So she moves to the next station that has a column matrix of different seeds, but a secondary choice it seems.

You can see the forest cover and canopy in the following shot from when the site was still under construction. (I'll explain the red arrow in a little bit.)

Google Earth coordinates: 32.612068, -96.970444

The cover is so dense, you can't see the spare single track trail that winds around in a big loop. An elevation gain from the visitors' center of more than 200 feet will keep your calves nicely toned. The first part of the trail is quite steep and it's an easier walk on the top of the escarpment.

Before heading out on the trail, you need to stop in the visitors' center to show your membership card or pay the day rate. You're greeted by friendly staff and there's a special surprise. Take the stairs up to a landing that is facing the tree cover and overhanging a seasonally dry creek bed and you'll see an active feeding station with a variety of seed containers and a couple of sugar water stations for hummingbirds. The images at the top of the post are from that viewing platform. The glass is angled outward to prevent bird strikes on the glass as it reflects the ground below, making the birds more cautious. I think it also adds some reflective cover for those of us viewing the little gems who stop by.

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris resting between visits to the energy drink station. I think she also saw part of me standing on the other side of the glass and was being cautious, trying to judge the threat. You can see a larger view of her here.

The light isn't optimal for her in this shot, but if you click on the original resolution here and scroll around the image to where the end of her bill is you can see her tiny thin tongue sticking out a little. It's amazing they get enough sugar water to stick on it to get sustenance.

It's time to hit the trails. There are two, one flat short out and back trail that is handicap accessible about a half mile round trip and a steeper ¼ mile trail that takes you to a one and a half mile loop at the top of the escarpment. The longer trail starts out easy enough, but it quickly rises.

The trails are not well marked, and when they were being constructed they used the trees and branches that were cleared as boundary edges. 

It's a bit steeper than it looks in the photographs.

Along the way, there are small things to observe. A colony of oak gall, and a mid-trail deposit from a coyote that had just passed moments before. It's interesting, though you can skip looking at it if it grosses you out. The thing is that the whole ecosystem is stressed from the drought. Trees are shedding limbs to conserve water, and the coyotes are having a hard time finding prey, as evidenced in the picture of its scat which is mostly comprised of seeds from what fruit and berries can be had.

Very few prey hairs and still damp from a recent deposit. 

We quickly get to the loop intersection and the trail flattens out. Even though were not talking high altitude here, the top of the escarpment 

is noticeably cooler and you're more likely to get some breezes as well.

In the following shot you'll see a testament to my poor eyesight. After suffering for a few weeks with increased glaucoma pressure and being very sensitive to light, I was determined to get out of the house and visit the new Audubon Center. At one edge of the bluff, facing southwest, you'll see that they've cleared a few trees to show the view. It wasn't until I got back to the visitors' center and talked with the Senior Manager for Conservation and Education and a specialist in conservation biology, Dr. Tania Homayoun, that I had taken a photo showing evidence of another denizen of the White Rock Escarpment. I wish it was a better picture and focused directly on the tree, but there you have it. On the felled trunk near the bottom edge of the photograph you'll see where a bobcat has been scratching and marking its territory. You'll probably have to view it in the larger size to see it. And then, you'll notice another personal phenomenon—that I often can't see what kind of shot I have until I get home and put it up on a large computer screen. In the upper left, on a tree branch, you'll see a tiny flash of red. That's a male Northern Cardinal keeping a wary eye on me as I stumble around.

Larger view here. 

As I neared the end of the loop trail and before heading down to the center I had another surprise. Remember the red arrow on the map image above? I saw something peeking around the corner of some trees and thought it was pretty cool, but had no idea what it was doing up there all by itself.

It was a corrugated cabin. 

There's no evidence that there was ever electric power up to the cabin, so the disintegrating refrigerator is a bit of a mystery, unless it was one powered by propane. 

Bullet holes were plugged with whatever was handy

It was smallish inside, but had "high ceilings and low floors." You'll notice a couple of things: A bed with box springs, a ladder leading up to what might have been a sleeping platform and a 55-gallon drum that was turned into something like a Franklin stove. There was even a countertop in the corner and its kitchen sink on the floor.

I wonder how many faces were seen in that mirror.

There's always someone who can't seem to understand that they're not really the only people in the world. Who would ever think it's ok to toss a filled soiled diaper just off the trail. They obviously didn't care that someone had to come along after them and pick it up. Coyote scat I can handle (not literally), baby scat is another matter. 

Of course, there's no way to get lost on a loop trail, even one that's not marked very well. There were a couple of obvious spurs that didn't go very far but were intended to take you to the edge of the escarpment for a better view. The image below shows Joe Pool Lake and in the far distance there's a pale hazy dome on the horizon 12 miles away. That's the new Altar to the Absurd of Jerry Jones, the Cowboys Stadium.

No worries, a serendipitous signpost will help you if you get turned around. 

Natural trail marker, though it's semi-inadvertent and seasonal—and is only brightly visible for a few moments during the day. This is a much better image with which to end on. It's a vine leaf of Muscadine, a wild summer grape Muscadinia rotundifolia. (It could be the locally common Mustang Grape Vitis mustangensis, though the leaf surface texture of the Mustang Grape doesn't quite match the image shown.)

Happy trails friends. I'm glad you stopped by. Remember to pack out what you pack in!

all photos copyright © 2011 by barry b. doyle · all rights reserved

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