Hope on the Trail

I hiked at Lake Hope State Park a few times in the last week, so I thought I’d combine my photos from those two hikes.

But first some deer.

I’ve lived in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio for about 25 years. Yet somehow it’s only recently that we’re having deer show up in our yard. I don’t know if they’re getting pressure from the surrounding area and running out of room, or whether it’s just taken 25 years for the trees in my yard to get big enough to give them a place to settle down.

Anyways, last week I had a herd of five of them get comfortable for a bit.

You Talkin’ to ME?

She sure looks settled in. By the way, that small sapling in the foreground is my 4-year old butternut.

This is down my my creek.

There’s an Itch Here Somewhere

You might recognize the trunks of a tulip poplar (to the right) and a bald cypress (to the left).

My pine trees look quite comfortable.

Surely You Won’t Make Me Move

The way they are spaced I suspect they also give a sense of security to the deer. You can also see another of my bald cypresses behind the deer on the right. Only bald cypresses have that knobby, leggy look to their trunks.

But on to Lake Hope (adjacent to Zaleski State Forest).

A week ago they sponsored their Fall Hike. This is supposed to highlight the fall colors. There was a bit, but not much. We got more color out of there kayaks that were just heading out.

Kayaks on Lake Hope

As part of the organized hike they started with a campfire and sassafras tea.

Pre-Hike Campfire

The hike itself was officially about 3 miles, and it was escorted (if you wanted to be). Our group had a real live botanist in it, so we went pretty slowly as all sorts of plants were pointed out to us. I learned quite a bit (if I can remember it).

Here’s an American Bladdernut, Staphylea trifolia.

Bladdernut

I’d seen them there before but never knew what they were. They are also sometimes called “Chinese Lanterns” from the shape of the seed pod.

The botanist also spotted a persimmon tree along the shore.

At the end of the hike we stopped at Hope Furnace, where they served some bean soup and more sassafras tea.

The funny thing about this hike (well, I thought it was funny/odd) was that nobody said a thing about the fact that I was barefoot. The temperature was around 50° and there were lots of people around, but my being barefoot didn’t seem to attract any interest at all. Usually I get at least a question or two.

I went back to Lake Hope last Friday. I was hoping to get a persimmon picture, which I’d neglected to take on the official hike. However, we’d had a freeze (which ripens them), and some animal (possibly human?) had already stripped the tree. Oh, well.

It was still a nice hike. This time the temperature started out quite a bit colder, more like 40°. That’s something I do notice with bare feet. 50° is just plain comfortable; 40° takes a bit of getting used to.

When I started out my feet felt cold, and it took about 15 minutes of hiking before they (and the rest of my body) really started warming up from the exertion. I also started out feeling every little bump and twig on the trail—but that too faded away after about 15 minutes of using them.

I did quite a bit of bushwhacking. Over the years my feet have toughened up enough that I just don’t worry about what I might step on off-trail.

The trees really hadn’t changed much.

Across the Lake

This seems awfully late in the year to still have so much green around.

And finally, here I am overlooking part of the lake.

Barefoot Around the Lake

At this part of the lake I’m pretty close to the inflow, so the water is quite shallow and full of water lillies and other plants.

I’ve been busy with other stuff this fall and haven’t managed much hiking. I need to get out more.