184 Miles of Awesome

That's a good way to describe the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath (yes, tow, not toe). It begins in Georgetown and stretches all the way to Cumberland Maryland. A cool fact I'd love to exploit one day is that in Cumberland it connects with the Great Allehgeny Passage Trail allowing for a complete bicycling corridor from Washington, DC to the Steel City. As an alum of the University of Pittsburgh living in Silver Spring, this intrigues me. However, as an individual with a 9-5 job, I doubt I'll ever have the time to make such a trip happen. Regardless, there's plenty to enjoy in and near DC along this trail. The history is worth reading up on, if local lore interests you.

Within the first sixty miles there are quite a number of sights. They still run canal boats at the Georgetown end. Great Falls is quite beautiful and kid-friendly, but also quite crowded. The Billy Goat Trail is worth a look, and gives you the opportunity to scramble over boulders and encounter some great views of the river. A little farther out, you can cross the Potomac at White's Ferry on a still-operational river ferry. Harper's Ferry is a quaint and historic town with a lot to offer, including breathtaking views from the Maryland Heights.

Great blue herons (Ardea herodias), as well as other wetland birds, are common sights along the canal.

These giant puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) made a delicious soup.

This enormous tree near White's Ferry I found interesting...if I recall it was a sugar maple, but I can't tell from my own photo. Please ignore the bag of feces in my hand; it's the hazard of being a naturalist dog owner.

This large coprinoid mushroom was another good find at White's Ferry. I think it is a specimen of shaggy mane (Coprinus comatus) because of its large size, but I am not 100% sure. I don't think any other Mid-Atlantic inky caps grow to such sizes, but I could be mistaken.

Argiope trifasciata (banded garden spider).

Here's a close-up of the garden spider. I can't quite tell what she's making a meal of (I say "she" because males are much smaller).

Can you believe that this setting can be found just outside the city, in Great Falls, Virginia?

The ever-present white tailed deer are of course found along the entire length of the trail, more or less.

Dam! (I'm mature, eh?)

Franklin and I checking out the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, at Harpers Ferry.

All of the above are located within an easy drive of DC, and honestly any access point over that sixty mile stretch has something interesting to offer. Regardless of your age, outdoor experience, or interest level in such things (unless it's zero) I recommend a trip to the C & O Canal Towpath on some lazy weekend day.

Bike Commuting

The first thing one needs for a bike commute. This happens to be where mine starts.

Commuting via bicycle has been a drastic game-changer in my adult life. There are of course real naturalist's reasons for doing so: cutting your emissions, sticking it to Big Oil, getting out into nature, and so forth. Those were some of my reasons for doing it. But really, my reasons were primarily a lot more selfish. It saves money in the long run, it forced me to get into better shape, and it's just plain fun. The benefits surprised me though - I feel better. I'm less often tired. I'm more alert, and hence better at my job. It makes me crave a better diet (well, most of the time). Finally, if you live here you know how much driving around DC sucks. You know how, no matter one's intentions, most of us pick up horrendous driving habits almost as a set of survival skills and thus contribute to the problem. Where I'm going with this is: I hate my commute so much less. Bike commuting has become a great stress-reducer.

I'm not telling you to (yes I am) start commuting (do it) by bicycle. What I am (are you cycling yet) doing is pointing out that if you live in the DC suburbs it is probably an option for you (get on that bike) even if you think it's not. Take my commute for instance. It begins near Downtown Silver Spring and ends, about ten miles later, in Rockville near Randolph Road. Before my friend Dustin told me about it, I wouldn't have thought there was a straightforward bike route between these two places. Yet, almost all of my ride is on the paved Rock Creek Trail. The Maryland 'burbs are full of these trails: The Millenium Trail, The Matthew Henson Trail, The Capital Crescent Trail and Georgetown Branch Trail (which is more or less complete on both ends, despite mapped appearances), are just a few. Virtually all of the roads in and around Potomac are extremely bike-friendly. If that's not enough, organizations like Bike Arlington and WABA will get you started.

