woods

The Coral Ridge Trail

/ Benn Bell / 4 Comments

Hiking in the Jefferson Memorial Forest

My favorite trail in the Jefferson Memorial Forest is the Coral Ridge Trail. It’s a little more challenging, a little longer, and a little rougher than some of the other trails. I only try it when I’m feeling my oats, and today I was feeling my oats.

View from the top of the ridge. In the winter you can see for miles.
It’s kind of hard to see the trail in some places but in other places like this one, there is a light dusting of snow on the trail that creates a bright white line through the woods you can follow.
I had to crawl through this mess to get to the other side to the trail.
A tree falls in the forest. Does it make a sound?
Snow accumulating on the fungus on a fallen log.

Here the trail opened up. The walking was much easier. The temperature went from 15 degrees to a glorious 25 degrees. I was trying out a new article of clothing that my daughter gave me for Christmas. it was a shirt that wicks the moisture away from your skin. Worked like a charm

OF SPIDERS AND WEBS

/ Benn Bell / 3 Comments

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

What is it about spider webs? You will be walking along the trail in the deep dark woods and on a sudden a web will strike you across the face or on your bare arms.

spider

Your startle response kicks into high gear. Why is that?

img00037-20100920-1504

Could it be because deep down on a cellular level you know where there’s spider webs there be spiders?

 

Snake Story

/ Benn Bell / 2 Comments

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Snake in my path

I met this guy a while back while taking a walk in the wild, wild woods. He looked  little poorly so I took him home to nurse him back to health. He gradually got better and one night after he was fully recovered we were sitting by the fire and he slithered over to me and bit me on the ankle.

“Why’d you do that?” I cried as I lay dying.

“You knew I was a snake when you brought me home, now didn’t you?”

The moral of the story is a snake is a snake and will always act like a snake and do the things that snakes do no matter what you say or do. Be careful this fall on election day not to vote for no snakes, especially orange headed vipers.