Today was an absolutely gorgeous day outside, as slowly but surely, spring is pushing winter on its way. To take advantage of the favorable weather, we decided to take a day trip to Cunningham Falls State Park, near Thurmont, MD.

It just so happens that this weekend, the park was having a maple-syrup festival, where they gave live demonstrations of how they tap maple trees for their sweet sap and boil it down into pancake syrup. We stayed around a little while, listening to the demonstration, but soon found ourselves out on the trails, for which we came.

The forest in this park is very rocky, with rock outcroppings all over the place. Even most of the trails are littered with rocks, large and small, and of course, moss is decorating nearly all of the rocks.

I couldn’t have attached the moss on the rock below any better than nature itself. Beautiful, with the full covering, and yet enough gaps exposing the rock underneath. In fact, now I’m going to have to try and actually duplicate this kind of wonderful moss/rock work in my aquarium one of these days.

To start out, we took the trails that everyone takes to get to the park’s main attraction — the falls. Being a series of cascading falls, descending what is probably 4-5 stories, they are pretty impressive. Below is a picture of the bottom two sections of the falls.

Finally, we headed off to some more difficult and less frequented trails so that we could take in the forest, believing we were the only humans around. (For the most of the hike, that was the reality.) While the forest was still bare from winter, many of the trees had buds, ensuring that if we came back in a couple months, the woods would be entirely new.

Today, with the day off work for President’s Day, and the 70 degree weather outside, my wife and I decided to hike back to the falls at Patapsco Valley State Park. You may remember that the last time we visited them in autumn, that the falls were reduced to nothing more than a trickle. Fueled by some recent precipitation, I was very pleased to see that they have been restored.

I was also surprised to see how green many of the ferns and mosses were, despite some really frigid temperatures last week. I guess these particular plants are native, and thus well adapted to the temperature zone. If you happen to be local to the Maryland area, Patapsco Valley State Park is a wonderful way to walk away an afternoon.

With many more miles of trails than you can possibly traverse in a day, it’s a great place to visit over and over again. After viewing the waterfall, we continued our hike, seeing a number of types of mosses, birds, and even a whole flock of 10-15 deer. A couple of them stuck around to let me take their picture. They were not very interested in me moving any closer than this, however.

Our area finally got some snow yesterday for only the second time this winter. The temperature barely stayed below freezing, but it allowed for 2-4″ of snow. I got home from work with just enough daylight to spend about 45 minutes photographing spots along the Little Patuxent River near my home.

I’ve been waiting all season for a good snowfall so that I could come out and take pictures of the river with snow-covered banks, rocks, and vegetation. I figured that I’d be the only one out on the trails, as it was sleeting when I was out there, but surprisingly, I saw joggers, dog walkers, and even a cross-country skier.

This was a very wet snow, so it stuck to anything and everything. Tree trunks were painted quite nicely with snow like the one below.

When first looking through these pictures, I was taken by how they look like black+white prints. I really didn’t desaturate any of them. The lack of green from the seasonal leaf drop, combined with the contrast of the bright snow to the darker tree limbs yields little color.

In many places the water seemed to be moving slower than usual, even though it wasn’t frozen hard. I’d like to say that it was like a moving slurpy, but I’d be lying. It’s more like a glass lake.

That said, some parts still kept their usual ripples and rapids. But, of course, the white precipitation made them even prettier than usual.

I’ve always enjoyed the first few hours after a good snow because the tree branches are completely coated with white. Then, as squirrels and wind breaks through the limbs, the original luster is lost.

I imagine this snow won’t stick around very long, as it’s supposed to get a bit above freezing this weekend. It’s the snow covered rocks in this picture that I really like.

Here’s a zoomed in shot from the same vantage point. I think I like this one better.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures, and hopefully if you got snow yesterday, you were able to enjoy it like I did, instead of being frustrated by the inconveniences it can cause.

This weekend, my wife and I made went hiking in Patapsco Valley State Park. We’ve been to the park before to see some small waterfalls, but this time that part of the park was closed, so we took to the forest trails. All of the leaves have now fallen, but this allows you to see the landscape better, and for longer distances.

