Some Like it Hot

If you're someone who likes it hot, then San Antonio, Texas, would be right up your alley. Early morning temperatures in the summer are 82° degrees. Today, the high is expected to be 99° with a 20% chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. When you plan to do an 11K (6.8 mi.) walk in the mid-summer Texas heat, it's best to start early.

I was up at 5 a.m. with a plan to start my Volksmarch in the Broadway neighborhood by 7 a.m. Didn't happen, but I did make it by 8 a.m. (It is said, the pathway to somewhere hot is lined with good intentions.)

If you like it hot, then the Broadway Daily Bread Company would be a good place for you to get your morning coffee and some pastry while it's fresh. That was the start point of the walk.

Thankfully, this walk spent about 80% of the time in the deep shade of old live oaks or on park walking trails. Having long morning shadows helped too.

The walk started by going around the block behind the bakery in a stately old neighborhood, through a small shopping center, past HEB's Central Market and onto the campus of University of the Incarnate Word. The university is getting ready for new student orientation on August 19. Construction workers, early new arrivals with their parents, and those preparing for the arrival of new students were out and about on campus today. It wasn't very crowded.

Photos at University of the Incarnate Word:

Cemetery at the University.

Beautiful iron bridge.

Do you think maybe the mascot at this university might be a cardinal??

This cardinal was nice enough to strike a pose.

Cardinal sculpture at Benson Stadium.

A meditation maze on the side of a footpath.

Below is a photo of St. Brigid's Oak, a live oak tree that is approximately 600 years old, dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare (451-525 AD).

Live oak (Quercus virginiana)

Fall???

"In Celebration of Children's Play," by Joe and Betty Frost.

"Classmates," by Paul Tadlock

1881 school insignia in walkway.

Below is the lovely Jordan Carillon Clock Tower. I got to hear it play music at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Jordan Carillon clock tower.

Stained glass as seen from inside the clock tower.

Another perspective.

George Washington Brackenridge Villa with sculpture.

From the university, the walk took me down Broadway just past the Witte (pronounced witty) Museum and into Brackenridge Park. I love walks in Brackenridge Park on tree-shaded trails. Here are photos of the park and surrounds.

Gate to the Witte Museum grounds.

The start of the San Antonio River.

Turtles sunning.

A photo from the old days taken in the San Antonio River.

The restaurant below looks like good place to eat. We'll have to try it. It's called Bombay Bicycle Club Grille.



Next destination in Brackenridge Park: the Chinese/Japanese Tea Garden. This garden is built on the site of an old quarry. Don't you just love all the rock work?

The Japanese Garden waterfalll

Japanese Garden Pavilion

The pond surrounded by rock work and filled with koi.

Koi polloi.

Another koi.

Lotus blossoming.

Lotus blossoms.

Pavilion.

So, I'm walking along the trail toward the San Antonio Zoo. Off to my left, I see a wooden enclosure with two furry critters in it. At first I think it's a rabbit pen in the middle of nowhere. Didn't make sense. So I zoomed in and found that someone is feeding stray cats here. One of the cats spooked when I turned on my camera and beat feet out of there, but I was able to get a photo of one of them.

Stray cat feeding station.

Agave in bloom.

Dragonfly on water lily pad.

Water lily in bloom.

On the opposite side of the river people and their kids were feeding the ducks. The two youngsters below were as still as stone. I almost missed them. But when I zoomed in I realized they were ducklings. Beautiful!

The pattern of falling water.

Wilderness Trail in Brackenridge Park.

Grass seed pods in morning light.

I did this walk by myself. Even though it took two hours and 45 minutes
(because of all the stops to take photos) to do 6.8 miles, it didn't
feel near that long because of all the things to look
at. When I'm out walking I'm always glad I got out and did it. It's so easy to stay inside in the air conditioning and watch movies, read magazines and blogs, but it's essential for me to exercise and enjoy the natural world. This particular walk is an excellent one to do on a summer morning. I like it hot, but I also like shade.

Travel Bug out.

The end.

Finally wonderful, Pt 2

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). The bloodroots are almost two weeks late this year, due to cold weather.

I haven't tackled moss identification yet. This is a common one here.

Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata). Most of them are still not open yet.

First damselfly of the season. They are frustratingly difficult to identify.

Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis). You know it's a late spring, when the hepatica aren't open til after mid-March. I've found them blooming in January and February, most years.

The beavers are out in force and at it again.
Yesterday was decidedly not wonderful (got colder, rained all day). And snow flurries this morning! I think the wonderful is due to return tomorrow, though.

The wonderful thing about Tiggers

Tigger melons.
They don't have a ton of taste, but they sure do look cool. I believe they originated in Armenia, and they're allegedly sweeter if grown in a dry climate. The seeds came from Baker Creek, the same company I mentioned before.

