wait on us. It too was lovely and delivered a patch of Jack-in-the-pulpit and a grey squirrel who posed - somewhat unhappily (he couldn't find a way away from us).

We also watched some inexperienced folks in kayaks we'd seen almost an hour earlier (and maybe a quarter mile upstream).  There was some serious sunburn going on.

More caves

These are somewhat challenging hikes with a good bit of changes in elevation.

Sunburned

We haven't a clue where people were renting the kayaks or where they "put-in" and "took-out" but we might want to find out.

FINALLY - Canadian Violets (it has to do with the way the blooms come off the leaves).

Eastern Grey Squirrel

He climbed up this wood and then had no place to go - until the humans left him alone.

Jack is back!

There are a number of Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers here.

Just one more!

Then we were up and out.

I have to say it was difficult to leave this peaceful and lush sanctuary. The only way we could manage it was to promise ourselves that we would return.

[I probably should mention that one or more photos might be demonstrating some slippage in my 60+ year old brain and or my chronic disorganization. I could have moved one wildflower (photographically only)  from one trail to another - or even from the sanctuary to the preserve. I am going to "call this good" and start planning the next trip.]

NOTES:

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Ferdinand

We would later report the bull-on-the-trail:

     "Are you sure it was a bull?" asked the volunteer.
     "Ma'am, I am from Texas. I know what a bull looks like. It was a bull. Please call and report it to the sheriff." [Remember - I had limited cellphone service.]
     "But that property is not ours."  
     "Ma'am, at home when an animal is out we call the sheriff. They will know what to do. And you need to tell anyone who comes for a map to those trails there's a bull out there. I think most hikers would want to know."

They did report the bull to the sheriff's office. I don't think the sheriff's people were too excited. They just noted it in the event someone called looking for their bull. Maybe Ohio bulls roaming the woods aren't the threat that Texas bulls would be.

**We thought maybe foxes or squirrels. These grey squirrels were large and had very long hind legs. Most of the creatures moved too fast for us. I also found that the cell memory was full most of these last few hikes. I deleted what I could and took many fewer photos here. TRUST ME all of the hikes are worth the time and effort. I plan to hike them again - during wildflower season. April 2019 - OHIO!

FINAL NOTE:

I am going to include these photos so I will be able to find them later. I should remember this was the day that we almost took a wrong turn and saw this young man sitting at the edge of the creek. Later we returned and saw that he had company. Young people are pretty much the same whether they drive a car or a buggy.

Waiting

Another buggy was there