Naturalists and Me
Naturalist:
A scholar or student of natural history. A Wildlife enthusiast or a Conservationist.
In returning back home and showing people my pictures of the amazing places I went, I often kept hearing "..well, as you know, we have all this in our own backyard." Okay, maybe not the volcanoes, but we do have lots of mountains, lakes, and parks.
Like most people, we often take things that are right in front of us for granted...so........I signed up for a nature hike. I heard about these hikes via a session I went to at the library one night. They sounded pretty cool, and had all sorts of levels. I picked the easy day hike, mid week.
Without knowing much else... other than the meeting point, and having signed a waiver form plus a health form sent to me via email.... I head off to meet the group. I kind of suspected they would be an older group........I mean, really, who takes mid week off to go hiking?
I suspected correctly.
With the other seven folks waiting at the meeting point, we car pool to Porcupine Hills..... going via Turner Valley and Chain Lakes. I've never been down this highway before. Pretty spectacular scenery along the way. Cows and more cows. Llamas. Oil pumps. Hills. Mountains.
Once we arrived at our hiking spot, the group starts to get ready. Walking sticks, change from driving/everyday shoes to hiking shoes (plus water shoes...as we had to first cross a stream of very very cold water), suntan lotion, bug spray, hats, sunglasses, cameras, binoculars and their daybacks with food/water.
Good thing I was already ready. I just wore my hiking shoes straight off the bat...no change of shoes for me...other than changing into my flip flops to cross the creek. WOW that was super cold water! I had my baseball cap on and had put suntan lotion on at home. My daypack was full with a bit of food........a turkey/swiss cheese sandwich I prepared the night before...and lots of water. I also brought my camera....just missing the binoculars and walking sticks. Not bad........I fit in okay I'm thinking!
Well............ let's just say that the most I contributed to the conversation was...."sure smells nice". I know next to nothing on flora, trees, birds, animal footprints and everything else they seemed to be talking about.
The hike confirmed that I even know less that I thought I knew.
We saw coyote foot prints. Black bear foot prints (not to be confused with the grizzly...you can tell this by the line of where the toes end.......or something like that............my god....a bear is a bear..........but I guess you need to protect yourself differently before they eat you). Deer and moose prints. Deer poop. Moose poop. Birds of all kinds. Red-tail hawks. All kinds of trees. Various types of wild flowers. Oh.......the list goes on and on.
These people were experts........stopping everywhere to smell the flowers. We even had a poem or two! Oh........and during our lunch break, while sitting under this massive tree with an awesome view of all shades of green along one of the hills, one of the guys makes a whistle! Yup...a whistle from one of the branches. AND........it really worked.
It took me awhile to adapt to this very slow pace of enjoying everything around me.
I'm just glad they didn't start singing the "Kumbaya" song..........
A scholar or student of natural history. A Wildlife enthusiast or a Conservationist.
In returning back home and showing people my pictures of the amazing places I went, I often kept hearing "..well, as you know, we have all this in our own backyard." Okay, maybe not the volcanoes, but we do have lots of mountains, lakes, and parks.
Like most people, we often take things that are right in front of us for granted...so........I signed up for a nature hike. I heard about these hikes via a session I went to at the library one night. They sounded pretty cool, and had all sorts of levels. I picked the easy day hike, mid week.
Without knowing much else... other than the meeting point, and having signed a waiver form plus a health form sent to me via email.... I head off to meet the group. I kind of suspected they would be an older group........I mean, really, who takes mid week off to go hiking?
I suspected correctly.
With the other seven folks waiting at the meeting point, we car pool to Porcupine Hills..... going via Turner Valley and Chain Lakes. I've never been down this highway before. Pretty spectacular scenery along the way. Cows and more cows. Llamas. Oil pumps. Hills. Mountains.
Once we arrived at our hiking spot, the group starts to get ready. Walking sticks, change from driving/everyday shoes to hiking shoes (plus water shoes...as we had to first cross a stream of very very cold water), suntan lotion, bug spray, hats, sunglasses, cameras, binoculars and their daybacks with food/water.
Good thing I was already ready. I just wore my hiking shoes straight off the bat...no change of shoes for me...other than changing into my flip flops to cross the creek. WOW that was super cold water! I had my baseball cap on and had put suntan lotion on at home. My daypack was full with a bit of food........a turkey/swiss cheese sandwich I prepared the night before...and lots of water. I also brought my camera....just missing the binoculars and walking sticks. Not bad........I fit in okay I'm thinking!
Well............ let's just say that the most I contributed to the conversation was...."sure smells nice". I know next to nothing on flora, trees, birds, animal footprints and everything else they seemed to be talking about.
The hike confirmed that I even know less that I thought I knew.
We saw coyote foot prints. Black bear foot prints (not to be confused with the grizzly...you can tell this by the line of where the toes end.......or something like that............my god....a bear is a bear..........but I guess you need to protect yourself differently before they eat you). Deer and moose prints. Deer poop. Moose poop. Birds of all kinds. Red-tail hawks. All kinds of trees. Various types of wild flowers. Oh.......the list goes on and on.
These people were experts........stopping everywhere to smell the flowers. We even had a poem or two! Oh........and during our lunch break, while sitting under this massive tree with an awesome view of all shades of green along one of the hills, one of the guys makes a whistle! Yup...a whistle from one of the branches. AND........it really worked.
It took me awhile to adapt to this very slow pace of enjoying everything around me.
I'm just glad they didn't start singing the "Kumbaya" song..........
posted by Isabella @ 10:27 PM
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