As you may have read in a previous blog, I have bought new camera gear and wanted to try it out some more. The weather here in Texas is very hot with the afternoon temperatures reaching into the high 90’s and sometimes the low 100’s so any hiking needs to be done early in the day. This goes against my built in adversity to early mornings and I consider that if I am out on the trails by 10:00 am, I’m doing pretty good for me.

I reached Reimers by 10:30 am and spent 20 minutes assembling my new camera carrying system, first hooking it up this way and then that in an effort to balance the heavy new telescopic lens to make it comfortable to carry. It turns out that what I had settled on was very uncomfortable for the rest of the hike and I spent considerable time on the trail re-adjusting first this and then that to no real avail. I have to come up with a better system.

After leaving the Mountain Bike Trailhead, where I managed to find a tree that gave off some shade to park the car, I took the trail that leads to Johnny’s Homestead with the intention of following the Multi Use trail in a southerly direction back around and back to the Parking Lot. I knew from previous hikes that there is much more tree cover going in this direction. Not true of the other half of the Multi Use trail which is pretty much out in the hot sun for most of its length.

Just after setting out, I had the opportunity to use the new telescopic lens on a pair of Warblers and also a Brown Thrasher that had landed in the trees ahead of me. Normally, I can’t see these birds with the 300 zoom lens but the 600 zoom picked them out and gave me a couple of decent pictures.

Brown Thrasher

Warblers

The hike itself was uneventful with the exception of having to stop repeatedly to adjust the waist carry belt which kept sliding down.  As I keep repeating  to myself, I definitely will need to make some adjustments before the next hike. The top picture is a panorama of 4 pictures showing just how well Mother Nature recovers after the controlled burn in this area back in January. Other burns have been performed in other areas of the park much more recently as shown by the pictures below.

There are a very few wildflowers to be seen as the flower season is pretty much over.

As I always do, I have included pictures of the trails that I walked.

Finally, some views of the park.

All in all, it was an enjoyable hike and it felt good to be out communing with Nature. I really do feel that another part of me comes alive when I get out and about in the countryside.