Flora-Quest 2015, Day 1

Saturday, August 29th, was the final day of Flora-Quest 2015. All the activities took place at Malabar Farm, whereas yesterday they were in and about Mohican State Park. Malabar was the achievement of Louis Bromfield, a Pulitzer Prize winner (1927) and noted conservationist.

To keep things running smoothly, the participants were divided into four groups (pink, yellow, green, and blue) and we rotated among four activities. Joan and I were in the 'yellow' group, and our first destination was Junglebrook, a wetland walk. Here's the Malabar trail map; Junglebrook is on the right-hand side.

We were blessed to have several naturalists accompanying us on this walk, including Jim McCormac and Lisa Rainsong. There wasn't time to complete the entire loop, because there was so much to see. A lot of time was spent on the boardwalk portion.

Looking across the wetland.

Vegetation pix.

We also admired bugs and moths, but I don't have any good photos of those.

The next stop for "yellow" was the Big House, the main residence.

Louis Bromfield visited India more than once in the 1930s, and two of his novels were set there. The name "Malabar" comes from the Malabar Coast of western India. Above the main entrance is a Ganesha.

Inside was one of the guides that give tours year-round. This tour was tough to photograph; our group filled every room, and our group was not the only one visiting. Here, however, is Bromfield's desk, with a bust of Voltaire presiding. Copies of his books are arranged in front.

A wider view.

The most famous parts of the house are those involved when Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were married on May 21, 1945, including the staircase from which she tossed her bouquet, and the guest room where they stayed.

Then we lunched under a shade tree, watching the comings and goings at the main barn, the headquarters today for Flora-Quest.

The first afternoon activity for the "yellow" group was a visit to Dukes Woods. To quote from the Malabar Farms web site,

This trail meanders through 180 acres of woodland habitat. This woodlot is composed of deciduous or broadleaf trees. Trail is named after Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress who, after Bromfield's death in 1956, purchased back the timber rights for this woodlot.

At least one tree along this hike hosted a raft of chicken-of-the-woods fungus.

Our guide examined it; it's generally considered edible.

This is a view of a bluff face we hiked atop for a portion of our walk.

The fourth and final activity was a farm tour, where we sat on benches in a roofed wagon pulled by a farm tractor. One stop was the family cemetery. George Baughman was a local farmer (Bromfield bought three farms in 1939 to create Malabar) who perished in the Civil War.

Bromfield served in WWI in the Ambulance Corps. His timeline is charted here.

Afterwards Joan and I visited the gift shop, and then undertook an unofficial fifth activity. We drove to the top of Mount Jeez, which provides a wide view of the farm. The name supposedly originated with Bromfield's business manager, who arrived at the top, on foot, quite exhausted.

Zooming in on the main farm complex:

A rain shower passed through as we left Mount Jeez.

Many Flora-Quest participants drove home from Malabar, but Joan and I stayed another night at the Mohican State Park Lodge -- it had already been a long day. The following day we visited more of the state park before heading towards Columbus. There's an old firetower to climb, and across the road is the auspiciously named Hog Hollow Trail,

which leads to the Clear Fork Gorge State Nature Preserve, wrapped like a blanket by the state park.

After we walked the loop trail, a short drive took us to an overlook.

There's an official observation point, from which I took this photo.

Driving south on SR 3 towards Columbus, we decided to take a scenic route, and turned onto SR 205 at the village of Jelloway. Just after we left SR 3, Joan spotted a sign for Ramser Arboretum, which sounded familiar to her. We found a place to turn around, and returned to the arboretum. In this snapshot from Google Maps, the entrance to Ramser is the gravel loop at center bottom.

There were 5x7 cards at the kiosk with a map on one side,

and information on the other (click on the image to enlarge).

Joan and I headed off up the Oak Trail, and took the Owl Trail and a part of the Dogwood Trail. The early part of that walk was through woods with a plantation feel: rows of tree soldiers in rank. The other parts were wilder, and we saw yet another chicken-of-the-woods fungus on the Owl Trail, the most spectacular one yet!

Discovering Ramser Arboretum was a treat. A more detailed account of a visit to the arboretum, by TrekOhio, is here. Additional contact info is stapled directly to the kiosk:

All in all, it was quite a weekend, including Mohican State Park, the Clear Fork Gorge, Malabar Farm, and Clear Fork Gorge State Nature Preserve, capped by Ramser Arboretum. It was a great way to close out August.