Autumn Days

Welcome Autumn!

 

12-of-12: September 2011

I wasn't sure I'd complete my 12-of-12 today.

I spent much of the morning doing a brick (bike/run) workout, so I was tired.
Plus, I was all "snapped" out from taking pictures at the Dirty Girl Mud Run on Saturday (click here to see those).
Plus, it's Monday, and I didn't really have anywhere "special" to go... until I decided to take my puppy-girl for a walk in the park.

Sprague Brook Park in Glenwood, NY is a gem.
It's huge.  It's beautiful. And, most days, it's so peaceful.

Today was no exception.

Being a Monday, we had the trails almost entirely to ourselves.  We walked along at a leisurely pace and tried to capture some of the unique aspects of "our woods".  Here's what we found...

Eastern Newt

Coral Fungus

"Thumb Tack" Mushrooms

Cute & Fuzzy Fungi

First Fallen Leaves

Trooping Funnel

Mossy North Side

I hope you enjoyed your walk in the woods with us.  Come back next month when the leaves promise to be in their full Fall splendor!

Thanks, Chad Darnell, for starting the 12-of-12 Project!

Dirtiest 5K to date

I'm kind of surprised that I'm still awake...

Yes, it's only 8:00pm, but it's been a busy day.

A DIRTY day, too.

Today was the Dirty Girl Mud Run!

3.1 miles of mud, sweat, and obstacles... made for an AWESOME good-time!

So here we are... all pretty and clean... ready to run... 

Me and my sister

Team Brave Tarts

3000 women... need many port-o-potties

We're all checked-in... it's time to RUN!

... and then the obstacles begin...

(apologies for any of the low-res photos... 
I was using a throw-away camera during the run - to catch ALL the Dirty Girl action!)

The Barn Burner

Water Pit

The Wall (highest section is 8' tall)

Blurry action-shot, on the trail

Tire Pump

... then a little more running...

The weather was nicer than it looks here

... then back to obstacles!

Utopian Tubes

What?!  More running??

Slip-n-Slide

Cargo-net climb

Me, snapping a photo of Jamie (pink shirts)

My photo of Jamie!

Finally... we arrive at the finish line...

 What an amazing day... this run was all about fun... and it exceeded all my expectations.

I can't wait till next year!

Extra special thanks to my Dad, for being our team-photographer at the start/finish lines.  He took a bunch of great shots with my Digital SLR. 

12-of-12: August 2011

What a day!

We had a plan (picked out a couple good geocaches to go after) 

and then our plans got all turned around.

But that didn't seem to matter, we had a great time and took some amazing shots!

We also broke the rules for the 12-of-12 this month...

Two of us were snapping photos (the hubby and I).

We took a TON of shots (171 for the day)...

  and we couldn't edit them down any further.

So we figured, since we're making up our own rules today....

  and since there were two of us, you get 24 photos!  :)

If you want to get more info on the 12-of-12, 

visit Chad Darnell's site, he's the one who started this fun little project.

So where did we go and what did we do?

We spent this afternoon "lake hopping" around New York's Southern Tier.  

We traveled through Cattaraugus & Allegany Counties, at first looking for geocaches... 

then just looking for cool places to visit.

BTW... for each photo below, you can see a full-size version by clicking on it.

To hunt our first cache, we stopped at the Harwood Lake MUA (Multiple Use Area).  Harwood Lake is a 34-acre man-made lake used for flood control in Cattaragaus County.  The website says there are mowed paths... but except for this first entry into the park... there wasn't much mowed.

Trail?

Once beyond the tunnel of brush, we found this guy...

Eastern Kingbird

The nicely mowed trail soon ran out...

I'm 5'4... these Joe-Pye Weeds were HUGE!

And we could no longer see a path to the cache we sought.  

So, we bushwhacked through the tall weeds till we came to an opening...

and found Harwood's Meadow

A gentle Monarch Butterfly

and Bumble Bee

on thistle

What's this?! A dog on a bale?

loving the tickle of the grass

... finally arriving at Harwood Lake!

The skies weren't really than ominous - just the clouds playing tricks.

  We had blazing sun not moments before the 1st photo was taken.

From here, we visited Lime Lake in Machias, NY.  The lake is almost entirely inaccessible to non-homeowners, so we were only able to catch a glimpse of the area.
Be sure to view the full-versions of these next three shots... SO MUCH DETAIL you don't want to miss!

Dragon Fly

Lily with Honey Bee

Two bees or not two bees

 We skipped the geocache in Lime-Lake, thus ending our caching plans.  

So we pulled out our trusty map and said "Where should we go next?"

then... "Hey! What's this place???"

We had found the Hanging Bog Wildlife Management Area

... and off we went.

On our way, we met these beauties...

... then we arrive!

 Hanging Bog Wildlife Management Area, New Hudson, NY

Look closely at the letters of this sign...

What's a Hanging Bog, you ask?

 After parking the car, we walk over to the bog.

About a million frogs go flying into the water as we approach (I'm not kidding).

The Hanging Bog

Bog Frog - got one!

Lily Pads

We wandered around the bog for a bit, then decided it was time to head for home.

This last shot is of Rushford Lake in Rushford, NY.  

It's another lake that is hard to get to unless you own lakefront property in the area.  

But if you take Slusher Hill Road out of Hanging Bog WMA, you'll get this awesome view.

Rushford Lake

 

That was our final stop of the day - our lake-hopping adventure coming to an end.  

Thanks for sharing our 12th with us.  Come back next month and see what we're up to then!