ONAPA WV Field Trip: Part 3, Forest Roadside Botanizing

After lunch on the second day of our ONAPA (Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Assocation) field trip our group, in a lengthy caravan of cars, began roadside botanizing. But first, a photo of the participants, courtesy of Guy Denny and tweaked by yours truly.

Our guides had earlier scouted prime floral locations for us, all on forest roads in the Monongahela National Forest. Soon after leaving our lunch spot, the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center, we dove off Route 150 (part of the Highland Scenic Highway) and into the woods.

At each stop we piled out to investigate the flowers.

One of our first finds was the large purple-fringed orchid.

A closer look with the camera's flash turned on produced an interesting effect.

Most of the time we parked on the side of the road, and fortunately never met a vehicle coming the other way. Twice there was a more generous pullout.

A flying insect was investigating the buds on this poke milkweed.

At one point the navigators in the lead car realized that we had taken a wrong turn, and we were forced turn our vehicles around one-by-one on the narrow forest road, making the last car the new first car. In this map, purple marks the main route, red the errant leg, and blue the way north that Joan and I took at the end of the excursion (everyone else continued on the purple route). Click on the image to enlarge.

More roadside botany,

including this purple-flowering raspberry,

and this wood mint, probably a hairy wood mint ("flowers whitish or pale lavender, with purple spots"), or possibly a downy wood mint ("flowers pale blue, lavender, or whitish, with purple spots").

For many the star of the show, at our final stop,

was a patch of canada lilies,

but there were also pretty monarda tucked among the mints.

A few minutes after the caravan departed to head home, wherever that might be, Joan and I parted with it, taking the "blue route" to our B&B for the night, the Morning Glory Inn.

For dinner we drove up to the Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort, where several of the restaurants were open even in late June. We reviewed our maps for tomorrow's add-on adventure, not part of the ONAPA field trip, to the Green Bank Observatory.

ONAPA WV Field Trip: Part 2, Cranberry Glades

Joan and I left our motel in Elkins, WV, early June 29th to drive down to the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center and the second day of the ONAPA (Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves) West Virginia field trip. It's about a two hour drive depending on the frequency of slow trucks on mountain roads, and we encountered only a few short slowdowns.

At the nature center we first investigated a nature trail loop, and then drive down to the Cranberry Glades. We reveled in the nature trail, stopping frequently to admire or attempt to identify a plant, and individuals would shuttle back and forth between the clumps of people around each naturalist, especially with each exclamation of a new discovery. My only photo is of this round-leaf orchid. This is the with-flash version, which came out best.

Then it was a short drive to the Cranberry Glades.

There was a pause as we all parked and gathered and waited for a large group to exit the boardwalk. In the meantime, on the other side of the parking lot, Dave Keener discovered

 some mountain woodsorrel, oxalis montana.

Once on the boardwalk we trod slowly, trying to not overlook anything.

Here is a cluster of purple pitcher plants (although I prefer the alternate moniker of turtle socks). These plants are not native, but are thriving here. Click on the image to enlarge.

The rose pogonia, or snakemouth orchid, loves this environment.

The grass pink orchid is showy, and unusual in that the lip is on the top of the flower, not the bottom.

There is both a pogonia and a grass pink in this photo.

After completing the boardwalk we scooted over to an opening where the naturalists, in their earlier reconnaissance, had located a tubercled rein orchid and one other orchid. Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out. Here the last of our group is returning from that hunt.

Then it was time to return to the Nature Center for lunch, and reorganizing into a single line of vehicles for some roadside botanizing.

ONAPA WV Field Trip: Part 1, Seneca Rocks and Dolly Sods

ONAPA (Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association) organized a field trip to West Virginia for late June, focusing on the Dolly Sods Wilderness and the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area. There were a limited number of places so Joan and I applied early.

We opted to drive out the day before, staying overnight in Elkins. We had dinner at the Forks Inn, which Joan had discovered beforehand on Tripadvisor. It was excellent and well worth driving a few miles outside of town.

The next day we had time to explore the Seneca Rocks before the trip participants rendezvoused there at 1:00pm. This is a photo I took later, in the late afternoon light. In 1943-44 the 10th Mountain Division trained in assault climbing on these vertical formations. 

Zooming in closer. The red circle at left shows where an observation deck is located, at the end of a walking trail. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

The view from the deck goes up and down the valley and into the mountains to the east.

Just beyond, they beg you to please not go any further.

Back at ground level Joan and I briefly explored the Sites Homestead.

This is the Sites house.

After all the participants trickled in we were briefed on the plan to visit Dolly Sods. Group sizes are limited to no more than ten, so our troop was split that way, but also we were carpooling because the climb from the valley to the top of Dolly Sods takes an unpaved forest road (#75) that makes it awkward to pass a car coming the other way. (Once on top it's not so bad.) We entered this map at the upper right.

Our first stop was at the 477-acre Nature Conservancy Preserve of Bear Rocks, just after cresting the top of the plateau. The name "Dolly Sods" evolved from the name of the emigrant German family that first grazed livestock there, "Dahle," and the local term for an open high-altitude meadow, a "sods."

There are various trails at Dolly Sods, both long and short, and backcountry camping is allowed with a permit.