From a distance, fallen trees in small valleys could easily be inspiration for aquatic hardscape. Even scenes that aren’t very interesting, still have appeal, if just for some awkward bending tree trunks like the ones below. On the trail, besides the occasional mountain biker, it was pretty quiet. We saw a few squirrels, and the occasional woodpecker searching for a hidden meal, but for the most part it was a nice quiet walk through the forest.

After a few miles, we finally came back around to find a cold stream flowing over river rocks. We took a minute to listen to the trickling of the water, and enjoyed the green of the evergreen beside it. I spend a good deal of time trying to create a beautiful underwater landscape to enjoy, that it’s easy to forget that free ones are all around you outside.

We’ve had some unseasonably warm weather in our region recently, but gradually the weather has been turning cooler this week. I know many folks enjoy year-round warm weather, but for me, I enjoy the cold winters, the seasonal change, and the landscape that changes with it.

Today we took a walk near our house to some trails along the Middle and Little Patuxent Rivers. Even though we’ve had some of the coldest days of the season recently, I wasn’t expecting there to be a lot of ice on the river, as today it was well above freezing. To my delight, I was wrong; there were ice crystals everywhere along the banks and rocks.

It’s amazing how beautiful the ice can be, forming in so many different configurations. My favorite ones are the long, spiky, crystals like the ones below. Many of the rocks that are normally visible were completely consumed by ice. That said, the ice itself wasn’t really all that thick, full of air pockets, and requiring little force to be broken.

Some of the ice was a bit mushier like this below. I imagine that all of the asiatic clams normally found in this area are deep into the riverbed, trying to keep warm. Obviously, the small amount of the aquatic plant-life found in this river has long since melted away.

My favorite set of ice crystals from our walk were the ones shown below. It appeared that after the ice formed, the river and sun worked from above and below to create holes, making the unique pattern seen below.

At a distance, some of the ice formations looked more like snow banks along the river. Very pretty, creating a serene feeling in the winter forest. Despite lacking the lush green growth, and animal calls normally heard in warmer weather, the forest maintains its beauty year round.

Autumn is one of my favorite times of year, with the leaves changing colors, and the crisp, but still pleasant air turning cooler. Last year, I discovered that the reservoir I have previously collected plants from is completely dry at this time of year. An entire lake is literally dried up to a small brook, leaving a huge field of emersed growth aquatic vegetation. As if that isn’t cool enough, the dried up lake bed has natural boundaries making it the perfect place to let my two dogs run their hearts out.

Above, is Bella, our weimaraner/lab mix running herself silly. She really is a bit nutty, but not nearly as much as the grin on her face suggests.

The receded water left many large rock-outcroppings in the middle of the field. Many of these could easily pose as inspiration for an iguwami-style aquascape. The rocks, merged with the brook and autumn leaves really left a nice environment for a stroll. Most years, the leaves would be a much more intense coloration, but due to the severe drought our area has had in recent months, they’ve held back a bit.

I was quite startled halfway through our walk when I nearly stepped on this snake, slithering from the cracked earth and moving toward some shade. I haven’t a clue what type of snake it is, but nevertheless, I let it go on it’s way. Fortunately, the dogs didn’t see it!

The only downside of the afternoon was that our pants and boots were covered with hitch-hiker seed pods that did quite a good job at sticking through our pants and into skin. They came from some thistle-looking seeds pods on the top of some really beautiful red-leaved plants. Unfortunately, I’ve tried growing that plant before submerged, and it melts.

Otherwise, it was a great way to tucker our dogs out a little bit, and enjoy the fall weather. I’ll be sure to post some more aquarium-related posts this week, as I’ve been doing work on my 75G and 40G scapes. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

This weekend, my wife and I took a short hike through a very small section of Patapsco Valley State Park in Elkridge, Maryland. I had seen a few pictures on Flickr showing a beautiful cascading waterfall off of one of their trails. We decided to go and try to get some pictures of our own. Unfortunately, the low water levels created a much less impressive waterfall, but we still had a great, relaxing, time visiting the park.

We were happy to find a number of smaller waterfalls up and down the area from the main falls. In many ways, I found the smaller waterfalls more interesting than the main one. One thing I did notice is that the pools underneath the waterfalls contained very little wildlife besides some common water bugs.

