Tag Archives: Leave No Trace

Saturday’s Critters – Kodi Goes Swimming and Other Fun Stuff

Our little Pomeranian Kodi loves to go swimming but his enthusiasm and joy are greater than his skill so when we take him swimming Heather has to hold on to him. Our rescue Terrier, Sadie, is not into swimming at all.

Great Blue Herons Flying Over the Arkansas River

On another bike ride on the Arkansas RiverParks Trails here in Tulsa I captured these two great blue herons flying low over the water below Zink Dam.

Great Egret in the Arkansas River

A great egret fishing

Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons Fishing At Zink Dam

And a bunch of great egrets and great blue herons trying to catch their breakfast.

Geese Sculpture on the Arkansas River

I stopped at a bench on the trail to rest up adjacent to this sculpture of geese.

Monarchs on the Mountain Banner

A couple weeks ago I worked “Monarchs on the Mountain” representing the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition. TUWC was deeply embedded in the event. We are a co-sponsor. A couple of our board members were on the organizing committee, and another was the MC of the event. Another board member takes care of the online part of the event using our website. Monarchs on the mountain is festival celebrating Monarch Butterflies and all other pollinators and the monarch migration which is happening now.

TUWC's Monarchs on the Mountain Booth

My role (that’s not me in the photo) was to man the booth and tell people who TUWC is and what we do.

TUWC Leave No Trace Diorama

This is a diorama that another board member made a couple years ago where we illustrate Leave No Trace principles for kids. We have a little story about Hans and Hilda going on a hike with their dogs. So we talk about leashing animals, staying on the trails, don’t throw your apple cores and banana peels out into the woods in the mistaken belief that you are helping feed the animals. Those little brown round things at the bottom of the photo are dog poops, not cinnamon rolls, so we throw them out and ask, “What do you do when your dog poops in the woods?” Answer is of course that you bag it and dispose of properly.

Working the booth is a lot of fun. I’ll tell you one thing, we get lots of Girl Scouts come by and they have the life cycle of monarch butterflies and Leave No Trace principles down. I’m very impressed with them and their adult leadership.

I am linking up with Saturday’s Critters

Ray Harral Nature Center – My “Go To” Hike in the Rain

So I am so behind in my posting. This Spring we had some very wet weather, which is fine except I like to go hiking in wet weather, even when it is muddy.

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The aftermath of a trail race I competed in north of Tulsa a few years. What a slog.

The problem is that the more I learn about “Leave No Trace” principles the more I learn that it is not ethical to go hiking in the mud. Even if the land managers don’t restrict it. My preferred place to hike is the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area here in Tulsa and they actually close the trails when they are muddy.

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The aftermath of a trail race on Turkey Mountain a few years ago. If you finish a trail race and you have no blood and mud on you, were you even there?

The problem is that the more I learn about “Leave No Trace” principles the more I learn that it is not ethical to go hiking in the mud. Even if the land managers don’t restrict it.

And the route of a trail race a few years ago at a State Park here in Tulsa.

My preferred place to hike is the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area here in Tulsa and they actually close the trails when they are muddy. I could go to other places that don’t ban hiking but I don’t really feel right about it. The alternative is go somewhere that has hard surfaces and the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow has Ray Harral Nature Center with resilient gravel and asphalt surfaces to walk on.

Harral’s trail bridge is a landmark.

The trails are pretty good after a good rain.

I was testing out a new camera for me. A Canon EOS R100 mirrorless unit. It’s an entry level mirrorless camera. I found it so light that I got a hand strap instead of a neck strap. I like it so far. Such a change from My Nikon that I had for years and loved. But hey, as old as I am, I can learn new things. One thing that I liked is that it stays in constant communication with my iphone. In fact it gets gps information from the phone to tag the photos. Anyway, back to business.

Harral packs a lot of woods and plants into a compact place.

A lot of different things to see.

And some history. The metal roof you see was once part of a spring house. There were cold springs and in the springhouse you could store your perishables.

Another view of the springhouse. You can’t really get down because it is right on a creek and terrifically muddy all the time.

So this was my route. I’ve got a way of looping out and back where I can get almost three miles without too much duplication.

If you want to learn more about Leave No Trace, hit this LNT Link. Lots of good information there.

I am linking with Through My Lens. Go check it out, lots of great bloggers post there.

Leave No Trace Conducts a Hot Spot on Turkey Mountain

It’s been a busy and productive past week. A team from the “Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics” based out of Boulder Colorado has been on Turkey Mountain conducting “Leave No Trace Hot Spot” training. A Hot Spot, is an area that is being loved to death and Turkey Mountain fills the bill. What they are trying to do is to teach people how to enjoy the outdoors responsibly to help these areas bounce back.

The Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition applied for, and received approval, for the Hot Spot. The River Parks Authority and the Herman and Kate Kaiser YMCA also sponsored the training. The Y provided their beautiful new revamped facility as the site for the training.

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The trainers surveyed the mountain and held workshops geared towards local teachers and property managers on how to educate students and park users to be better stewards of the land. It is all data and science driven. Check out their web site. They have a lot of resources available.

I learned a huge amount about how to use a property softly. No more will I throw an apple core into the woods after eating it. Nor will I cut across switchbacks when I am in a hurry. I learned that plastic bottles never decompose, ever. They just break into smaller and smaller pieces and now the average american eats about 44 pounds of microplastics during their lifetime. I also received a great deal of information about peeing and pooping outdoors.

It was also amazing that the Hot Spot training happened the week that the River Parks Authority announced the start of Phase One of the Turkey Mountain Master Plan.

This link has some great ideas to keep in mind when you want to outdoors.

They have a ton of stuff on their Youtube Channel. They have a whole series on “Don’t Be That Guy” Here is the first one.