Sunday morning, praise the dawning

Sunday dawned hot and muggy so I assumed that any enthusiasm for the morning's Old Forest nature hike would be wiped out by the triple-digit weather forecast.

But I'm always happy to have an excuse to walk in the woods whether anyone else shows up or not, so I found a shady spot on the Lick Creek bridge to admire the scenery and limber up my sweat glands.

People often ask me to describe the meeting spot for our nature hikes, so I finally remembered to take a photo. Here 'tis:

During my fifteen-minute wait time, I said hey to ten intrepid (possibly insane?) runners, six people ambling at a nice sensible speed, three dogs walking their people, and five cyclists -- a surprisingly high tally for weather that felt more like a submarine boiler room than anything natural.

I was even more surprised when fifteen smiling people showed up for my hike. Good grief! What kind of human would happily go hiking in a subtropical forest in 100+ weather?!?

The totally awesome kind.

Stacey hung out at the back of the line with her family. We always have a rear guard to make sure nobody escapes.

That's why Stacey got to see all the best bugs.


Those kids of ours will be guiding CPOP nature hikes before too long. If you have any budding naturalists in the house, bring 'em on! Our next hike is Saturday, August 9, 10am to 11:30am. That's our meeting spot up there at the top of this post.

And speaking of raising nature-loving kids, check back tomorrow for an excellent guest post on that topic.