OK, all jokes aside I'm not here to instruct anyone on how to live their lives. If biking isn't for you then it just isn't. But, if you're reading this and have ever considered it, I urge you to consider further, and I hope that I have helped make your decision easier. The rest of what I want to share today is simply a series of photos chronicling one day (today) of biking to work. I hope they will be enticing.

This photo doesn't do it justice, but this is what my coworker and I have come to refer to as THE HILL. In the morning this is a pleasant boost of speed; in the evening it's a last hurdle to clear before showering.

Here the path disappears under Connecticut Avenue. Believe me, this is better than the alternative.

...like this truck full of shit.

As with any form of transportation, however, there are just some days when something completely unexpected holds you up.

Here I'm nearing the end of the bike path (well, for me). Occasionally I take the road you can see here - Beach Drive - instead. It's more dangerous but faster... and traffic here generally knows what's up with the bicycles.

This is the only horrendous intersection (well, aside from the one just outside my apartment) that I must deal with. It's not so bad, though - one just has to wait for the light.

I will finish with some uncaptioned photos from the return trip. Enjoy!

Species Feature #4, Oyster Mushroom

Since everything so far in these capsules has been an animal, I decided it was time for a change. Since mycology is a pretty major focus of my naturalist activities, it's only appropriate to highlight some fungi for you. The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is very common, very delicious, grows gregariously, can be found year round, and is relatively easy to identify. In other words, they are fungal ambrosia. One thing I should throw out there as a technicality: there are several similar species which, for all intents and purposes, are the same. However, we have to trust our scientists, and if they tell me that a specimen I have is really Pleurotus populinus I won't argue. But, unless there's a practical difference I don't much care. I'm glad I'm aware of this, but I also won't split hairs. If it's close enough to be referred to as a "species complex" differentiating the species from one another is probably beyond me at this point anyway.

This mushroom is quite variable in appearance, but this I think is a good general photo. Classically their growth pattern is a little different.

Pleurotus ostreatus Quick Facts

Common Name(s): oyster mushroom

Taxonomic Breakdown:

• Kingdom -Fungi
• Phylum - Basidiomycota
• Class - Agaricomycetes
• Order - Agaricales
• Family - Tricholomataceae
• Genus - Pleurotus
• Species - ostreatus

Range: Worldwide (with some exceptions) in temperate and subtropical woods and forests

Here it is found glowing atop a log instead of hanging from the side of a tree or stump. Different configuration, slightly different coloring, same mushroom.

If I tried to describe the mushroom's features (cap, stem, gills, growth habits, substrates, etc) I would only be copying the work of others - and there are only so many ways to say "stem absent or lateral" and so forth. Instead, I will link you to some quality sites.

It's a bold move to call your site Mushroom Expert. It may even seem pretentious from anyone other than a doctor of mycology. Here's the thing: it isn't. Michael Kuo, who runs the site, absolutely knows what he's talking about. He's an English teacher, so he's also knows how to talk about it. Anyway, here's Kuo's writeup of oyster mushrooms.

Tom Volk is another expert, albeit one I'm less familiar with.
Mycoweb is another excellent site.
And another, which points out some of the other similar and hard to separate species.

There is a species (or maybe many species) of beetle which REALLY loves this mushroom. I have only found it referred to as a "small black beetle" but it has been remarked upon in relation to this mushroom quite a bit.

Here I am preparing for the harvest. I'm not sure what that look on my face is. Photo credit to Laurel.

The two clusters of oyster mushroom pictured above were collected from two places I've already discussed in detail on this blog: Watkins Regional Park (the specimens hanging from above) and Rock Creek Park (the specimens growing up from the log).

