Non Compos Mentis

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

2014 Hike to Goat Rock

Trip to Goat Rock Summit
October 14, 2014

So, Shane had been telling us off and on about how he'd gotten completely lost in the mountains around Hot Springs one day in the past. He'd went up the mountain expecting to come back down, but managed to hike north mountain, west mountain, goat's rock trail, and through gulpha gorge, among others. My mom got pretty excited about seeing Goat's Rock, so we planned our next adventure for the foothills above town. I won't lie; I was hoping we'd avoid the tourist trails and outlooks and go back to Cedar Glades or somewhere likewise grown over that I haven't been to before. Regardless, it was fun getting out and about with Shane again. Not knowing exactly where the trail to balancing rock began, we started off at one of the outlooks and headed down a trail that would take us up the mountain.

There were some pretty radical loblolly pines up on this trail. Featured below are a few of them:

The remains of a massive pine stump.

Me by a huge living loblolly pine.

My mom on a tree that was crazy bent at the base.

And this one. I've never seen a pine grow with such crazy curves!

At a certain point, we realized this trail wasn't going to take us where we needed to be, so we followed the road back down to the outlook and set off again, this time heading down the trail instead of up.

This seemed like a great idea... at first. We walked all the way down the trail until it hit a fork, but neither were the trails we were looking for. This lead to a very long wait as they tried to find a map of the trails on their phones.

I talked them into heading down the left fork for the sake of adventure, but that didn't take long to fall apart either. Although that leg of the trail was a bit more grown over and pretty, a bug (or pine needle, we're still not entirely sure) attacked Shane via route of pants' leg and we had a minor struggle trying to save him from certain death... or temporary itching. We called that trail quits when the ordeal was over and marched back up to the truck... or tried. It was so steep up hill that we had to stop and rest. We had a long talk about random things, telling random stories, and heard the story about Shane getting lost on the mountain trails in a bit more detail before heading off. even with the midway rest, it was an excruciating walk to the truck.

Shane and I were parched, but despite my blunt requests to get water somewhere, mom drove farther up the mountain and stopped at the next outlook anyway. She was pretty determined to find Goat's Rock. So, we got out and took to the trail again. Thank the divines we'd actually stumbled upon the correct trail! It wasn't long before we found a sign directing us down Goat's Rock trail, and a few twists and turns after that, we were there!

Despite being parched, I continued to run my mouth non-stop the whole of the trip, so I'm going to be in the middle of a gabbing session throughout most of these pictures. Anyway, those stairs in the background took us to the top of the summit, where we found this interesting hollow pyre of sticks (which mom considered a little too much like something from Blair Witch Project to be comfortable around.)

Just beyond that, though, was this amazing vantage:

This was the view from Goat's Rock Summit. Sure, we've seen the town from higher outlooks, but there was something about Goat Rock that felt a lot more personal than the other views. We tried to take a selfie with the background but, you know, phones...

Backgrounds got washed out. At least we tried. We lingered here a good while, talking and looking at the view. By the time we were done here, I'd overcome the thirsties for the time being. Mom sought to remedy that by sending Shane and I back up the ascent so she could snap this picture of us on the summit from the bottom:

Magnifique. In the end, I was super glad we went out to Goat's Rock. Somewhere along the way, though, Balancing Rock was brought up, and soon it was decided that it would be our next hiking objective. Little did I know that it would be even more of a struggle to get to!

Here is the usual round up of specimens I found along the trail of note:

Nandina, Heavenly Bamboo
Nandina domestica

A beautiful nandina plant along one of the trails fruiting. There was also a healthy bush nearby with berries that were beginning to turn red.

???

Mom caught this bird in mid flight... it looks like an eagle to me!!! What do you think?

Wood Ear
Auricularia auricula-judae

Probably the best nature capture of the trip. Wood ear are prized in eastern medicine for a plethora of reasons, which the article on wikipedia thankfully covers.

Plain Brown Bracket/Shelf Fungi

As always, these were bountiful around every corner.

