Cosmos Day 2014

Cosmos Day -- A Day of Exploration

In celebration of Cosmos Day, I decided to slow down and explore some near-wilderness area near me, starting from Pundt Park and hiking along the Spring Creek Greenway.

I usually bike this route for a round trip of about 20 miles and try to keep my speed up, so I don't stop to look at the flora or take the horse trails or the hiking trails. Today, though, I decided to take it slow. The temperature was about 90°, about 70% humidity, and sunny. It should be noted that the Spring Creek eventually meets Cypress Creek and then flows into the San Jacinto River. Cypress Creek was once known as Cypress Bayou, but the good people of Spring and Klein and Champions didn't want to be known as living along a bayou, so they had the name officially change to a creek, which is less cajun or Louisianan or something. Some of the older towns and railway stops still refer to Cypress Bayou, but the creek name is stuck now and FM Road (Farm to Market Road) 1960 has been recently renamed Cypress Creek Parkway, making north Harris County another example as to how Houston simply cannot maintain any historic identity and tries to hide its agricultural past.

Texas. General Land Office, Texas. Comptroller's Office, 1852

Old cypress trees with knees

Horse trails -- they have it nice.

Part of this historic erasure is the fact that no mention of the original use of the Spring Creek Parkway -- an old logging road build early in the 20th century with an odd bridge structure mid-way that seems to have originally been used to cross into Montgomery County. Only the tressel on the Harris County side remains. Years ago I would hike from my house through the deep woods, undeveloped except for the remnants of the logging trails, through the briars and thickets (I know, it's a trope, but it's true), eating black berries and ensuring that I didn't disturb the families of wild boar. I would take my dogs who loved the adventure, we would swim in the creek, then turn around for the fight back through the briars to get home.

Little guy wouldn't sit still for his photo shoot

Unripe muscadines. I'll be back

Reminders of the great 2011 drought

Now it's an easy stroll along the Greenway, except for the heat and humidity. On bike, the entire bridge-to-bridge trek takes about 25 minutes at a fast pace. Walking, though, showed me some truly interesting scenes and gave me a chance to appreciate the distance more. The old 1950's era cars lost in the woods have been neatly removed -- I suspect that loggers or bootleggers brought the cars out, they wouldn't start, and just let them there for decades. I know they're unsafe and people could cut themselves on the old rusted metal and get tetanus, but they were odd surprises in the deep woods -- three or four brown cars and trucks dropped haphazardly from the sky, sitting like the Woodsman for a Dorothy to get them going. 

I had to get my feet wet in the creek again. My hiking boots haven't been used in a year and I'll need them in Mexico next month. But the horse trails are often sand, which is a pain. After 2.3 miles in and then turning around, the feet were slightly swollen and I had already been sweating for an hour.

Spring Creek along the white sands. To the left is Harris County; to the right is Montgomery County.

Aleuria aurantia

Apparently Aleuria aurantia, also called the orange peel mushrom is edible "but not choice." The Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org) describes the fungus:

Aleuria aurantia is known as the orange peel fungus and is a cup fungi. This bright orange fungus has a brittle fruiting body consisting of several folds that look like several small cups, hence the name. A. aurantia is small, growing up to 4".The underside is felt-looking and white. A. aurantia is stalk-less and often grows in clusters as on dead wood.

 I didn't think of eating it, so I let it be. It's nice the way it is.

Not sure, but perhaps Brown Mushroom

This other fungi I'm not sure about. I'll need to bring a plant book along next time. Notice the small snail center.

On the way back, ran into a middle-aged couple with their two dogs. The husband trying to get the dogs to drink out of a water bottle, which has limited success considering that dogs can't wrap their lips around bottle mouths. One basset hound, "Almost," is about 9 years old, was sitting and panting, and clearly thought that it was time to turn around back to the car. The other dog, a black mix named "Dolce" is only 6 months and isn't smart enough to know that long hikes in Houston in July might be a bad idea. Had a good conversation with the couple about rescue dogs (they've rescued at least three) and the layout of the Greenway. They haven't spent much time on the trails but expressed their pleasure in having the resource so close. Then I spoke to another middle-aged lady who had passed us on her bike but had stopped to rest and hydrate. She cycles every weekend along her own 14 mile circuit, and has been doing so for three years. Of course, if I had been on my bike, I wouldn't have conversed with any of these people. I should have photographed the dogs, at least. 

Depending on how one defines hiking at my pace (about 3.2 mph), and considering heat and humidity, I likely burned about 1000 calories. I was seriously thinking "cheesecake" on the way back (but didn't). I've been hydrating all afternoon but still haven't gotten where I need to be. Was unprepared and didn't take my camelback water source, and there's no excuse for that, but it was a short hike.

#cosmosday was a success -- I took a normal place and explored it in a new way, saw, heard, smelled (breathed real air), was pleased to have the sounds of cars silenced for a few hours (though the sounds of planes headed to/from IAH were still discerned). I'm more curious about the flora now than I was before. Another book I'll need to buy, I guess. I know more about my area, I understand more about how the county redefines itself and forgets its history, yet appreciate public space being provided at no charge for everyone to use.

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