~ Sunday Afternoon Hike ~

Yesterday afternoon , Dh and I headed out to one of our state parks (Jordan Lake ) to do a little hiking and bird watching along the lake. The first trail we hiked left me with a lot of emotional turmoil , there was litter everywhere. I guess it was a favorite fishing spot , there were beer bottles , plastic soda bottles , plastic containers that worms come in and fishing line tangles all along the bank of the lake. As I stood there looking around , that image of Iron Eye Cody kept coming to mind , I felt like crying too. It's such a shame that people abuse the land like this. I didn't have a trash bag with me or I would have spent my time cleaning up instead of hiking. There is suppose to be a cleanup on the lake May 8th , I may sign up to help with the cleanup. The second trail wasn't any better , lots of litter and dead fish along the banks. I'm not sure what killed the fish , although I think they may have been stranded along the shore as the water levels went down , but it was a distressing sight. At this point I was ready to go home , but we saw another pull off near some swampy areas and stopped there to check-out an Eagle nest , it was here I felt renewed. We saw 2 eagles flying near the nest , so I hiked down to the edge of the water and watched them. I saw one land on the nest and the other flew into a nearby tree keeping watch over the nest. This area didn't have much litter except along the highway. I took a few pics , but it's times like this I wish I had a camera with a better zoom. After we left this area , we rode out to the mariner area and watched a few boats come in.

We were headed home when Dh took a detour and took me to see a one lane camel back bridge , the bridge still has wooden boards to drive over but they have been replaced recently it appeared. We went down under the bridge and walked to the river , I saw a few interesting plants that I'm trying to i.d. It was beautiful there , no trash , just beautiful lush green plants everywhere. It was great to get away from home a little while and enjoy some new scenery . really enjoyed the last places we visited.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend !!

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn