Beech Woods Ticks

 

Beech Woods Ticks

December 20, 2010

We left the Sundew Trail disappointed so we headed to another trail, Beech Wood Trail. When we pulled up, it looked ruff, like the trail time forgot. It was littered with pine straw and leaves, limbs and sticks. The sign to the trail had a “No Alcohol” sign on it. I thought, ”hmm, that is a first.” I have never saw a sign saying that before on a hiking trail, must have been a problem for the area. I didn’t really feel comfortable going hiking, guess I will learn to listen to my gut feeling. We had to walk .3 of a mile along a gated dirt road to get to the actual trail. The highlight along this road was we saw a possum scamper off into the bushes. We looked for him but he stayed hid from us.

Adam had to crawl on the gate to the road and climb a tree by the sign. I swear this child is part monkey. We walked to the trail and officially started our hike. The trail was not well maintained. Trees, blew over by past hurricanes, were barely removed from the trail and the path was littered with dead dry leaves and sticks. We had to walk a bit more to get to the part that started the loop. Once we arrived at the fork in the road we sat on the bench deciding if it was even worth going any farther.

Sitting there voting, I noticed a tick crawling on Stewart’s pant leg. I jump up, “Ugh, a tick!” I started looking over everyone. Anna had two on her and Adam had three on him. Austin and I was blessed not to have any on us. I pulled the ticks off their clothes, thankfully none was attached to their skin.

“OK, that is it, lets head back, try not to brush against anything.” I warned. Adam was getting to far ahead and I told him to wait for us, instead of standing there and waiting he would walk around in a circle. In his words, “If we keep moving they won’t get on us!” We decided the ticks must have been on the bench and when we sat down, they attacked us.

We “power walked” back to the Tahoe. I gave everyone a good once and twice over and found one more on Adam at his hair line, again not attached. We have never had a tick on us from any hike until this one and then to get seven, not even having walked a half mile was more than I could stand. From now on I will spray us thoroughly with Deep Woods Off before we go on anymore hiking trails.

At the trailhead of each trail there is a box with a sign-in sheet. I assume it is so they know who has visited,  there is always a question that asks, “What did you observe?” I wrote in big letters, “TICKS!”

Sundew Trail

 

Sundew Trail

December 20, 2010

It was a nice warm day to go traipsing around in the woods. We looked at the trails in the Big Thicket and this one we had not been on and was still open during hunting season, so we said, “Why Not.” My favorite trails are ones by the lakes, but this will have to do. It seems there is always more to see by the lake, I suppose because animals go to the water.

 

On the way there, I tell them about something I read on a web site that said because of the influx of hogs in the area, mountain lions are also making a come back. We went over what actions to take in case of an encounter with aggressive wild life. Of course the kids ask all kinds of questions keeping them occupied for the rest of the drive.

Once we arrived we looked around the trail head and Anna spotted a sign that had the corner broken off. “ Ahh, something took a bite out of the sign…ahhh!” “Oh Anna, don’t be so dramatic!” I scold. The kids are unusually quiet and subdued. We cross a pipeline road and all of a sudden we hear a large commotion of brush rustling and then out of the tree line burst three doe. I managed to get a picture of a brown streak. They were moving fast and low. It was really neat to see. Austin asked if we noticed the muscle tone on them. I say, “Nope, just saw the brown streak, I was too busy trying to get a picture.” Anna says, “Oh my goodness, I thought it was a tiger coming after us!” I correct her, “Mountain Lion.” If they were not nervous before, they were then.

After the deer excitement we all tried to keep quiet so maybe we could come upon another deer. The kids were not their usually silly selves on the trip. Adam tried to swing off of the picnic table on a branch but I stopped him before he did. The tree limb did not look sturdy enough to hold him. Austin looked at some plants and we spotted a couple of hard to identify mushrooms, and a funny green patch of plants in the midst of the brown grass.

 

The trail was about a mile of walking with very little to see. Adam found a stick he was using for his “gun” in case a mountain lion or hogs crossed our path. They had one info panel on the whole hike and it talked about a savanna. I suppose they consider the brown tall grassy area littered with pine trees was a savanna. The open area gave us another chase to look for deer, but there was none. Adam climbed only one tree on the whole walk.

 

Stewart spotted a Leaf-footed Bug, he claimed I almost stepped on. He was wondering what kinds of things lived under the boardwalk right before he spotted that little guy.

The trail guide booklet said that there was Pitcher Plants at the end of the hiking trail so we were looking hard for them when Austin spotted the Fly Agarics or Fly Amanita, best known as “Toadstool.” These are my favorite mushrooms, they are poisonous but beautiful and since I do not eat mushrooms I could care less. Finally we come across the Pitcher Plants, a nice size grouping of them was scattered amongst the weeds and grass.

Right before we returned to the trail head we saw this beautiful bush. It was booming with bright reds, oranges, yellows and greens. It made me think, “Burning Bush.” It is amazing how we humans can not even begin to compete with GOD’s artwork.