Camping a la Murphy's Law

We sure had a great time at Seaside Beach... once we got there on our last day. My, my... the RV rookies, Dad and Mom, sure climbed a steep learning curve throughout our camping trip, but they persevered, stubborn as they are, and also met some really nice "advanced" folks, who literally saved their butts (so we could get out and play finally!) Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that we drove to Fort Bragg near Mendocino - normally about a 3-hour drive, in four hours. Not bad. Mom drove/towed the trailer and did okay, maybe due to the fact that she used to drive horse trailers a lot in younger days. We found our spot at Mackerricher State Park - beautiful - and Mom backed right in. They leveled the camper just fine, but couldn't uncouple because the ball was frozen to the hitch (Dad forgot to grease the ball). So we set up camp a little and after dinner for both us and MomDad, we took a little walk down a nice boardwalk towards the sea and saw some cool fluffy ground squirrels I just wanted to chase so bad! Not to be, so back to our site for bed cause we were all very tired. At 3 a.m., we all woke up to a shrill beeping sound - the CO monitor was making a disturbingly loud noise. Dad told us all to get out and finish up our sleeping in the Jeep. He grabbed the car keys and pushed the panic button by mistake (headlights flashing brightly, horn honking loudly). And he couldn't get it to stop. After morning showers close by, Dad ran into a very generous camper with 30 years' RV experience. He fixed us all up, teaching my parents how to fire up their generator for power (the CO monitor had simply lost power; the whole 12-volt system had died). He helped us uncouple the jeep from the trailer and re-level it properly. He got the hot water heater to function and lots more stuff. Dad and Mom were armed for the rest of the trip (well... sort of) but extremely grateful. Anyway, we got to play, visit some friends for a dinner out, see some sea lions, run around on beaches and walk around a pretty lake. Here's a little movie of part of the "path" around Lake Cleone - a rickety boardwalk!

If you want to check out the longer movie of the Sea Lions feeding at the Fort Bragg wharf, you can catch it here. And below is a little slideshow of some of the things we did and places we went.
And a little hint about Part II! See Ya!

Teeth

The leaves of honey bush look dangerous to touch, but aren't.

Silliness

Some would say that it's silly to ride 173km over two mountains with a total of over 2,400 metres of climbing in the middle of the summer heat in Queensland. After yesterday I'd probably agree with them. That said, I'd probably do it all again exactly the same way. It was obvious fairly early that it was going to be a hot day, and the delay in having to detour around a triathlon course probably didn't help things. Nevertheless, I managed to make reasonable, if not spectacular progress through the gorge to Canungra, and up the old winding road to O'Reillys.

The road winding up the mountain has a gentle gradient for about 15km, and a lot of old-world charm. Personally, I think narrow winding roads like this should be heritage-listed and never altered in anyway beyond basic maintenance. In other words, f*ck the hoons. The fact that a few of them wipe themselves out there isn't necessarily a bad thing, and certainly no reason to destroy a part of our heritage.

Of course, the forest at the top where the gradients steepen has as much charm as the road has character, with all sorts of creatures calling it home. There was mild frustration at the picnic ground at the top -- with "improvements" making water refills difficult. It was virtually all downhill back to Canungra, but the temperature rose by 16 degrees C in little over an hour on that descent.
In Canungra I had a decision, do I ride home the normal way, and possibly forego a century and the back climb of Beechmont on account of the heat (it was 34 degrees C at this stage), or do I just climb it anyway. I opted for the latter option. The western climb of Beechmont is much harder than the front road. It's gradients are steep and it sees little breeze. Early on it wasn't such a problem, but the kick near the Marian Valley monastery was a killer. I made it, just. I've had some great times up on Beechmont Plateau, but I've never been so glad to reach the summit as I was on this sweltering afternoon.

I now had to ride the familiar roads across the plateau to Lower Beechmont, before the descent back to the coast. The trouble was that my legs were toast after the last climb, and with the northerly blowing like crazy on the mountain, I really had to take my time. Fortunately, the scenery provided plenty of compensation for that.

The final descent back to the coast, and even the final 15km from Nerang were strangely quiet. Not that I was complaining about this fact. Somehow I found the power to finish the ride strongly, before heading straight for a cold shower on my return. I know I made plans to destroy summer this year, but it's going to be a little more difficult than I thought. Still, this gives me century number three for the month (and year), and takes my total climbing above 12,000 metres. Next stop, Crows Nest next weekend.

Mountain Men Rendezvous

This week has been the Mountain Man Rendezvous at the Western Historic trails Center. I stopped by there yesterday morning after breakfast to check it out.
Since it was relatively early in the morning, there were not many visitors. One of the vendors was cooking up breakfast. Of course, I had already had mine. Visited with one of the "Mountain Men). we is a VietNam vet. Had a good conversation.
In the afternoon I was back one the bike. A few more visitors of the gathering. Since it was mid-afternoon, I was getting a little hungry. In I was in the 4-corners area. Kept seeing signs about "frybread".
Had never tried it. Since they had some at the rendezvous, I just had to try it. What I got was much like a large, flat doughnut. The "bread" was sprinkled with sugar. Washed it down with lemonade. Got my sugar fix for the ride back.