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:
-
C
anada Mayflower -
Foam Flower
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Dwarf Ginseng
- Several kinds of violets including Canada Violet (the tall white ones with the purple on the back)
-
Mayapples
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Fringed Polygala (a.k.a. Gay Wings)
-
White Baneberry
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Blue Phlox
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Wild Geranium
-
S
weet Cicely -
Star Flower
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Miterwort
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Golden Saxafrage
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Painted Trillium
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White Trillium
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Red Trillium
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Yellow Clintonia
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Solomon’s Seal
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False Solomon’s Seal
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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
A Passion for Nature 
even your great pictures don’t do the absolute riot of wildflowers justice, they were worth the walk up that hill!!
Ouch! I guess I’ll never live that one down!
~Sleeping Bagless Sue
Looks like such a wonderful time! Love backpacking in Allegany!
Quite the list for just one day. I have a hard enough time iding all of the birds I see, much less wildflowers and insects.
Nice close-up of that beetle. The wildflower list is quite impressive.
Great flowers! It wouldn’t be much a trip without someone missing something important, right? 🙂
Adam, you are my new best friend!
~Sleeping Bagless Sue
What a fabulous adventure! Great flowers, though we must say that the beetle was simply glorious. Look at those colors! And the idea of LASSes is a great one. Way to go embracing the adventurer’s spirit!
Looks like you LASSes are ready for anything!
I hope that beetle photo wasn’t actual size??
I wish I could have had your expertise on the plants I was seeing on my hike on Saturday. I’m so botanically-challenged! BTW, this idea for the LASS is great!
Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beetle like that. Do you know what it is? Am using excerpts on northcountrytrailnews.blogspot.com and linking over to you. Great stuff!
OK.. it might be a flathead apple tree borer http://utextension.tennessee.edu/publications/spfiles/SP503-I.pdf
Chrysobothris femorata
Definitely does look like a Buprestid as you suggest. How big was it? Probably smaller than I’m thinking after I look at the background more carefully.