Training report (walk report)

Hello, everyone.

We were out of pocket for a few days, and didn't get as much walking in as we would have liked. We did, however, get a chance to visit Government Canyon State Natural Area outside of San Antonio, Texas. This park is really neat! And if you have gotten, and brought along, your Texas State Parks annual pass (plus photo ID) you get in free, too.

It's a little bit hard to find--there is only one entrance and it's near but not directly accessible from Loop 1604. Use your map skills to find the 90 degree bend in Galm Road, the spot with a traffic circle, and you're there.

We found a walking trail that was really excellent for walk training for the Camino: some slopes, plenty of rocks to step on or around, some flat surfaces, shade and sun mixed. (Estimated distance, round trip to the tracks, about 5 miles, give or take.) And, completely unexpectedly, the trail we walked goes to some fossilized dinosaur tracks.

 A small sample of the trail surface. It might look a little bit intimidating, but the rocks, even when loose, are not sliding shale pieces. They're relatively settled in their places. Just pick your feet up! Bike riders also use this trail--walking their bikes over the rougher rocky bits I think. Dogs are not allowed on the back side trails, but there are some flatter trails at the front, marked on the park map that are open to leashed pets to walk. Those trails are recommended for the younger set, too, being shorter and possibly easier for their little legs.

Some of the dinosaur tracks. I confess, I never in my life thought I would see this. There are at least three sets of tracks at the place they were found. These are the tracks from some kind of big four-legged creature that once walked on a silty beach. There are also some three-toed tracks that are described as "therapod tracks." The man we talked to at REI the next morning told us that the tracks were a complete surprise to everyone. The flash floods a year or two back exposed the bedrock where the tracks lie and gave park visitors a reason to walk a little farther than they might have. (It's not the shortest trail at the park.) There are cute little signs along the path telling the walker where to go and interpretive signage to assist the non-geologist to understand the sight.

One bit of warning about this park: if you depart at the time of the evening rush hour, when most people are leaving work and heading to their homes, you will be in a traffic jam. Just stay calm, match speed with the rest of the vehicles, and abide by the traffic signals. We turned right on Galm when leaving, crept along for a while, and then turned left at Culebra Road to get to Loop 1604. (Culebra is under construction, a project that looks to be adding another lane going each way, so the traffic jam at rush hour may ease somewhat by next year.) It's possible that going farther  around the traffic circle and retracing our earlier route on Galm to head back to Loop 1604 would have been easier, but it seemed like the traffic was almost equally busy both ways. Evening rush generally takes up about an hour or an hour and a half around the 5 pm to 6:30 pm time period, if one is wanting to plan the trip to avoid it.

The hours stated on the park entrance sign were Friday through Monday only, 7 am to 10 pm. If you choose to be there after the sunset time hits, you will certainly want a good flashlight. It is, after all, a natural trail only slightly improved for the visitors.

This n that

Hello, everyone.

I really wanted to post a picture of something I saw this morning, but the traffic was busy and there was nowhere to pull aside and often when you pull over to look at birds they flee. There is a good-sized pond (AKA "water hazard") at the city golf course that we pass going home from church. Today I observed 12 white pelicans, 1 white crane, at least 1 dark-gray anhinga (native cormorant species) and a large flock of whistling tree ducks. It is doubtful that all would have fit into the water at once. As was, the tree ducks were hanging out on the grass alongside.

Just for pretty, from the other day when it was misty and foggy in the morning:

The young red oak is coloring this year. And this spider web is highlighted so beautifully by the dew that it had to be photographed.

Go for a walk. Look around! You never know what you'll find

Hello, everyone.

Today we strolled down our own street, past the tall, untended hedge of oleanders, toward something we were curious about up the road.
As we walked, we looked around--and saw a completely unknown (to us) plant in the said oleander bushes.  It was a lush green (so green that I am surprised the cutter ants haven't taken it all!) leaf, with the veins all running from the base at the stem to the outside. And there were brown papery-skinned blobs on it, and fallen on the ground around it. It had already climbed most of the way to the top of the oldeander, too, and if you know oleander that isn't a mere 3 foot bush (1 meter for my metric zone readers) but more like a 12 to 20 foot one. (erm, 3 1/2 m to 6 m approximately)

Here are some photos of it (I love the camera in my new-ish Samsung Galaxy 5!)

DH held up the stem for it's glamour shot--see the baby bulbils on the stem

One that fell on the ground

We carried one home. It's on a 4 inch tile.

And I cut it open, too.

The first web search didn't help. That might be because the brown things weren't fruit. Who knew? But then I tried the old reliable Valley plants list. That turned up a possibility: Dioscorea_bulbifera.
When I searched again with this name, the pictures matched. It turns out this plant is one of the Evil Invasive Species of Florida! It can grow to 60 feet tall and overtake tall trees, killing them with the shade of its leaves, and reproduces wildly with the aid of its aerial bulbils.

It's also one of the yam family, and its tubers contain components that can be used in the manufacture of birth control pills. (Not that this has any bearing on anything, it's just interesting trivia.) Apparently it's cultivated in Panama, at least some varieties which are allegedly edible.

Encouraged by this info, I cut it in half and discovered that it does look like a potato inside. Hence its common name of Air Potato. And when I licked it, it did have a sort of bitter, pharmaceutical afternote. I don't think I'd like to eat it. Perhaps it would improve if  it were grated and flushed with plenty of water and then boiled. But we're not so desperate that we need to try such tricks. (And if we were, I'd try it with the acorns of our Chinkapin Oak instead. Flushing out the acorn tannins is actually something the North American Indians did to make oak acorns edible.)

So the thing I took away from this was, you never, never know what you will see on a walk. Even on on a paved, in-town road in your own neighborhood!