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That may be a record for getting "day" into a title. Today's the first of the (hopefully monthly) Daily Kos Day Hikes, so I dutifully tromped off this morning in 35 degree weather to follow through on my promised hike. Because it has been rainy here this week, I stuck to the trails at Mastodon State Historic Site, a small park only half a dozen miles from my house. In theory, that distance is short enough to hike to the park, but in practice it means walking along twisty, hilly roads that have neither shoulder nor sidewalk. I don't mind the walk. I do mind the threat of becoming a hood ornament.
So I drove to the park and started off under the cold grey overcast this morning along trails that look basically like this.
Limestone Hill Trail
The trail I was on isn't the most scenic. Basically it's a 3 mile loop up one side of a moderately steep limestone hill, with a few nice little bluffs and some valleys just a little too gentle to be called canyons. Mostly it's a hard-packed trail under trees that were logged out back in the 1950s, so you get a lot of oaks with about 1' diameter, and a good deal of understory trees.
By the time I made it back down to my car, large snowflakes were starting to drift down from that sky, accompanied by distant rolls of thunder. Even so, I took a shortcut through the woods (getting a scolding from a passing ranger) and went down the little less than a mile trail next to the museum just so I could have the fun of going down the crazy collection of stairs that the park system has attached to the side of a bluff.
Mastodon Park Bonebed Stairs
These stairs lead down to the bone bed where the first complete skeleton of a Mastodon was found, along with a couple of giant ground sloths, other Ice Age fauna, and the only evidence that Clovis people hunted Mastodons as well as Mammoths.
After making my way down the stairs and along the old bone bed, I went back up past the site's spiffy museum. Though, since they now charge $4 a visit, I didn't go inside to pay my respects to the Mastodon. In any case, the original is now in London at the British Museum of Natural History. The one still here is a cast from the original.
Mastodon State Historic Site Museum
By the time I got back to my car, the sky was being periodically slashed by purple webs of lightning and the thunder is really rocking. At the same time, the snow picked up enough to cover the ground with a fresh white blanket. Technically, it's still above freezing. Practically, it doesn't matter.
Thunder snow day
So, did you take a hike today?
Today's observations come from these locations
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