Mid-Spring

We're now in the height of spring -- my favorite season. Pollen (mostly oak right now) coats everything with light yellow dust.

Most of the pollen is coming from oak trees that have just started "blooming" in the last two days. The flowers are inconspicuous, but have that delicate spring green color.

The tulip poplars have lots of leaves by now; one lone red maple still has the red blush; the oaks are just starting to put on their green.

This male cardinal spends all morning, every morning, trying to fly through a window into our house. Same window every morning. His mate spends a lot of time trying to get in another window.

Lots of spiderwebs, too.

The small vernal iris is blooming now.

And so are several species of violets.

Heron Update

The herons are now very busy tending to the eggs in their nests.

A close look reveals a heron sitting on each nest.

A closer look at two of the nests.

Crazy Weather

It's spring -- and that means the weather can yo-yo from clouds to sun, warm to cold, storms to calm in a matter of hours. Last week has been particularly volatile.

After a week of warm weather, including temperatures in the 70s (F, 22°C), we went back into the deep freeze with snow and lows down to 22 (F, -5°C).

The clouds can be very dramatic.

And one day we were treated to rainbow after rainbow.

Greenbrier River Trail - Part 3 - Renick to Beard

Today we did our next trip on the Greenbrier River Trail -- a 14-mile section from Anthony to Beard. We've now done almost half the trail: we turned around at milepost 39; halfway is about milepost 42.

Only a few relics of the railroad remain (other than the rail bed). This old crossing marker is at Beard. (Yes, that's the name of the small community -- hardly even a town -- along this section of the trail.

The highlight of this section is the Droop Mountain Tunnel -- 402 feet long. Even though this is a relatively short tunnel, it is curved, so you can't see from one end to the other. The temperature inside the tunnel was very cool!

Looking out the north end of the tunnel. (Obviously, it's at milepost 31.)

The magic of Photoshop Elements' "Auto Smart Fix" filter brings out the detail in this shot looking back at the south entrance. The original photo was almost entirely black.

A panorama of the river about 2 miles south of Beard.

Today's Wildflower

Large-flowered trillium (Trillium grandiflora). The bloom starts out pure white, then slowly turns pink, then deep pink as it ages.

We also saw bloodroot and Dutchman's breeches (photos in previous post).

Greenbrier River Trail - Part 2 - Anthony to Renick

Yesterday we traveled the next section of the Greenbrier River Trail.

Near Pittsburgh, the GAP trail had industrial tubes along the side. In rural West Virginia, it's tubes of rolled hay bales.

We had one longish bridge today. Here Lon is crossing the Spring Creek bridge.

A crew was doing trail maintenance. I wish we had this "Tiger Mower" to help keep the sides of our road free of trees and shrubs.

The end of the day -- ready to head home.

Today's Wildflowers

There were many spring wildflowers along the trail today. Here's a sampling.

One of the earliest wildflowers to bloom in the spring is bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). It's deeply lobed leaf curls around the stem. After the bloom is gone, the leaf remains and becomes quite large.

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) were probably the most commonly seen wildflower along the trail. They resemble tiny upside-down pantaloons. 

Another early spring favorite: Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica).

A beautiful red trillium (Trillium erectum). Also called "wake-robin".

Greenbrier River Trail - Part 1 - North Caldwell to Anthony

Just over the state line in West Virginia is the Greenbrier River Trail -- another "rail trail" along an old rail bed. The full trail is about 80 miles long (one way) -- we're not up to that! But yesterday we did manage a 24-mile round trip.

This is pretty typical of what the trail looks like as it parallels the Greenbrier River.

We take a break. Right now we're using our road bikes, but the trail isn't really designed for "skinny tires".

At our turn-around point. (The parking lot is at mile 3.)

Can you tell we're new at this "selfie" thing?

Great Allegheny Passage

We're trying to get back on on bicycles -- as much as we can given that March and April can still be quite cold and windy and (sometimes) wet.

Friday we took a 20 mile ride on the Great Allegheny Passage Bike Trail -- a "Rails To Trails" route that ultimately connects Pittsburgh with Washington, DC after meeting up with the C&O Canal Trail in Cumberland, Maryland. We started on Pittsburgh's South Side and rode to Dusquene and back.

The trail follows an abandoned rail bed along the Monongahela River. This stretch of the "Mon" is known as "Steel Valley" -- at one time it was the U.S.'s major steel manufacturing region. The river is still very industrial in atmosphere. Here a barge carrying coal is heading downriver.

Pittsburgh's industrial past is reflected in these tall smoke stacks -- all that remains of the once immense Homestead steel mill that is now a large shopping mall. A classic example of the consumer-driven economy replacing the manufacturing economy with much economic dislocation.

But not all industry has disappeared. This pipe manufacturer lines the trail for about a half mile.

The trail passes over railroad tracks twice in this section. Long ramps, seen at the right of the photo, allow bicyclists to ride up to the overpasses.

The trail bridge over the railroad tracks.

A panoramic view of the Monongahela River.

Pittsburgh is a city of bridges. This is the Homestead Grays Bridge (aka High-Level Bridge).

The trail gives a behind-the-scenes view of Kennywood -- Pittsburgh's beloved amusement park.

At the end of the ride we had to carry our bikes up the stairs to David & Maria's house. The stairs are much steeper and longer than they look in this photo. Pittsburgh has more streets that are stairs than any other city.