French Mulberry/American Beautyberry
Callicarpa americana

A fall favorite, these are not actually related to standard mulberries at all. Berries of this vivid violet-magenta are only found naturally on this plant, making the purple variants of Beautyberry hard to misidentify. The berries are edible, but not typically palatable, being bland and better suited for birds. There are ways to turn them into a nice floral tasting jam, though.

Eastern Fence Lizard
Sceloporus undulatus

If you haven't gotten this idea from other posts, these little guys are everywhere around here. I find them on just about every trip!

Muscadines
Vitis rotundifolia

Somebody or something got their hands on some muscadines, although I couldn't find from where! Probably a squirrel or something similar that carried them a way before eating them.

?????????????

Could this common weed be a type of wormwood, or, perhaps, hemlock?

Privet (variety unknown)
Ligustrum v.

These are the juvenile green berries of a variety of privet plant. We have a lot of them around these parts (introduced here and spread by birds and landscaping.)

(A very bendy bunch of) Loblolly Pines
Pinus taeda

The loblolly pines fascinated me this trip. I've grown up around them--my old stomping ground was almost an entire three acre stand of them--but they were never so bendy, wavy, and crooked as the ones I got pictures of on the mountain side.

Plain ol' white bracket fungus.

Growing all fancy-like between the thick bark plates on a loblolly.

Amanita type on Haircap Moss

??? on Polytrichum commune

I'm not even going to begin to try to figure out what that mushroom is until I'm more studied on Mycology. I'm presuming amanita type based on the ring around the stem and the fact that it had gills.

Yellow Jacket
Probably Eastern variant.

If you take a gander at the wikipedia article linked above, you'll know why I couldn't get the species narrowed down with just this picture to go on.

Oak Plum or Marble Gall

Andricus kollari

These galls form on oak trees when a species of wasp lays their eggs in them. Inside, if you crack one open, is a little larva at the center!

Catbriar or Greenbriar

Smilax v.

A single berry fruiting on a smilax vine. If you follow these vines down to the base and find the massive tuber, they can be used as a great source of starch. (They are edible, like a potato, but a lot more involved to prepare.)

Devil's Snuffboxes

Lycoperdon perlatum

The common puffball for these parts. The juveniles are edible, but must be cut open to make sure they are not a deadly mimic.

Woolly Oak Gall

Andricus sp.

These are also caused by a type of andricus wasp. These galls will not harm the leaves and also harbor little larvae inside.

Friday, October 10, 2014

2014 Run-in with a Redbud Tree

On October 9th, 2014, the family and I hit Dallas, Texas for a concert at, coincidentally, a venue called the Trees. Outside, across the street, I spotted this beauty and absolutely HAD to snap pictures of it. It looked so old and beautiful! The leaves had this wonderful heart-shaped quality that seemed familiar, but I was not sure where I had seen it before. Thankfully, this shape made the identification process incredibly easy!

Meet the Redbud tree, presumably the Texan variety. When in bloom, these trees are full of vivid pink/purple flowers, which is what the majority of results are for pictures on google. However, I find their lush green state much much more appealing. There's a rugged honesty about them that speaks to me. 'Plant one of me in your yard... plant me...' it says.

Here are some shots of the tree's leaves, bark, and limbs from a closer perspective:

Below is an intimate view of the leaves. Credit to the below picture belongs here.

Ecologically, this tree attracts several species of birds (notably, cardinals) as well as grey squirrels. It draws certain insects that are damaging to the bole of the tree, so if planting one, this may need to stay in check. However, the blooms are a plentiful source of honey for local bees, so I endorse planting these if you support the bee protection movement! The bark has also been documented as usable in the treatment of dysentery,

Also, for identification purposes, here is a shot of the flowers of the Texas Redbud tree when they are in bloom! The picture credits are built in to the picture.

Happy autumn, everyone! Get outside and live a little!

~ Matthew Damaru Hammond ~

2014

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

2014 Trip to Cedar Glades (1st and 2nd)

September 22nd, Trip to Cedar Glades 1

Not long after the first time I met Shane in person, during the Ice Bucket Challenge, he sent me a message on Facebook saying that he was about to go hiking and that I should come with him. I didn't know how serious he was about the gesture, but I jumped on it immediately. He was riding with Wayne and Misty, so it was my first time meeting them as well. They picked me up and I got so busy gabbing that I had no idea where we'd ended up when the vehicle came to a stop... turns out, it was a little offshoot of a park called Cedar Glades.