Naturalism on Speed: The Challenge

I've decided to turn a previous post here into a personal challenge. I recently began updating this post every time I came across a new species while cycling, and decided to turn this into a bit of a game. The longer my list grew, the more I found myself squinting at everything I passed, striving further and further to coax identity from animals and plants alike. I've set the arbitrary but (I hope) reachable goal of fifty successfully identified species before the end of THE BIG RIDE which is happening at the end of this month. I've also decided on a second challenge: an even hundred by the end of this year.

The Rules

No challenge is complete without a set of rules, and this will be no exception. This isn't just a test to see how many species can be found in this area, or to prove how much diversity abounds. This is a test of observational skills as well.

Rule #1: Only animals, plants, and fungi (read: macroscopic life) which can be identified with certainty may be counted. None of this "well, that looked like a ________" business. For example: I have passed several sumacs - and known that they were sumacs - but since several sumac species occur in this region and I can't tell with my naked eye while passing at 15-20 mph which is which, I have omitted them from my list. That said, if only the merest shred of doubt as to a specimen's identity can be raised, I will count it.

Rule #2: Species are eligible for this list only if they can be identified without making any "unnatural" stops. A "natural" stop is one which must be made for the purposes of the ride only. Reasons for such a stop include but are not limited to: traffic signals, bicycle maintenance, checking directions, nutritional intake, and waste evacuation. Since the spirit of this exercise is rapid identification, stopping to literally smell the roses is not allowed. Nor is stopping to fondle the trees, collect the mushrooms, gawk at the squirrel, etc.

Rule #3: Retroactive identification is not allowed, except for refining information I already possess. In other words, I have to know what I'm seeing when I see it (at least a common name, and vague things like "maple" or "frog" don't count). This doesn't mean that I can't research and build my knowledge base between rides, but if I find something in a guide and think "oh, so that's what that was!" I cannot count it unless I see another specimen on a later ride. Here's an example in practice of one I did count: I knew that a flower I was seeing was called fleabane, and I noticed that some patches were very pink and others almost pure white. When I got home, I discovered that "common fleabane" and "daisy fleabane" are separate but related species. This I consider refining. If, however, I thought "oh, that thing looks like daisies but isn't...I wonder what it is," and then looked it up, that would be right out.

Rule #4: Humans, dogs, cats, horses, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and any other domesticated animals do not count. I specify those eight because I have seen all of these on one ride or another...but this rule extends to iguanas, ferrets, spider monkeys (you get the idea). Plants in planters or obviously landscaped (private) gardens do not count; however, plants in a park or other public space which were obviously planted by humans do count. I may regret this rule if I come up eight or fewer species short of either goal, but identifying pets and livestock isn't really in the spirit of what I'm trying to do.

Rule #5: No, there will be no draft. This rule simply states that any specimen that can be seen from my apartment, place of employment, or other frequented locale are not fair game. This is to prevent pseudo-accidental cheating, in which I ride past the white ash trees in my apartment complex and pretend I really could tell in passing that that's what they are. The species as a whole are not excluded from the game, but I must find a specimen elsewhere, and ID it from the bicycle, in order for it to make the list.

I didn't cheat and count this deer - believe me, I've seen plenty.

The List

I will copy the list so far here. Before this morning's epiphany and formal self-challenge, it stood at twenty species.

This was not taken while biking, but does feature a couple of species listed below.

• Vulpes vulpes (red fox)
• Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer)
• Ardea herodia (great blue heron)
• Sciurus carolinensis (eastern gray squirrel)
• Sylvilagus floridanus (eastern cottontail)
• Aquila chrysaetos (golden eagle)
• Turdus migratorius (American robin)
• Castor canadensis (North American beaver)
• Cardinalis cardinalis (northern cardinal)
• Mimus polyglottos (northern mockingbird)
• Phalacrocorax auritus (double-crested cormorant)
• Anas platyrhynchos (mallard)
• Procyon lotor (raccoon)
• Branta canadensis (Canada goose)
• Marmota monax (groundhog, woodchuck) added 4/30/11
• Spinus tristis (American goldfinch, eastern goldfinch) added 4/30/11
• Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) added 4/30/11
• Didelphis virginiana (Virginia opossum) was deceased, so maybe it shouldn't count. added 4/30/11
• Podophyllum peltatum (mayapple)  added 4/30/11
• Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy) added 4/30/11

The continually updated list, from today until the end of the challenge, follows. Today was a heck of a day because I put so much thought into this.

