another monday, another hike in the city

we are trying to make the monday night hike a regular event and this past monday, we went out to warner parks to hike on the warner woods trail, a 2.5 mile loop through percy warner park.

the trail system in the two parks is extensive. it goes from paved trails to bridle paths and primitive trails. there are also roads accessible by car allowing those unable to walk to see the sights and reach overlooks and picnic areas. the best part, we didn't have to leave the city limits to do this. we traveled 11.75 miles over to the west side of town from our house for a total of 23.5 miles round trip. a little farther than last weeks trip but as i said earlier, still within the city limits.

we didn't waste any time, we studied the map located in the deep well trailhead and we chose the warner woods trail. with water bottles in hand, we set off to get some much needed exercise and to explore a part of the park we had never been in before. we had been out here to this area of the park once for a guided wild flower walk and knew we would come back to explore some more. the start of the trail, the roots cut the path like a staircase and made descending the steep incline easy.

one of the many roads that go through the park. people also run and ride bikes on the paved roads.

it was a hot afternoon, at least 92 and humid. it was a little cooler in the park but not enough to prevent sweating.

just one of the many interesting trees we saw along the way

we also saw huge trees. darry stood in front of this one for scale but it still doesn't look as big as it could. we saw a few that were larger too.

in the center of this photo-twin fawns, mom was off to the side watching us to make sure we didn't get too close to her babies.

the only flower blooming in the park. there were a few of these around, but not many. summer is a time when the flowers tend to shut down and there aren't many blooms to see.

we encountered several of these benches on the trail. it must have been quite a job to get them out on the trails.

wild grape vines are all over

more wild grapes

and still some more

another randomly placed bench on the trail.

a most intriguing root system.

good thing we don't have bears around here!

the beginning of the incline out of buggy bottoms

darry spotted these mushrooms on an old persimmon tree.

they are shelf mushrooms and most likely inedible.

they have also released their spores-that whitish dust around them are the spores.