Today I went hiking, but not in the state park. I tried the county park, which is nearby. It was great! It has a much bigger trail system and much fewer people. I walked for long periods without running into other hikers. I'm not sure that's totally good, but it was a break from the crowds. I saw enormous boulders, a carpet of moss, a rushing river with waterfalls, small and large ferns, a group of birch trees, and a great blue heron. I also saw a corn field with corn plants coming up and a farmer baling hay with his baler and hay wagons.
The great blue heron was a nice sight. I even got a picture of it. It seemed like it was right there. However, in the picture, it looks a little far away. But still--a picture of the huge bird we've been seeing!
Even more interesting than the great blue heron were the ferns, especially the large ones, which looked about waist high (the large ones were visible from the trail, but actually getting up next to them would have taken some threading through the vegetation, and with Lyme disease prevalent in this area, I was reluctant).
I love ferns for their ancient lineage. When you see a fern, it's as if you're being transported back to some primordial ancient era of earth's natural history. I looked them up on the internet when I got back, and the internet says ferns date from the Carboniferous Period, prior to the dinosaurs. It was a time, the information said, when ferns were the dominant vegetation. There were even fern trees in that era, but flowering plants and pine trees had not yet arisen. Among other things, there were species of trilobites, cockroaches, the first sharks, fern trees, and ferns. What a fascinating feel it must have had!
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