The area didn't seem as if it was frequented... the trails were rough and fairly overgrown, winding around near the city dump. Across from the tall barbed-wire fences of the landfill was a beautiful pond, though, as pictured above the blog title up there.

We were having a great time talking about lord only knows what as we explored the woods. At one point, we came across a cairn of rocks with a creepy word spelled out in stones to the right of it... but of course, I either didn't take a picture of it or I've managed to lose it and I can't remember what it said. Ah, well.

Shane almost stepped on a small snake beside the stream on the left, but we couldn't get it to stir up again for a picture. That began the tradition of spotting a snake on each adventure ( at least, for awhile. After the third time, we stopped seeing snakes, which is probably a good thing because every time we'd almost step on them.)

And every time, I'd get the Badger Badger song in my head. For those who don't know what I'm talking about:

My apologies in advance for subjecting you to that earworm. Anyway, midway down the trail, we had to turn around and come back, as someone had to pick up their kids from daycare. We marched on back and stopped at the restroom units before leaving, which lead to us uncovering the very comical faucet unit pictured right.

We were cracking jokes like "What, is this designed to only clean the fingertips?" and "Maybe it's a coin slot. Maybe you have to pay for full faucet privileges."

That ended the hike for the day, but I have to cover one honorable mention from the drive out of Cedar Glades. Some vehicle had, at one point, had yellow paint spill out of the back and it made a long yellow splattered trail down the tarmac. Misty and Wayne were joking openly about how it looked like someone had hit Big Bird and dragged him a ways. If that didn't have us all cracked up enough, at the end of the paint trail, there was a cross that someone had left on the side of the road. Misty pointed to it and exclaimed: "THERE HE IS! THERE'S BIG BIRD!!" ... My face hurt from laughing.

October 8th, 2014 Ceder Glades Trip 2

At some point, I became Shane's "Pocket Plant Prospector." He'd text me photos of plants and I would do my best to identify them. At some point, he sent me a picture of this super bazaar specimen that looked like a cracked spiky pink nut with red jelly beans hanging from it. I'd never see such a thing in my life. From that day on, and I don't remember how long it took to mount a posse, I urged Shane and my Mom to take me to Cedar Glades so I could find where the original discoverers had found it.

October 8th, we headed out in search of the alien thing, thinking it was going to be something rare and crazy hard to find. Could not have been more wrong. Following the trails (and only having a vague idea of where the other folks had found the thing) we made it to the creek site. Not long after the picture on the left was taken of me gawking and taking pictures of the water, I walked back toward where Mom was standing to take this picture and found the first specimen!

Behold! Euonymus americanus, or Hearts-a-Bursting plant!

See how alien these things look? It's insane! Apparently, they're native here and very common. We found SO many specimens along the waterside and in the lowlands.

Those are only some of the other specimens found. I weeded through a lot of others to find the ones I liked best. Anyway, they were everywhere. Since we found our objective so soon, we decided to wing it and roam around some trails until the sun was closer to setting, which lead to some interesting pictures of the naturally exposed rock faces and other plants scattered about. One of the rock face looked like a little troll cave.

Speaking of classical trolls, we came across a bridge that mom regarded as, to say the least, questionable in stability. It was composed of numerous small planks wired in even intervals to two sturdy logs that were suspended from bank to bank. It looked a lot less questionable than some of the other things I've monkeyed across, though, so I gave it a try.

I felt right at home, troll that I am. It didn't take long to appeal to Shane's sense of adventure, and soon we were both standing on the bridge, staring at the water below.

Mom crossed reluctantly and we wandered the trail until it came close to dark, so we headed back to the truck. I think this was my third excursion with Shane in tow, and it proved to be so much fun that we went on lots more after it. ;) Anyway, here's a roundup of some of the things found out there at the back entry of Cedar Glades:

Strawberry Bush/Hearts-a-Bursting
Euonymus americanus

The star of this journey, at least the second one. These beautiful capsules were bearing seeds all throughout the wet lowland vales between the knolls and foothills of the southern lower Ozarks. Deer love to eat these.

Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida

A common variety of dogwood found all throughout these woods and Hot Springs in general! The berries were fruiting bright red!

I don't know which cultivar it is.

Sweet Birch, Black Birch
Betula lenta

If you've ever been around me long enough to get me talking about trees, you'll probably know that birches, or the Betula family, are my favorite trees. Check out the aging process of the bark of the Black Birch HERE.

Plain Brown Bracket/Shelf Fungi

These were devouring several dead trees out in the woods. It was one of the prettiest shelf fungus clusters I've seen.

Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod
Solidago caesia

There's definitely no getting this type of goldenrod confused with ragweed. They grow in chains over the ground, which isn't something you usually see goldenrod do. That is why it took forever to figure out its name.

????????

I honestly don't know what this solid orb of a red berry is. When I took the picture, I was debating on it being a squaw berry/partridge berry, but that certainly doesn't seem to be right.

Sadly, I didn't get any other pictures of it, and this one isn't that great. Ho hum.

Bitter Bracket
Postia Stiptica

If this is a wrong identification, let me know. These were massive polypores, probably three times the size of my hand, and seemed old, dry, and hard.

The link leads to the picture that made me settle for the Bitter Bracket ID.

White Oak Acorn (About 80% Sure)
Quercus alba

The acorn of the white oak tree... I'm pretty sure. A big old nut, it was the only one of the acorns found that had made it to this diameter before falling. How cool!

Southern Leopard Frog
Lithobates sphenocephalus

A common little leopard frog. It's a wonder he's not still in metamorph stage being that small!! This was Shane's little buddy that he caught (and released soon after.)

Young Hornbeam Tree
Carpinus caroliniana

The smooth, twisting bark of a young Hornbeam tree. There was another of similar age beside it. They are really fun to run your hand along!

American Firestone

Lapis adustum

A native southern firestone in its natural habitat---look close.

As an honorable mention, here is a picture caught of mom practicing some kind of witchcraft to levitate a leaf from the palms of her bare hands.

The force is strong in this one.

To see the rest of the pictures from this trip, you can view the album here!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

That One Time I Got High

This is a morbidly humorous true story that entertains me vastly in retrospect, so I thought I would immortalize it in text here, and perhaps in your memories. Out of respect, I'm naming no names.

The Accidental Culprit

One week, when I was perhaps 19 or 20, I was having an incredibly difficult time bringing myself to sleep. It had been days since I'd had more than an hour of sleep, and even that was forced. After confessing how frustrated I was about this to my dad, his girlfriend said I could borrow one of her sleeping pills. Alright, I thought, what damage could it really do? I accepted the aid.

To this day, I have no idea what brand of pill it was. All I remember is that it was little and white--a tiny stark orb in the palm of my hand. It was easy to take, which says something, because my gag reflex is very sensitive and taking pills is a massive undertaking. Once that was done, I thanked her and went into my room.

Let me put this into perspective, because it's moderately important: My room was laid out with the bed in the middle of the room, with only the headboard touching a wall. I got back into bed, situating my laptop into my lap. I was playing Spore at the time, making a creature. About ten to fifteen minutes go by without any change, other than me progressing in the game. I checked the time and thought to myself, "These meds should be kicking in soon. I should go ahead and lay down."

My sense of timing could not have been more accurate. I leaned down to my right to take a drink from my cup, and when I leaned back upright and looked at my computer screen, it looked like the whole thing was melting. There were bands all over the screen, drooping and melting down to the bottom in a staggered fashion. Every time I'd move my eyes to a different part of the screen, the effect would reset and begin again from the top. I acknowledged that it was time to turn that sucker off and lay down.

I managed to get my laptop turned off and moved it to the left side of my bed in a numb haphazard motion. Suddenly, in the darkness of my room, my eyes started catching flickers of something from the corners of my vision. I leaned back against the headboard and closed my eyes, trying to relax.

