With a little Spring heat, the forests in the Ohio Valley have gone from almost barren to luscious green in less than two weeks. Since my last blog post, I’ve taken a couple of beautiful hikes in Bernheim Forest and Jefferson Memorial Forest just to check out the dogwoods and other trees in full bloom.

Last weekend, in between bouts of rain showers, we had  three hot days in a row with temperatures in the upper 80’s. That was more than enough to wake the remaining trees still slumbering in their winter hibernation. Early Spring wildflowers are dying off with the increased heat and the flowers of May are taking over. Spiderwort and irises and even the wild blackberry bushes are in full bloom now in Jefferson Forest. These attract lots of butterflies and it looks to be a good year for them, especially with the Japanese honeysuckle starting to take off.

At Bernheim Forest this past Sunday with my mom, the Canadian geese with their babies in tow seemed to be everywhere there was water. The hills in all of the area parks have taken on the pastels of spring as flowering trees begin sprouting their leaves and start maturing to the lush deep greens of Summer.

It’s a great time of the year to get out on the trail, I hope you get to soon. I have two new photo albums entitled Dogwoods 2009 and Tortoise on the Trail filled with lots of flowers and wildlife. I hope you enjoy them.

A word of warning to hikers in the area: Ticks! Be sure to check yourself when coming off any trail in the Kentuckiana area, especially right now. Ticks are abundant thanks to our ample Spring rains and I’ve picked off a few almost every time I’ve gone out in the last 3 weeks. Avoid wearing white clothes, especially white socks, since this color attracts ticks the most. Be careful out there!

Dogwoods at Bernheim

Canadian Goose and Goslings

Spicebush Swallowtail

Fern and Phlox

Tortoise on the Siltstone Trail

The service is worse than a McDonalds full of 17 year olds. Seriously, if you feel the desire to blog, take your business elsewhere because this place stinks. I’ve put too much effort in it to leave, and I have a huge library of photos, but I regret ever coming here. It is the worst blog home of any site I’ve ever encountered.

I think these guys are what pop can be, not what it is.

Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded house.

I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but this is possibly the WORST example of modern television in my lifetime.

Let me set the stage.

The show is called “Lost Tapes” and it airs mostly late nights on the ANIMAL PLANET channel.

Animal Planet to me is an interesting nature channel, but this stuff is just awful.

The premise of “Lost Tapes” is as follows: Imagine any urban legend, from sea monsters, to chupacabra, to cave demons. Ok, now that we have your attention, film COMPLETELY FICTIONAL re-enactions with these totally FICTIONAL beasties, but propose that they MIGHT be factual. And then, show these fictional stories as if they were nature documentaries.

I swear to god, between Disney and stuff like this, we’re gonna become too stupid to exist and we deserve to die out as a species.

Holy f**k this stuff pisses me off.

I’ve been talking a lot recently about the trails in Jefferson Memorial Forest, and with good reason. The JMF has been full of surprises this early Spring and it has been a delightful place to discover new plants and animals  galore.

This weekend,  I managed to hike Friday and Saturday for a total of 19 miles. On Friday, I completed a new (for me) 10 mile route in Jefferson Forest that included the section of the Siltstone Trail from Bearcamp Rd to Scott’s Gap Rd and including the Scott’s Gap Loop Trail. It was a beautiful afternoon and I managed to complete the ten miles in under 5 hours, with plenty of picture taking along the way. (The skinks and fence lizards are now out in abundance.)

As for the distance, let me just say this for the day hikers like myself. You really can’t tell how good your stamina is until you get beyond  the 7 mile mark. Most 6 mile trails can be handled by virtually everyone, but once you get to 7 miles and beyond, you need to have hydration and probably at least a little food for energy. I was pleasantly surprised that I made it without much effort, and the cool breezes along the Siltstone ridges really helped take the strain out of the final 3 miles. Add into it a 90 degree day and increase the humidity (like Summer in the Ohio Valley) and that 10 mile hike goes from meek to angry in a hurry. Even in very comfortable temperatures, I drank a liter and a half of water and I stopped and ate a packed sandwich and an apple.

Take my word for it, you can never take too MUCH water or food when you get beyond 7-8 miles for a given hike. On Saturday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to wake up with no real significant aches or pains, and I proceeded to tackle Clifty Falls State Park in Madison Indiana.

Clifty Falls is truly a unique jewel for the Kentuckiana area.

The park encompasses 300 foot deep limestone canyons that include 4 major waterfalls over 60 ft high. You can hike around the park above the canyons or hike down to Little Clifty Creek and enjoy the canyon and falls from the bottom up.

On Saturday, we combined trails for an approximately 9 mile trek through the park that included Trails 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8.

The trails in Clifty Falls State Park are challenging for the average hiker. In addition to steep ups and downs, you also have to cross creeks at various levels all year round. In the Spring, you’re going to get your feet wet if you hike any length of Trail 2. You’ll also find muddy patches along almost every trail this year thanks to our normal abundant Spring rains. But the reward for wet or muddy feet is possibly one of the most diverse and beautiful collection of wildflowers I’ve ever seen outside of much larger state and national parks.

I really hope to get back to Clifty Falls soon for more wildflower viewing. The next two weeks will be dazzling. And make sure to stop by Mundt’s in downtown Madison for an ice cream sundae or some fish candy. It’s one of my family’s traditions when we go.

