Wahkeena and Shallenberger

Joan and I added a shorter hike after each of the two visits to Christmas Rocks documented here. It's time to talk about them.

April 26.

On leaving Christmas Rocks we drove to Shallenberger State Nature Preserve to seek its trillium hillside, specifically trillium grandiflorum, the large white.

Click on the image to enlarge.

What we first noticed on the trail, however, was a ligneous (wooden) arch.

Approaching the trillium slope.

One section of the field.

A closeup.

Face on.

Afterwards Joan and I continued around the loop, plucking garlic mustard. This invasive will choke everything else out, given a chance, and we spend hours every spring yanking out garlic mustard from the woods behind our house. It's addictive, like popcorn or peanuts -- just one more! Evidence abounded along the trail that we weren't the only ones plucking: mustards left to dry on logs, rocks, or notches in trees. We didn't try to get them all, but focused on what was within a few yards of the trail.

Other flowers than trillium bloom here, of course, including this bellwort.

Geranium with a side of spider!

Then it was time to go home.

 

May 13th.

On this day our second hike was around the Wahkeena Nature Preserve, bequeathed in 1957 to the Ohio History Connection. Wahkeena is managed locally by the Fairfield County Park District, and is just up the road from Rhododendron Cove.

Joan and I had been here once before, long ago; to me it was as if it was the first time. As we got out of the car Joan spotted a green heron in the Study Pond, fixed in place, waiting for a fish to swim by.

Here's a panoramic view of Lake Odonata and the park building.

After a chat with the gent at the park entrance we set off. The walks here are mostly gentle but include a few ups and downs.

A walled-off spring that contributes to the lake.

Going deeper into the woods.

A greek valerian has begun to open.

Further on, a shelter house. Group outing, anyone?

Steps are part of one uphill section.

This was a productive trail; here, a jack-in-the-pulpit.

Joan and I trod slowly on the next stretch, studying either side, for the host had said we might see a showy orchis there. He was right, although it was too far off the path for a close look. Fortunately, we both had binoculars and my camera has a zoom.

The angle could be better, but we saw it.

These trees are quite tall, stretching to reach the sunlight in advance of, or at least simultaneously with, their counterparts.

All trees come down, eventually.

Back at the Study Pond, the trail became a boardwalk which transformed into a floating path, individual deck sections linked together and held in place by posts. Each piece would sink a wee bit as I stepped on it, and rise after I left.

As we passed from the woods to the pond we heard and saw two Baltimore Orioles, spectacular birds doused in black and orange. Joan and I rarely see these, so we paused for a few minutes until they flew on.

And then it was time to go home, after another complementary hike following Christmas Rocks.