A Passion for Nature

Day 1 – Wildflowers! May 26, 2009

The mighty LASSes (Ladies Adventure and Social Society) and a few of their lassies set for themselves a rugged challenge for Memorial Day weekend 2009:  to hike the section of the North Country Trail / Finger Lakes Trail that goes through Allegany State Park.

This hike would be shorter in distance than the last, but more rugged and stretched over more days – 4 days, 3 nights.

Due to a sleeping bag that went missing, we got a later start than we had hoped and had to hit the first steep mile in the heat of late morning.  I nearly passed out!  But a nibble on a PowerBar and a few sips of water and I managed to make the top of the hill.  Lunch at the top of the hill provided many miracles to reward us…

…including this beetle:

…and a view of a Hairy Woodpecker that kept going in and out of a hole that looked far to small for her to fit:

The theme for day one, though, had to be Wildflowers.  I’ll list some, but I’m sure I’ll have forgotten many:

• Canada Mayflower
• Foam Flower
• Dwarf Ginseng
• Several kinds of violets including Canada Violet (the tall white ones with the purple on the back)
• Mayapples
• Fringed Polygala (a.k.a. Gay Wings)
• White Baneberry
• Blue Phlox
• Wild Geranium
• Sweet Cicely
• Star Flower
• Miterwort
• Golden Saxafrage
• Painted Trillium
• White Trillium
• Red Trillium
• Yellow Clintonia
• Solomon’s Seal
• False Solomon’s Seal
• Bird’s Eye Speedwell
• Rosybells

“Stunning” seems too mild a word to describe the flowers we saw.  Not only were individual specimens large and healthy, but so were populations of them.  Some species, for example, were found in huge patches.  There was one rocky spring-fed area we crossed that had Miterwort intermixed with Jewelweed leaves cascading down the slope.

We were pretty beat by the end of the first day.  But a splash in the creek, a good dinner, a couple of Advil, an amazing night of sleep and I felt like a new woman.

Click –> Day 2