After all that hiking, it was nice to have a couple of days
off! I took it easy yesterday – went to the movies, did my grocery shopping,
etc. Today I was planning to go for a bike ride, on the Duncan Hollow road near
the campground. It was nice and cool out after having rained all night. I went
over there, started riding through the campground, and found I had taken the
wrong loop. As I was going up a hill on the way out, I went to shift from
middle gear into low “granny” gear – and nothing happened, just clicking. I got
to the top and tried again, in case it would work on flat ground. Still nothing
– and then the rear brake was sticking, and the wheel wouldn’t move!
I left the bike there and walked back to the car. When I got
back, I fiddled with the brake a bit and got it unstuck (I’m not sure what I
did, though…) The gear still wouldn’t work. I was so mad! I was all psyched up
for this ride! I headed back to the house, but I stopped at the East Rim
overlook. I wanted to at least do something.
I suppose I could have ridden just using middle gear, but I didn’t want it to
stop working and leave me stranded several miles down the road. Phooey!
The mountain laurel are starting to get very pretty!
It rained a lot last night, and some of the flowers were drooping a bit.
This strange alien creature is actually a single laurel blossom that had fallen and landed upside-down!
Two different types of oak trees. I'm thinking of doing a kids' program that would be sort of a scavenger hunt of finding different leaf shapes.
I hadn't realized before I read the geology information about the park, but because this area is all one big plateau that has been divided up by various rivers and streams eroding down, all of the hills out to the horizon are approximately the same height!
Sassafras! You can tell from the distinctive leaf shapes - there's a "mitten" shape, a double-thumbed mitten, or a simple lobe. You can also tell because the leaves have a sweet spicy smell if you crush them - that's where the flavoring for sarsaparilla comes from.
It rained a lot last night, and some of the flowers were drooping a bit.
This strange alien creature is actually a single laurel blossom that had fallen and landed upside-down!
Two different types of oak trees. I'm thinking of doing a kids' program that would be sort of a scavenger hunt of finding different leaf shapes.
I hadn't realized before I read the geology information about the park, but because this area is all one big plateau that has been divided up by various rivers and streams eroding down, all of the hills out to the horizon are approximately the same height!
Whatever this thing is still hasn't bloomed.
Sassafras! You can tell from the distinctive leaf shapes - there's a "mitten" shape, a double-thumbed mitten, or a simple lobe. You can also tell because the leaves have a sweet spicy smell if you crush them - that's where the flavoring for sarsaparilla comes from.
Chestnut oak - not to be confused with just chestnut. We do have a grove of chestnut trees near the campground, but they are very rare because most of them got killed by a blight.
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