When I opened my eyes, I could no longer perceive the walls of my room. It felt as if I was in the middle of one long chamber, blackened by darkness. There was only a dim light coming from an unseen source around my bed, and within an arm's reach of the bed's perimeter, soft, subtle cloths hung like scarves from the ceiling. They were transparent against the blackness, like a bride's veil. The most strange thing, however, was that, no matter where I looked, I had the sensation of blurred shade-like people whirring past me on either side of the bed in an endless line. It was only perceptible from the sides of my vision, though; where my eyes focused was nothing but darkness or hanging fabric.

Caught up in watching the madness, wondering if I was high from the pill the entire time, I slumped forward. The slump was more than intended, and I lost consciousness face-down in my blanket. When I came to--I do not know how long it was, but it was no more than an hour--I was looking at the wall to my right, and beside me, trailing onto the floor, was a puddle of vomit. I recall having a glancing thought of "Did I do that?" before I decided I needed to let my dad know what was going on.

I got up and ambled to my door. Now, the FUN part.

How I Remember It

I slowly walked across the kitchen and into the living room, where I found dad asleep in his reclining chair. I shook his shoulder lightly, and when his eyes opened, I said 'I think I'm high' in a concerned way, my voice troubled from nausea. He told me to sit on the couch, so I did.

I looked up at the tv and saw that dad was watching George Carlin performing comedy. I pointed roughly in the direction of the screen and mumbled something to the effect of 'you're watching George Carlin.' I kept holding out the hand that pointed, watching the tv screen proceed to melt down in the same surreal way as my laptop screen did.

Finally, I lowered my arm, and Dad told me to lay down so that I could get some rest. I was hunched over the arm of the couch, feeling too sick to move. I remember dad's girlfriend tugging at my ankles, trying to help me move into a laying position. I complied and a blanket was put over me, and after that, I remember nothing but waking up the next day.

How it REALLY Happened

I slowly walk out of my room and hang a tight right, roaming into the bathroom. I stand in the bathroom, looking at the walls and ceiling while swaying unsteadily. After a few minutes, I walk out of the bathroom like a zombie, heading toward my dad, who was reclined in his chair, already awake. When I get close enough, I reach out and grab his foot, shaking it back and forth as if to specifically get its attention. Dad questions me, but my responses are incoherent. He tells me to sit down on the couch until I finally listen.

He tells his girlfriend, who goes to get a pill to counteract the nausea. Queue the part where I motion at the screen and mumble about George Carlin--thankfully, I didn't outright invent that part in my delirium--only my motion is clumsy and my words are horribly slurred. I ramble to myself in a daze until she comes out and gives me the pill and some water to take it with. Remember how I said I had immense trouble taking pills? Apparently, I was so high and overdosed that I didn't even remember a second pill being involved, not to mention taking one.

After that, they couldn't get me to lay down, and had to drag me across the couch by the ankles and put a blanket over me to get me to go to sleep.

Aftermath

I woke up the next day with what I thought was a full, clear memory of what happened. Someone was nice enough to clean my vomit for me, if I remember correctly. I felt a bit off, mentally and physically, but it wasn't crippling by any means. I wouldn't know the real lingering effect until later, when I was so damn wired that I couldn't even feel fatigued for a day or two. It kind of sent me into an amplified state of my previous insomnia, but at least I'd had one night's sleep during my stupor.

Moral of this Story

NEVER--and I repeat: NEVER--take a pill without knowing what it is, how it effects you, and what the dosage is FIRST. I was so grateful for help that I didn't think to ask, but that was a very foolish thing for me to have overlooked. Now, I'm left with a story of an awful event and the feeling that I'll never touch a sleeping pill of any sort ever again. Honestly, I'm lucky to have came out of it with only intense insomnia!

Please be careful around medicine. Be aware of what is in it and pay CLOSE attention to what the directions are. Always watch your kids and make sure they do not get their hands on any medication, whether its meant for children or not.

And, for the love of God and all that is, if you MUST pursue a high, do NOT use pills to do it. I don't endorse breaking the law, but if anything, use pot: you'll wreck your fridge, but not your brain.

~Matthew D. Hammond~