Much of the plateau is at an altitude of about 4,000', so the winters are cold and the winds are harsh. Unsheltered areas contain many flag trees, stunted trees with branches only on the downwind side of the prevailing winds. But today, late in June, the weather was friendly.

On the first few trails we walked a short way in, losing a few feet of altitude. This small drop was enough to harbor different vegetative zones and plant species that were pointed out by our naturalists. I neglected to take pictures during this stretch of the journey.

Further south the terrain around the road was less windblown, and water had accumulated into various wet spots, ponds, and bogs. The climate has been compared to that of southern Canada. Here's a pond, but we didn't see any beavers.

Doll Sods was used as a target range during World War II, and this sign greeted us at a trailhead.

We went on anyway. Did I mention that the mountain laurel was stunning almost everywhere up here?

The path took us to a bog that could be entered on a short boardwalk and observation deck. Carnivorous sundew plants were common in the bogs and spectacular here.

A closeup. The shiny drops at the ends of the spines are sticky.

At the end of the day, heading back to Elkins, Joan and I decided to drop in unannounced at the Forks Inn. Although there was a flock of cars and trucks in the parking area they had room for us. We even sat out on the patio, the best place to relax with the green-carpeted mountains. In this photo Bickle Knob is prominent.

Tomorrow we'll head south for Day 2, at the Cranberry Glades and on several forest roads of the Monongahela National Forest.

Rockbridge and Rhododendron Cove State Nature Preserves

Saturday, October 25th, was a gorgeous fall day, even if it alternated between sunny and blue, then cloudy and gray, and sunny again as a front came through. The Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association, ONAPA, was sponsoring a guided hike at the Rockbridge State Nature Preserve.

Twice as many people showed up as had registered for this hike,

which would be led by Timothy (Tim) Snyder, author of Rainbows of Rock, Tables of Stone. In this photo Tim is introducing us to some of the geological history of this region of Ohio, at our first rest stop. The initial climb makes you breathe harder, but it's not intimidating. 

The trail was well marked; anyone can walk it on his or her own. Stay on it.

About an hour after setting out we reached the bridge. This is my initial view of it, the largest rock bridge in Ohio.

We were treated a talk by Tim about the geological processes that formed the bridge, the erosion of a softer layer of sandstone sandwiched in-between two harder layers, by water entering through cracks in the top layer.

We took the trail down to the base of the bridge.

Everybody with a camera, be it a cellphone or an SLR, was compelled to take a picture of this sight.

Many of us continued the short distance to the Hocking River and its flood plain, host in centuries past to canal boats and railroads that would disgorge tourists to picnic on the rock bridge. Curiously, once these forms of transportation disappeared from the Hocking River, the memory of the rock bridge also vanished until more modern times. 

As we passed the rock bridge on our return ascent, Joan and I, among others, crossed the bridge, almost 100 feet long, whose width varies from 6 to 20 feet.

A wider view of the elevated passage.

In this farewell view, you can clearly see some slump blocks that fell to the ravine floor behind the bridge.

On the returning loop there is a spur for a second loop, the Rock Shelter loop. Well, why not? The sun was out and the day must be taken to full advantage.

The rock shelter and its slump blocks, perhaps a future rock bridge in the making:

On the rock shelter trail we encountered only four other hikers, two groups of two. This was a huge change from the three dozen, not all of our group, at the rock bridge.

After following the loop that caps the rock shelter trail we began our return to the main trail. At our closest approach to the Hocking River there was a good sitting log, where we ate our snacks and peeked between the trees at passing watercraft.

We rejoined the main trail. Near the parking lot a trail section prone to sogginess is covered by a boardwalk, which undulates in spots.

It was not yet 1:30, so Joan and I went on by ourselves to another hike, Rhododendron Cove, a state nature preserve just a few minutes back up Rte. 33.

The trail at first is a wide, flat mowed strip that begins between a natural gas pumping station and the public parking area.

The trail veers left and begins to climb, where the trailhead truly begins, with an information station,

and a dedication plaque.

The trail then insists on a steep, aggressive climb to the top of the ridge. My heart was pumping by the time I reached the crest, but mercifully this section is not long. Near the top you pass through halls of stone.

At this time of year leaf litter is everywhere, and covers the trail. The visual landscape clues were usually sufficient for our eyes, but we were glad for the trail markers, some consisting of colored tape on trees, some of medallions on posts.

We paused to admire this somewhat out-of-focus katydid.

There were views of ravines and other ridges, but especially interesting were the rock formations.

Must come back at rhododendron blooming time. Also note the patch of ferns at the bottom of this photo.

The cove trail has its satellite trail, just as the rock shelter trail left from the rock bridge trail. Along this trail there was some golden glory.

There was also a tree trunk with long, narrow scars. Perhaps these were from a deer rubbing itchy velvet on its growing antlers? The marks are not symmetric enough to be bear clawing; anyway, black bears are unusual in this part of Ohio.

One of the passages was slick on our downhill return, aggravated by the leaf litter. Fortunately there were walls to touch.

Joan and I ended our hiking day well satisfied that we had not wasted this precious late-autumn day. And we did a good turn, in that we carried a deceased mylar balloon and busted pair of sunglasses out of Rhododendron Cove.