Posted in Central Ohio, Geology, Park review

Rising Park: The View from Mount Pleasant

Posted on by Deb Platt

Lancaster, Ohio has a population just under 39,000, and it is the county seat of Fairfield County. It has a municipal park known as “Rising Park.” The park offers the normal sort of amenities that you might expect: a pond, picnic tables, playgrounds… things of that nature. But what’s unusual about the park is its terrain. Rising 250-foot (76 m) above the surrounding plain is a bluff known as “Mount Pleasant.” The bluff is made of highly erosion-resistant Blackhand sandstone. From the top of Mount Pleasant you have an exceptional view of the city and the forested hills at its outskirts.

The county fairgrounds have a permanent site in Lancaster which is the county seat. Here I am looking down at the horse race track that’s located on these fairgrounds.

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Posted in Birds, Park review, Southeastern Ohio

Kessler Swamp State Nature Preserve

Posted on by Bob Platt

We’d visited every (non-permit) park and preserve in Hocking county except one – Kessler Swamp. This weekend on the way home from a hike at Conkles Hollow, we stopped there. The parking lot for the preserve in a pull-off off of Hideaway Hills Road. A very short path leads you to an observation platform overlooking the swamp.

Kessler Swamp in late afternoon. A nearby hill has cast its shadow over the foreground.

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Posted in Helpful hints, Hiking

Gearing Up For Ohio Winter Hiking Season

Posted on by Bob Platt

Four years ago we participated in our first winter hike – 6 miles from Old Man’s Cave to Ash Cave with a small group of approximately 5,500 people. There was snow and ice on the ground and the temperature was just below freezing. It was awesome! We’ve been hooked on winter hiking ever since.

Huge icicles draping cliff edges.

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Posted in Plants and trees

Ground Cedar and Its Combustible Spores

Posted on by Deb Platt
Structure holding the spores of a Ground Cedar plant.

The above plant has a number of names. I’m going to go with Ground Cedar, but it belongs to a family of plants (a genus) that’s also called Groundcedar, Crowsfoot, and Clubmoss. I’m not absolutely certain, but I think its specific species is Diphasiastrum digitatum. It is a vascular plant which means that it has veins within its stem and leaves for transporting fluids, minerals and food. Before I became acquainted with it, I had thought that ferns were the only vascular plants that reproduced via spores. But it turns out that there are other plants called fern allies that also produce spores. Not only is Ground Cedar a spore-producing fern ally, it produces spores that can catch fire in a spectacular way. It’s fire-catching spores are used to this day to make special effects fireballs in movies. In the past its spores were used in old-time flash photography and to my complete surprise the combustible spores of one of its relatives were used to power the first internal combustion engine.

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Posted in Hiking, Park review, Southeastern Ohio

Zaleski State Forest

Posted on by Bob Platt

At 26,827 acres, Zaleski State Forest is the second only to Shawnee State Forest in size.  Located in Ohio within Vinton and Athens counties, this region was in the vanguard of the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Besides mining coal and iron ore, local residents cut down huge swaths of forest to produce charcoal for the region’s many furnaces where iron workers cast pig iron.

Parking area for Zaleski State Forest.

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Posted in Bugs

The Walkingstick Insect

Posted on by Deb Platt

I was in luck as I approached the Nature Center at Blendon Woods Metro Park in Columbus. A staff member told me that she was just about to release a walking stick into the wild, and she asked me if I’d like to watch. You’ll note that the insect above has a pincer like appendage at the end of its abdomen. She explained to me that this meant this particular insect was a male walking stick. The appendage is used to grip the female while mating. Another difference between the sexes is that the male is brown, while the female is greenish-brown. The male is also smaller than the female with the male being about 3 inches long, while the female grows up to 3.75 inches.

Common Walkingstick, also known as Northern Walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata)

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