Upstream, however, was a different case. In areas with more vegetation on the banks, we spotted several large schools of fish, newts, and frogs hopping from the banks into the water on our arrival.

The creek itself was quite barren of plant life, containing only a rocky/sandy substrate. The small fish, which I believe could be blacknose dace, persistently tried to take cover in the shadows under rocks, but their shear numbers made that a laughable endeavor.

Throughout the watershed, I spotted a large number of Polygonum-looking plants, but none of them submersed. I suspect this is due to the shady habitat of the forest, the fast-moving current in the streams, and the barren rocky substrate in the water.

The forest itself is quite beautiful, with huge moss-covered rocks providing the stronghold for trees to take root along the waterside. I was happy to see that the trails themselves were not littered with significant garbage or human impact, detracting from the natural setting.

Besides the already mentioned wildlife, we spotted several butterflies, spiders, and even some whitetail deer. One tree branch (below) was covered a cotton-like substance, that upon closer inspection turned out to be some sort of insect larvae/pupa. If anyone can identify these guys, I’d be grateful.

Patapsco Valley State Park is a large area of land stuck right in the middle of overdeveloped areas of Baltimore and Howard counties. We really only experienced a very small section of the park. I’m sure we could spend an entire summer hiking through all of the trails without seeing everything there. I hope to do some more exploring of the trails, and most of all, hope to get some more waterfall pictures when the water levels are more impressive.

As I’ve posted previously, I enjoy taking my two dogs on some trails near my house that follow the Little and Middle Patuxent Rivers. Unfortunately, the trail ends right before where these two pretty rivers meet. Determined to get a good picture of this juncture, I waterlogged my shoes and headed down river, being careful not to fall on the algae-covered rocks. I probably should have waited another 30 minutes for this picture, but I hope it captures the beauty of these bodies of water. Just within 100 yards of the trail there was noticeably more wildlife, including a black snake, some large water birds, and countless little trout/bass in the pools.

After work today, I decided to take the dogs on some trails near my house that follow along the Middle Patuxent River. I like these trails because they’re not paved, and once you get on them, you rarely see anyone else along the way. You can still hear some of the traffic from the major highways surrounding the area, but for the most part, you have the illusion that you’re lost in nature.

Today, I was fortunate to see 6-7 deer out on the trails. They didn’t stick around long enough for me to take their picture, but they are quite magnificent creatures, especially the males with their large antlers. I’m not sure what the true rating of cleanliness for this river is, but I’m often encouraged when I see several frogs, water bugs, and freshwater asiatic clams in the riverbed. Of course, the clams themselves are introduced, but that’s for someone else to worry about.

The aquatic vegetation is not very rich in this waterway. I suspect that is due to a combination of too much shade, and too little still water to allow plants to get rooted. I have spotted what appears to be a species of Polygonum, both in the water and along the banks, but little else of interest. Nevertheless, it really is a beautiful river that I enjoy visiting. I hope you enjoy the pictures as well.

This past weekend, Aaron from GWAPA and I decided to go on a small collecting trip at a reservoir about 30 minutes away. It was a warm, humid day, but we braved the heat and found some really interesting stuff. Like my Florida trip, the water levels were well below their normal levels, exposing most of the aquatic foliage to the air and sunlight. Most of the species that we found had to be able to grow emersed from the water. A striking example is this field of emersed Rotala ramosior.

One of the few exceptions was this little gem that we found in amongst a huge patch of Hydrilla. We believe it’s some form of native Sagittaria or Vallisneria. None of the leaves that we found were much longer than 4-5 inches, so we have high hopes that we’ll experience the same thing in our tanks. The crinkled, or slightly spiraling leafs could have a very nice mid-ground potential is they stay that size.

There was no shortage of Polygonum available around this reservoir. We found at least two distinct species, although I didn’t take any as I don’t find many of this species appealing in an aquascape. As you can see, there was lots of nice driftwood available too, but we didn’t take any of that either. In fact, the few pieces that we were interested in were tree stumps where the water had carved out amazing crevices throughout the root system. Unfortunately, those roots were still very much planted in the ground!

Below is just another example of where we were finding plants. In among a ton of tiny toads, there was more Ludwigia palustris than anyone would ever want. Rotala ramosior was also mixed in with other non-aquatic plants.