Pierce Creek - New Trail!

I was on the road early to meet-up with Jo from our BCH Chapter & Rick, the Ranger at Pierce Creek.  The plan was for Rick to show us the route of a new trail through the timber that has been at the top of Joyce's list for a while now.

Out across the great wide-open~

 Our BCH Chapter has offered to help cut in the trail & Jo - as liaison between BCH & Rick - had scheduled our exploratory hike for today.  We've broken records for heat & humidity this week, I covered myself with bug spray & Rick lead the way - looking for the yellow caution tape that he'd used in March to mark a probable route.

Rick leads the way~

 This may look easy - but believe me - it was pretty rugged going.  I had weeds, briars, gooseberry, etc.. up to my shoulders.  Every so often Rick would stop & ask Terry & I if we could spot the next ribbon?  Terry beat me to it almost every time!

Ribbon!

This one was one of the easier to spot - Rick said that as he'd marked - he made sure he could see from one ribbon to the next.  But given Iowa's climate & the amount of undergrowth - it was quite a task.

Pointing out the hunting blinds~

Along the south boundary of the timber - the adjoining private landowners have put hunting blinds - these woods have some nice sized deer as Farah & I have found out!

Low spot~

 We're working to avoid & go around the low spots.  I asked if they got wet in the Winter months & was told that it's usually spring.  I was thinking of the more moderate winters of Western, WA!

Deer trail~

In places we could just pick out the deer trail & will be following it where we can.  Once BCH goes in & weed whacks, cuts back etc., Terry will drive in the skid-steer with a huge brush hog on the front & widen things out.  Here - the goal is a ten-foot width - so the trails can be mowed down through the summer months.

Which is which?

 I enjoyed Ricks incredible knowledge of the plants & trees.  He pointed this tree out to me & asked if I knew what the vines were.  At first I only saw one, but soon realized that there were two.  The one on the left that looks almost like a part of the tree bark is Poison Ivy.  The other is Virginia Creeper.

Poison Ivy!

Rick informed me that there are at least 3 different varieties of Poison Ivy & that contrary to popular belief, it will burn you even in the Winter months when the leaves have fallen off the vine.

Attached to the tree bark~

The little roots in the photo above show you how tight it attaches to the trees.  I'm glad I wore gloves lasts year when I was pulling vines out of the Walnuts along our back yard - because now I'm sure it was Poison Ivy.  I'd always pictured it as the low-growing shrub variety - not these long tree attaching vines!  We hiked up where we could see the east fence line before going back onto the established trails to return to our trucks.

My shirt~

 We were all covered with burrs!  I had them in my hair, on my jeans & my t-shirt was more burr than cloth!  We had quite a laugh at ourselves :-)  I couldn't even put my arms down to my sides without getting poked on my drive back to Glenwood!  Butch was home for lunch when I walked in & I don't think he wanted me in the house!  I used some of Farah's Show Sheen to get them out of my hair!

Our hike~

Above is what my GPS recorded.  The top about 1/2 was existing, but the south side is where the new trail will go.  It will go further to the east & north - almost to the perimeter fence all the way around.  Since our hike was just under two-miles - it should add at least that to the existing trails.

pre-existing trails~

It's hard to tell from the two routes - but my next trip there I'm going to ride everything that's in the Timber now & overlay it onto the hike we took today.  I really enjoyed the morning - one of my favorite things is exploring new trail & it's been a long time!