Went hiking!

16th August, 2008.
Went hiking! :)

Yesterday, Saturday, Ashley had the idea of going to a park. She had found this great place, so we went for a hike at a nature reserve not too far from Chattanooga (about 10 miles away) on the other side of Lookout Mountain.
The venue was lovely, and the day was just a little overcast. The air had a little bit of the Autumn to it which felt very nice. There were meadows full of flowers, ponds and birds flying about.
We parked after paying an entrance fee ($6.00 for the car) near one of the trails.

The trail took us through a lovely little pine wood, then out into a meadow full of flowers. Most of the flower were a butter yellow and they did not seem to have much of an aroma, but they were a very pretty site. There were grasshoppers jumping all over as we walked by. The occasional buzz of bees and other flying creatures as they whizzed by. As we walked on we came to a small grape arbor which was surrounded by sunflowers. It was nice to feel the soft resistance of the grass under our shoes as we walked along the trails. In some spots the grass was up to our shoulders.

After awhile Eliz decided that we had gone far enough, and we turned about. We returned to the car where we had left the pick-nick brought a with us; we collected the food and went off to the find the spot we had first noticed as a possible to pick-nick. As we arrived there, Ashley noticed in the distance some (two or three) white boxes in a row. They were a few meters apart from one another, and as we looked about we noticed that there were rather a lot of bees here and there.... mostly here. We moved on to look for another spot. Our feet took us back to the pine forest that had been though earlier. We found a nice spot and had our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwidges, sunflower seed, apples, water, and for Eliz a coke-a-cola. As Eliz calls it “Coke-a-nut!”

After our repast we got back into the car and drove off to see what else there was. The road took us through a swampy area with lots of birds and flying insects. The wind was blowing pleasantly, so you could see the long grass and reeds bend. It was very pleasant. We drove at around 5 mph to take everything in (there was no one else about) when a horse fly flew in Ashley's window (she was driving.) Ash got a little agitated at this event. Apparently Ash has had 'closer' experiences with horsefly's then I. The fly flew out my window, and we drove on. A moment later another (or the same one) flew in my window :) ! Ashley said 'get out' to the horsefly 'you are ruining my bucolic moment with nature!' Then she laughed. The fly flew back out, and we continued driving on. Back in a wooded area and past a meadow with a wishing-well, at least that is how we chose to view it. We stopped and looked about. The well was closed off, but it was nice to look at anyway. Close by there was a wood of bamboo, so we trundled off to see it. You could walk through the bamboo to the center which was a large circle. We stood there for a few minuets then decided it was time to return home. We had had a lovely time.

What a nice way to spend the day.