Bluebells

White trillium

Tunnel Falls

Blue Eyed Mary

Wildflower diversity

Be sure to check out the other photos from the weekend in the photo album Clifty Falls Spring ‘09.

Some strange news coming out of Louisville the last couple of days. Apparently Rick Pitino has contacted the FBI about an attempt to extort him. Today’s paper included a statement from the team’s equipment manager:

“This morning, U of L equipment manager Tim Sypher, whose wife, Karen, has been identified as the person making allegations against — and allegedly trying to extort — U of L basketball coach Rick Pitino, issued this statement through the university’s sports information office.”

“I am devastated by the bizarre allegations that my estranged wife is making against both Coach Pitino and myself. At this point, my primary concern is for my young daughter and four stepsons, both to the impact of their mother’s actions on them, as well as the impact on Coach’s family and the University. I love my children, and want to protect them. At the same time, I intend to defend the allegations vigorously and will have no additional comment at this time. “

So what can be gleaned from this? It’s BIZARROWORLD in Louisville today.

This song from Living Colour really kicks some behind.

Enjoy TYPE

Scott’s Gap Loop in the Jefferson Memorial Forest is a nice little 3 mile hike if you need the exercise. There are enough ups and downs to give you a decent workout if you push yourself. In fact, it can be walked in under an hour if you are truly fit.

But if fitness isn’t your major concern, take your time on the Scott’s Gap Loop and look at all of the interesting plants that are popping up along the trail this year.

I’ve been hiking Jefferson Forest for well over a decade and this Spring has been quite an eye opener with the new species of wildflowers and plants I’ve spotted. Most notably has been the proliferation of Jack in the Pulpit along Scott’s Gap Loop. They are literally everywhere right now, especially along the first big hill at the beginning of the trail. At the first fork uphill, continue up and look for the three-leaved juveniles that look like trillium, but the leaves are arranged vertically rather than horizontally and have no central flower bud. There are already a few mature Jacks early on the trail as well. This is the first year I’ve ever spotted any in the JMF.

Jack in the Pulpit

After hiking the initial hill along  Scott’s Gap (counterclockwise for the loop), you’ll continue along a ridge for about a half mile and you’ll find a short ascent that is almost completely covered with Dutchman’s britches and Squirrel corn wildflowers, another new find this Spring.

Dutchman’s britches

Squirrel corn

Another half mile will find you descending into a creek valley which the trail will follow for a while. In the valley right now, Celandine poppies are everywhere, along with spring ferns and a couple of different trillium species. You’ll also spot Fire pink wildflowers right on the trail. When the weather gets warmer, this valley will also have lots of frog and toad species. Skinks and fence lizards are already out along the trail, but to spot them you have to take it slow as you approach downed timber, the preferred sunning spot for these cold blooded forest dwellers.

Celandine poppy

If you are quiet enough along the Scott’s Gap trail, you will most likely hear wild turkey calls and if you’re lucky enough you might spot a foraging group. Deer will also frequent the creek valleys during the wetter months for feeding.

Scotts Gap Loop is a diverse 3 mile trail through several habitats. Try to check it out over the coming month or so for the wide variety of plants and animals indigenous to the Jefferson Memorial Forest. It can be a rigorous hour or a fascinating 3 hours of discovery. It’s just up to you how you want to hike it.

Be sure to check out the photo album Scott’s Gap Jacks.

Especially for an amateur photographer, like myself.

Early spring can really throw you curve balls in the Ohio Valley, much like it did late Monday afternoon when rain mixed with a little snow was the weather throughout the day. The cold mixed with the wet made for a lonely late afternoon hike along the red trail in the Horine Reservation section of Jefferson Memorial Forest (JMF). But the wet conditions along with the cloudy skies made for excellent photography conditions, or at least for my favorite subject to photograph, water on plants.

I happened on the subject by accident this past fall when I took a November hike in the rain and noticed how the rain beaded up on the freshly fallen leaves. After taking a few pictures that I REALLY liked, it’s been a minor theme in my photography and a big motivator for me to get out hiking when the weather turns bad.

Even though the Spring is very young, it’s been quite a season of firsts for me in the JMF. Morels, newts and new butterflies are just a short list of some the things I’ve seen for the first time this year. On Monday afternoon, I added another first when I sighted a red trillium in the section of the Horine Red Trail that I like to call Mosquito Valley. Once the weather gets warmer, Mosquito Valley is about 200 yards of trail following a creek bed that can swarm with the bloodthirsty critters and it marks approximately the halfway point of the 4.5 mile loop trail.

Trillium are 3 leaved flowers that I normally  associate with the Great Smoky Mountains. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them in Jefferson County and it was a really great day to spot them. Mosquito Valley is a very diverse spring flower habitat and I look forward to hiking back to it again in the weeks to come as new plants flourish and grow. Right now, the dominant flowers in the valley are trout lillies.

I hope to see more trillium and other new flowers in coming weeks as I plan to hike the Millenium Trail in Bernheim Forest as well as other hikes in the area. I also hope to hike Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge State Park during their Wildflower Weekend in April.

The photo album for Monday’s rainy/snowy hike is titled April Snow Showers 09. Enjoy.

Water theme

Trout Lillies and Ferns

Red Trillium

As great as they were in the regular season, the Big East has flopped on the biggest stage in the tourney.

No one plays Big 10 style ball in the Big East. And Villanova is just out matched. A weird year in college basketball.

GO Michigan State!