8-31-13 Gunpowder Falls - Central Start

8-31-13 Gunpowder falls (Central)

Went on a nice morning hike this am! hurray! 

I'm learning to love my regular lens a bit more, and not just taking a bunch of macro shots.
of course --- there are still insects to be photographed!:

and the flowers:

so this lady was jogging and slowed down, I stopped to let her pass (as i was photographing this spider) and she was like "i didn't want to barge on by and disturb a butterfly" ... I bit back telling her that spiders don't scare that easily. Other things about spiders: Holy Spiderwebs! I swear I cleared the first part of the path out of it's morning spiderwebs! I wanted to shout at the people starting hiking as i was going back "You're WELCOME that you don't have spiderwebs all over you. that was me. clearing them. for you apparently"

Then there was this awesome doorway!

There was this awesome little cubby hole  of mushrooms and magic. I was listening to my headphones but I did hear someone walking past me so I turned, and realized he was speaking to me. and spoke true words "There is nothing better than getting lost in the woods with your camera" !!! so true! also, it speaks of how much a putz a camera makes me when a guy and a small boy on a tricycle in the woods pass me!

A nice stone bridge, that I luckily did not fall off of!

I really wish this was more in focus, I thought it was! so i didn't take it again. but there were a lot of faces in here

So a jogger told me that there was a copperhead snake on the path coming up, but it was not on the main path. It turned out to be maybe the main path or maybe not, but in the middle of a path. I was not the closest person to it. It didn't really move all that much, and we weren't sure if it was alive, though i don't think the normal posture for dead snakes is with the head up in the air. A guy on a mountain bike was like "i feel like maybe i should try to move it along" ... to which i was like "uhhh ... maybe not? at least not with me nearby"

I ran into a young couple on the way back and warned them about the snake, and they sensibly said "lets turn back now."

However all the couples with *young children* I saw were all like "WE'RE GOING TO GO SEE THE POISONOUS SNAKE!!!!"

seriously. there were two or three couples who did this.

Then on the way back I was awkwardly hiking close to the sensible couple who had turned back from the snake so I stopped off at a little sand bar by the river. I saw some sunning butterflies! hurray!