Winter Hiking

The day after Thanksgiving is a very good day to go hiking, especially, if you eat like we do! We rarely go hiking in the winter, but I have to say that I really enjoyed this trip. We were back at Lewis Hollow Trail, one of my favorite trails to hike. Despite the fact that it is straight up, there is a prize at the top: Skylight Cave. My pix today are of "mast". Do you know this word? Is it commonly used where you live?




These are hickory nuts, or rather the shells of hickory nuts left by a squirrel or other creature in the woods. Acorns, hickory nuts, beachnuts, etc. are all considered "hard mast". Mast is any fruit or nut used as a food source by wildlife. Around here, we think of it mainly in the winter. It is the food source for bear, deer, and other mountain wildlife that gets them through the winter. An example of soft mass would be persimmons and berries. From these pix, I would think that our mountain critters will be eating high on the hog this winter season. I hope so. The bears of course will settle into a den for a nap, but they have to forage for mast before they hibernate, and get fattened up before they sleep. Some years we will hike and hardly see any signs of mast. We saw very few acorns, but they could have been gathered before our hike. I did see a few on a beautiful moss-covered rock that had been the banquet of a squirrel or chipmunk.




The last time we hiked Lewis Hollow Trail, part of a bridge had been built across a dry creek bed. It was finished this trip. The drought has caused many of our mountain streams to disappear. I guess someone has faith that we will have our lovely creeks again some day.




Baby stalactites in Skylight Cave.