Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

[sorcyress]

jere7my and I went on a long bike ride today (my longest yet, I wound up doing 37 miles today!) as a celebration of the beautiful weather and that I have a working bike again¹.The plan was to bike along the Minuteman Bike Path until I got tired, which backfired in that I was ridiculously full of energy and pretty much...didn't. So we reached the end of the path, and sat and rested, and were debating going back.

"Well", says j7y, "If we go about two and a half miles thatway, we'll get to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, which is very pretty. We can rest and hike and stuff." I was mega up for adventure, and so go there we did! It turned out even better than expected, because not only was it utterly beautiful, the path there had moguls (awwwwwwwesome!) and there was ALL THE WILDLIFE!

Like, I am not normally a super-squeeful animal person, but jere7my is good at bringing out the nature lover in me. And because I had brought my camera and he hadn't, I was in charge of taking photos on the trip, which I did with great zeal. I believe at one point he declared me "Almost as much of a menace with a camera as I am".²

In addition to the frog above, we saw muskrats, great blue herons, red-winged blackbirds, a black snake, and more!


The path was mostly a long and narrow route in the midst of a giant lake of lilypads. At one point, the path had flooded out, and we had to go on a little bridge. We're standing there, admiring the lilys, when I look across and see these guys just sitting there, chilling. Not even ten feet away.

On the way back, the babies were diving for food right next to the bridge. I bent down and shot this from close enough to touch them. Huzzah for super-placid animals --they are way more photogenic. ;D





Much later on the path, right before I chased (and utterly failed to photograph) the muskrat, I saw these guys out in the water on a muskrat house. I _love_ the blue on the big duck's wing.

jere7my mentioned about halfway through that he had never been to the refuge without seeing at least one turtle. So when we were done and almost back (standing out on a little dock overlooking the lilypads.) it was getting worrisome that we hadn't seen any. We almost turned back when I spotted the first one and pointed it out to him, from there, we saw probably six or seven painted turtles, and what looked to be a snapper!



This guy was obliging enough to play peek-a-boo for us, diving under the lilys and emerging long enough for me to snap a great series of photos.

Part of why I took so many pictures was when we first got to the dock, early on the little hike, I spotted a frog way in the middle of a batch of lilypads. "Okay!" says I. "I have only had this camera since Christmas. The light is bright sunlight. Let's see what she can do!"

What she can do is the photo above the cut. That was my camera zoomed completely in, including the digital zoom (which I ordinarily never use and am going to have to revise my opinion of.) I was extremely pleased.

Can you spot the frog when the camera is all the way zoomed out?



It was an extremely satisfying diversion. Our total hike was under a mile and a half, and the whole thing was set among flowers and cattails and small children who got excited when we pointed turtles out to them. If you're local and have a bike, I definitely recommend the trip. The Minuteman path is unfairly beautiful, and the wildlife refuge lives up to its name.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: So I don't think I ever mentioned it, but Blaise broke. The brake cable snapped, and that was basically the end of that. I was looking at about 200 dollars worth of repair for a bike I paid 50 bucks for, and it was kinda one of those "I'll just save up for a new bike then, shall I?".

Then my parents decided that as an early-birthday-gift, they would get me a bike, and I was very excited and went shopping and now I have a biiiiiiike! Her name is Elanor Draper, she is dark silvery-grey, and she is amazing.

2: If you ever go hiking with jere7my --which I recommend, he is good at spotting animals and interesting things, and a good conversationalist, and enjoys beautiful green spaces-- he will stop about every five minutes to photograph mushrooms. It is completely hilarious, and very endearing, as long as you are not the kind of hiker who wants to go go go.

PostScript: As an aside, whenever I post bunches of photos from an event or something, it's usually worth clicking through to my flickr --I almost always post more there than I do here.

Comments

FROG!! :D

[harena]

Yayayayay, Frog on Lilypad! It's right up there in the Eeeeeeee Department with a treefrog on leaf with impish B in the background! :D

And wow, 37 miles! You totally rock the bicycle, DarlySor! i think our max has been 20-30 miles but then we don't have a handy-dandy wildlife refuge to lure me on! i am very much a nature person (ahahah, you totally din't know that, i am so very sure ;D) and i would dearly love to go hiking with jere7my because i always have an eye out for animals and interesting things! And everyone always go go go's way too fast for me when i'm exploring nature, so i am thinking you were quite spot-on all that time ago when you said you felt he & i would get on pretty well (yayayay, mondo run-on sentence!). Durst i put "B/Hiking with jere7my" on my To-Do list or is that just a Plain Giddy Irresponsible Ferret dream?


Did i mention, "Eeee, Frog!!"?

Re: CaIISnEDNeYdHlTlMQX

[harena]

i totally blame this bit of spam on Davy (Alaska connection and all) *nod*

[notyourwendy]

I much prefer hiking of the 'nature walk' variety rather than the 'get to the end as soon as we can' variety, both because I am not a particularly fast hiker and because there are too many neat things out there to look at and I might miss something and what's the point of being in a hurry in the woods on a nice day anyway?

Note: I also stop to take pictures of mushrooms. Because they are awesome.

[macaroniandtuna.livejournal.com]

$200 to replace a brake cable?! Whoever told you that was trying to rip you off.

Hooray for outdoor adventures! I too had one yesterday, which I'll post about later.

[whimmydiddle.livejournal.com]

From what Ive heard of the bike, that was probably just the first item on a long lIst.


Sounds/looks like a great bike adverse. congrats on 37 miles!

Now let's have photos of Elanor!

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I keep meaning to take them, but a picture of the bike without me on it is a little silly, and my camera's self-timer isn't good enough for me to do it myself. But yes! They are coming!

~Sor

[whimmydiddle.livejournal.com]

"... A pucture of my bike without me on it is a little silly..."

Not.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Full replacement of brakes and gears, and the actual number was probably closer to 160-180ish. This discussion was before the cable even actually snapped, and was with someone who I trust, and who people I trust trust. Blaise was an ambiguously old crappy mountain bike I got secondhand after she'd been sitting for n years, she was never tuned, and I did not treat her well. I'm not shocked by these numbers.

~Sor

[macaroniandtuna.livejournal.com]

Ah. That's much more reasonable.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Oh, thank goodness - there was no mention of a turtle, and part of me was thinking "are you sure it was j7y you were hiking with?" and then there it was, a photo of a turtle, and all was right with the world.