Hiking 2025

It is extremely unusual for me to start my hiking season so late. In a normal year, I'm hiking year-round. But this year and part of last, I developed some problems with my right foot. I'm not healed but I have found good footwear and insoles to help minimize the pain.

Norma, Daphne, and I did a short hike at Gorman Stream Valley Park starting from the Kindler Road Trailhead.

I was really hoping to see some snakes but we saw none. But did see other interesting things. The most unusual find was an acorn plum gall.
Acorn plum galls are caused by the gall wasp, and instead of forming on leaves or stems as most galls do, they form on the scaly cups of acorns.
Acorn plum galls are solid and juicy inside, and rather heavy for their size. Pictures on the Internet show cut-open ones with a single, white grub curled up in the gall's center, slowly eating the gall's tissue as it grows. Eventually the grub will metamorphose into a pupa, and then into a tiny adult gall wasp.
- from Backyard Nature - Acorn Plum Galls Falling
We crossed a narrow creek where Norma spotted a crayfish.
We saw almost nobody on the trails. But once we got to the Middle Patuxent River, we started seeing people. A couple was out with their water-loving dog who enjoyed retrieving a stick thrown into the water. Norma, Daphne, and I made our way down to the river a little downstream of them. Daphne enjoyed running on the cool, rocky beach while I searched for arrowheads. We agreed that this is a great place to hang out even though I found no arrowheads.

Near the water, I found a sycamore tussock moth caterpillar.
I'm guessing we walked between two and three miles. It was a great day to be out. The humidity was low and it wasn't too hot, despite it being August.

On August 9, I did the shortest of strolls on Meadow Mountain Trail in Frostburg, Maryland.

Starting around late-morning, Norma and I did a hike in Patapsco Valley State Park, starting at the Landing Road Trailhead. We followed the route for the Morning Choice, Cascade Falls and Ridge Trail Loop, a lollipop route.

Where was Daphne? After a vet visit, she was told to take it easy for awhile. So we left her at home. It felt very strange hiking without her.

My right foot, which had been bothering me for over a year, was starting to feel a little better so I figured I'd do a real hike...not a difficult one but not exactly a short stroll either.

Upon arriving, all the spots near the trailhead were taken. But we did find a couple of spots further south near the powerlines.

We walked the circle part of our route heading countclockwise. We eventually came to some stone and wood ruins. There was what appeared to be a well along with two buildings that appeared too small to be homes. Both had an underground section that looked like it could have been used for storing food or providing cool air on hot days. I don't know how old these structures were but the nails didn't appear to be old.

We walked over or through a few small creeks. At the northernmost part of our hike, we stopped at one very rocky creek that feeds Cascade Falls.
The most interesting natural things we saw were fungi. There were some old chanterelles along with other types of shrooms in their prime.

We got in 5.4 miles at a leisure pace. Here is our route
Towards the end of the hike my right foot was feeling different from the left but there wasn't a lot of discomfort. Maybe next week we'll try something a little more challenging.

We went home and then I mowed the yard and cleaned the house. I was exhausted that night.