Pretty, but not popular as they are bossy, noisy, and drive off the other birds. This one happened to arrive as I was sitting on the sofa in the ‘Sparkle Zone’ cup of tea in hand, and my camera within reach.
Unused pencil and old plans – While the pencil remains unused, the plans at least have been implemented with the completion of the storage area in the garage in 2019. +2
How many journals do you need? I’d say three binders holding a total of seven notebooks. That’s what you can see here, and each has a purpose. Two-minute read, +2
Tree Frog – it was tiny! Not much over an inch long, laying on one of the wooden boards of the screen on the deck.
Storm clouds over Ozark – checking on the radar, the storm was nine miles away over Ozark.
View to the southeast from the Pilot Trail, and the hike out. One-minute read
Fire ring and campsite – I showed Ginger a little scenic overlook on a hidden trail. It looks like someone has been making themselves at home on the short trail leading to the overlook.
Ginger disappearing around a corner on the Pilot (Tower) Trail
Small spring and creek near ‘Ant Hill’ – The spring we found can be seen right at the bottom of the frame. The water was pouring out of a small one to one-and-a-half-inch hole in the bank. +3
Sunday Morning at ‘Ant Hill’ – We put most of our gear away after breakfast, leaving the tarp up in case it rained — it did, but only a few sprinkles. We sat around chatting and looking at the trees until noon, when we packed away the last of our gear and headed back to the trailhead. +3
Saturday evening, camped on ‘Ant Hill’ – We called this place ‘Ant Hill’ because of the huge number of carpenter ants. We couldn’t decide if the ants killed the trees or they moved in because the trees died.
Ginger’s new tent – we splurged a lot of cash on an ultralight (24oz) Dyneema tent. Now Ginger or the kids can come out with me. +1
Flowering Prickly Pear Cactus. +1
Gary & Ginger at the Pole Hollow Cairn – I know how to treat Ginger to a good time, I made sure she had plenty of exercise, time to relax, and her own room with a forest view. One-minute read, +1
Back to the start and some notes – From here there is just a short thirty-minute hike, south, down the Ozark Trail to get back to the trailhead. That’s it, trip over, though there’s still the two-hour drive home to complete.
Only two or three miles left to go.
The view from my chair – Stereo image.
And very tall trees too.
Trees, trees, and more trees.
Lunch break, and I’m showing a bit too much thigh – I had a choice of routes to take today. The short route takes the North Fork Loop east back to the Ozark Trail, where I could get back to the trailhead. The longer route goes south, and into the Devil’s Backbone Wilderness, and returns to Highway CC via the McGarr Ridge Trail. One-minute read