Ridley Creek State Park, 1/8/12

I had time for a short hike today, and decided to stay close to home. Ridley Creek State Park is the closest real hiking to where I live, so it's my "go to" place when I only have an hour or two. There's a whole network of great trails (PDF map here), and you can combine them to make a near-infinite number of loops.

I got to parking lot #16 around 11:15am. The day was sunny and cool, with a little breeze, and I was dressed in a long-sleeve polypro base layer, a button-down flannel shirt, and a puffy vest. That seemed like it would be plenty. I realized that I forgot (as I did 10 days ago in the Pine Barrens) a pair of lightweight gloves. They weren't necessary, but it seemed like they would be nice to have. Oh well.

I started on the white trail, and decided to try to make as big a loop as possible. I wasn't trying to make time or cover miles, but my legs felt good and I felt like going at a good pace - so I did. I quickly forgot about the gloves, and am just as glad I didn't have them. And I unbuttoned both the vest and the top buttons of my flannel shirt, as the bright sun probably brought the temperature up into the mid 40's.

The warming day also made the trail into a mucky mess in low-lying places, but I just walked through it. I did note with amusement a couple of skid marks that had to be two feet long. The thought of someone planting a foot and skidding for that distance is a sight I wish I had seen (and yes, if I ever do that, I hope someone has a camera handy, and I can provide YouTube amusement for everyone. :-))

Hiking south-to-north, I did a counterclockwise loop along a pretty stretch of the Ridley Creek to parking lot #9, then completed that sub-loop and re-traced my steps, following the blue trail, and then taking the white again. There was a lot of bird activity along the creek bottoms, and I also paid special attention to some of the trees today. I wish I could identify trees better, but there are some I do know.

Birch trees are easy to identify (with their smooth bark that's so prone to people carving their names in), and RCSP as many enormous beautiful specimens - it also seems like they follow the creek. Other section have oaks predominating, and the park has a few clusters of very big pine trees packed closely together.

I then came east and made another sub-loop out of the yellow trail and a short section of the multi-purpose paved trail (sharing the road with hikers and bikers for a few tenths of a mile.) Then it was back toward the car, skirting the boundraies of Tyler Aboretum on the white trail.

When I got back to the car, my GPS app said I had covered 5.43 miles in 1:36. That's a fast pace - so fast that I'm not sure if the GPS is right. But the track it produced does show the route I took (the blue dot on the left-side of the map is where I parked.)

One last highlight happened on the drive out of the park. I was driving through a tunnel of trees, when I saw a very large raptor perched on a branch high up in a atree at the side of the road. He was black and white, and bigger than the red-tail hawks that are fairly common. Doing a little Internet research, I think he was a peregrine falcon. He didn't move as I drove past, and if I had thought faster, I would have tried to stop and take a pic.

Overall, a very nice short hike and a perfect way to stretch the legs.