Bloodpits Trail October 24, 2009
A white-tailed buck and doe greeted me as I arrived at the trail head of Ringtail Ridge. Took the Bloodpits trail and immediately noticed the large number of American snout nose butterflies and dragonflies present. Does this mean there's water?Also saw cloudless sulfurs and numerous hairstreaks. They're excited about a foxwood with white flowers. And some Monarch butterflies and bees attracted to the velvetleaf mallow plant with it's yellow flowers. Lantana are drawing their share of butterflies.
The bloodpits, or ponds, have standing water and are nourishing a yellow sunflower. The water is attracting dragonflies and blue damsels. I watched a dragonfly crush a damsel fly. Mosquitoes are also plentiful with the standing water. It's pretty amazing to see all this standing water after the summer drought. The scenery could almost be mistaken for a corner of Spring Lake with all the activity flying above it.
The downside of all this rain is the erosion that has occurred on the ADA trail (gravel 1/2 mile path). At a couple places the rain washed out the gravel and left the black liner showing. The trail crew has their work cut-out for them as the mountain bike trails are overgrown in a couple areas. Not a bad thing but requiring some maintenance.Wanna help?
A field, where we planted some wildflowers a year-and-a-half ago, is now overgrown with the Bermuda grass that we worked hard to remove. Can't buck nature.
A lot of people were out taking advantage of the weather and beautiful trails. A group of four hikers, a jogger and a mountain biker. If you plan on getting close to nature and taking some of the single-track trails (which are beautiful) don't forget the bug spray as the mosquitoes are hungry.Now would be a good time to take advantage of the trails whether you're a hiker, jogger or biker. The weather won't get better and the views are simply amazing!
Enjoy!
-- Lance Jones
