Sunday, April 02, 2006

Three Creeks Revisited

Monkey and I went back to Three Creeks Conservation Area, yesterday. If you recall, we hiked there in November or December of last year and really enjoyed it. The weather yesterday was great, so we decided to go back and enjoy a morning on the trails.

It was a good hike, the recent rain had only dampened the trail a bit in places, so the mud was managable, and Monkey did a spectacular job of orienteering our way through the occassionally maze-like trails. Some highlights included several (at least four) challenging (if you didn't want to get your feet wet) stream crossings, some first of the year wildflowers (shot out of focus--still trying to master all the bells and whistles on the camera), and a previously discovered cave.

I'm pretty sure the flowers are Virginia cowslip (Mertensia virginicus), but anyone with more expertise at identifying out-of-focus photos of wildflowers than I is welcome to tell me otherwise.


The cave was pretty wide (the entrance is probably fifty feet wide and twenty-five feet high), but not very deep (as least as far back as we could fit--it seemed to go back quite a ways, but you'd have to be a mouse or a Lilliputian to navigate the deeper passages). It also appeared to be a favored hangout for some local folks, complete with fire ring and stone squatting stools, but at least they seem to keep it clean. Not a beer can in sight.

Near the end of the loop we hiked, there were some old farm implements rusting away in the grass (they may still get used as far as I know--they're not in such bad shape). This would have been a really cool picture, but I didn't see Monkey in the distance as I snapped it, so I cropped her out. It's still kind of neat, but not as neat. Another hard learned photography lesson for me.

We had a nice morning, and made it home in plenty of time to get the supplies for a Sopranos party meatloaf and beer for some Final Four watching with Suh-weet and Queen of Spades. Complete with between-game Jenga (not enough time for Scrabble). What a stack! Suh-weet claims that we "approached Jenga immortality." I guess any kind of immortality is acceptable, but I was always hoping for more. Then again, we only "approached" it, we never attained it; so, how disappointing is that?

By the way, the basketball games kind of sucked.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, totally cool pics! I feel almost as if I'm there with you, annoying you through your weekend of festivities.

Speaking of annoying, the hype is finally over here. Yep, this town has been crazy for Mason. And now it's over. Ugh, *Florida*. I mean, please.

Reda, have you done your taxes yet? Taxes are, like, totally so overrated. It's Sunday night, and here at chez P I'm procrastinating the TT (Turbo Tax). One fun procrastination was that we both registered for the Army Ten Miler! Dude, as you know the longest race I've run is a 5K. I wasn't quite feeling up for the stress of training for the Marine Corps Marathon (maybe next year, when I'm Under37). So I'm feeling like a 10-mile race should be a good challenge.

The other procrastination is that we've spent much of the day reading books on Italy !!! and are trying to figure out which cities we'll go to during our trip in June! We're so excited!

Cin cin!

Anon AMVB

Beakerz said...

Where is "Three Creeks"?

ATR said...

Three Creeks is a conservation area in Boone County, Missouri.