The other day I grabbed up my hiking gear and headed out to Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. I took my “grabbers” and a small grocery bag to gather trash. People are pretty good about picking up after themselves so I used to take a small garbage bag but I usually only find an item or two during my hikes.

I took a little side trail pretty soon after the trailhead to find a geocache.

And yep I found it. Another use of grabbers is to grab into places you can’t see so that mr snake doesn’t clamp down on my hand. That would ruin my whole day.

I didn’t see too many critters. A few squirrels maybe, no big critters. I took along my Merlin Bird ID app on the phone. It’s amazing. Turn it on audio mode and it identified:
Red-eyed vireo
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Northern Cardinal
I didn’t see a one of them!! I glimpsed small birds flitting around in the thick woods but I couldn’t vouch for any of them. One I did get a good look at looked like a small woodpecker with a redhead but it wasn’t making any sounds. I don’t know what it is though. It’s kind of frustrating but kind of fun as well. I think being able to spot and ID them will come with practice and patience.

I came upon a fallen tree on one of the small legacy trails. I took a photo of it with my Solocator app which puts the coordinates on the photos and posted it on Turkey Mountain’s facebook page and they had it cleared before I ended my hike. You gotta have the apps folks.

I got to Pepsi Lake and looked around.

I found a mess that somebody left, including a styrofoam cup and some fishing spinner bait packaging. Why can people not haul out what they haul in?

And a Pepsi can, at Pepsi Lake! All the trash fit into my shopping bag that I brought.

I kept heading north and heard some construction type noise. Excited that more trails might be under construction made me hurry to find the source.

It was pipeline construction going on. Ironically my former employer is having to relocate a line because of some highway construction and they cut a deal with my employer before that to lay in their right of way.

That’s not the way the energy industry typically was back in the old days. You had to have sharp elbows to survive. We didn’t spend too much time holding hands and singing Kumbaya with competitors let alone helping each other out. So maybe it is a kinder and gentler industry now?

So I followed the construction from a distance just to make sure that they are doing it right. I guess they are and I was getting tired so I headed back to the parking lot.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.