Rain - Day 267

  I got rained on big time today. I knew it was going to happen, but I can't just take every rain day off. Again, this is all new trail miles since I did this. In 1997, there was no trail at all, and we bushwhacked across here with map and compass. And we did not get lost!

The rain made everything sort of misty and otherworldly. I passed by a number of small lakes, each one beautiful. This is Lower Teepee.


An awful lot of the trail today was through regrowth after logging. The trail was pretty clear, but in the rain, the shrubby sides bend in and grab at you and dump even more water on you. Although, I guess after you are wet, you can't get wetter. That's the physics, but it feels extra wet every time you get slapped with a wet branch!


This grove of white birch was especially beautiful.


I really like this flower. It's whorled rosinweed. Looks a lot like a sunflower, but the genus is Silphium. It's hard to see in the picture, but the leaves are arranged in whorls of three around the stem. I like the dark stems and the shade of yellow- it's more true yellow than golden.


And I've been seeing, and been wetted by, a lot of this shrub. It's beaked hazelnut. This is not the hazelnut we eat or get flavorings from. That's a European species. But these are important food for wildlife.


I was really tired today, and I didn't do long miles. I hope that's from wet branches and wet pants, not a general wearing down. I have to do longer miles tomorrow.

Miles today: 14.1. Total miles so far: 3136.0.

See Hubbard County Forest