A New Leaf

Today, the family and I took the opportunity to get out and get a little fresh air and exercise. We live 10 minutes from Lake Thurmond, one of the major reservoirs on the Savannah River by the Army Corp of Engineers. We actually used to spend a good bit of time in the area, but 2009 was a really stressful and full year for us. Necropolis and I decided today was as good a time as any to make a change.

Necropolis, Things 1 and 2, Pearly Sue and I all trecked out to the Bartram Trail along Lake Thurmond and walked and looked.

We saw a LOT of pine trees, fallen leaves, and small granite outcroppings. Lake Thurmond is actually along the path of the granite vein that also created Stone Mountain, more than 120 miles away.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the foresight to bring trashbags. There was litter everywhere, and some of it too big to move, like this bouy.

While we were hiking I kept my eyes open for mushrooms, to share with my friend lisascenic. I had about given up on seeing any, and as we were almost back to the truck, I spotted these. I have no idea what they are, but I'm hoping Lisa will chime in here and let us know.

The British Are Coming!

Today, MUC and I went to Savannah River Bluffs Heritage Preserve to plant our part of the Great Atlas Quest Letterbox Exchange '07 (GAQLBE07). We were lucky enough to be paired with a British boxer, UKUSA, and decided to exchange wild bird images as a series. So, MUC and I trekked out and planted in this little hidden gem of a perserve. While we were there, we ran across some of the protected flora in this preserve.

The pictures are of some type of wild lillies (I think rocky shoals spider lilies) which were in bloom while we were there. These weren't the only ones. There was a multitude of bloom about.


I'm not sure about the purple one, but I believe the white flowers are False Rue Anemone, also part of the rare/endangered flora in the area. After a while, MUC got really irritated with me stopping to take pictures of flowers every 30 seconds, so we hiked out of the riverbed. On the way out, we had to cross a powerline easement, where there was a little wooden footbridge.



This is where we saw our only natural fauna of the day.
Today was also a big day for MUC. He officially hit the 100 mark on AQ. We keep records of our own and have him at a few over 100, but as we can't log unlisted finds for him yet, those don't 'count'. Now Greyson has his red ribbon for 100. His response to that was: "I need to get some more!"