Lamb's ear

• Zenaida macroura (mourning dove, rain dove, western turtle dove) added 5/3/11
• Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle) added 5/3/11
• Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust, false acacia) added 5/3/11
• Pinus strobus (eastern white pine) added 5/3/11
• Cornus florida (flowering dogwood) added 5/3/11
• Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper) added 5/3/11
• Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore) added 5/3/11
• Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip poplar, yellow poplar, tuliptree) added 5/3/11
• Conopholis americana (bear corn, American cancer-root, squawroot) added 5/3/11
• Trifolium repens (white clover) added 5/3/11
• Typha latifolia (common cattail) added 5/3/11
• Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) added 5/3/11
• Erigeron annuus (daisy fleabane) added 5/3/11
• Erigeron philadelphicus (common fleabane) added 5/3/11
• Liquidambar styraciflua (American sweetgum, redgum) added 5/5/11
• Picoides pubescens (downy woodpecker) added 5/5/11
• Juglans nigra (eastern black walnut) aded 5/5/11
• Sturnus vulgaris (European starling, common starling) added 5/5/11
• Quiscalus quiscula (common grackle) added 5/7/11
• Papilio glaucus (eastern tiger swallowtail) added 5/7/11
• Stachys byzantina (lamb's ear) added 5/7/11
• Chrysemis picta picta (eastern painted turtle) added 5/7/11
• Ulmus rubra (slippery elm) added 5/7/11
• Acer saccharinum (silver maple, white maple, water maple, etc) added 5/7/11
• Ondatra zibethicus (muskrat) added 5/7/11
• Ardea alba (great egret) added 5/7/11
• Cercis canadensis (eastern redbud) added 5/7/11
• Pieris rapae (cabbage white, small white [butterfly]) added 5/7/11
• Corvus brachyrhyncos (American crow) added 5/7/11
• Polyporus squamosus (dryad's saddle) added 5/10/11
• Glechoma hederacea (ground ivy) added 5/10/11
• Potentilla indica (mock strawberry, Indian strawbeery) added 5/12/11
• Ilex opaca (American holly) added 5/14/11
• Acer rubrum (red maple) added 5/14/11
• Acer palmatum (Japanese maple) added 5/14/11
• Coragyps atratus (black vulture) added 5/14/11
• Acer platanoides (Norway maple) added 5/14/11
• Trifolium pratense (red clover) added 5/14/11
• Cathartes aura (turkey vulture) added 5/14/11
• Coluber constrictor (black racer) another deceased specimen - but count it! added 5/14/11
• Trifolium dubium (least hops clover, yellow shamrock) added 5/14/11
• Silene latifolia (white campion) added 5/14/11
• Rumex acetosa (commen sorrel, garden sorrel) added 5/21/11
• Tamias striatus (eastern chipmunk) added 5/21/11
• Colias philodice (clouded sulfur, common sulfur) added 5/21/11
• Mephitis mephitis (striped skunk) one more deceased specimen - added 5/21/11

Goal 1 reached; 51 species as of May 10th! This is great news, as it gives me an opportunity to hopefully clear the mark by a wide margin. I'll feel a lot better about, say, 62, than 51. I want that cushion in the event of a mistake or two...I'm trying to be careful but I'm probably not above deceiving myself on one or two species.

My training partner, Dustin, and I pause for a photo 55 miles into our century ride.

With the added entries of 5/21/11, the date of part one of this challenge has come and passed. I have exceeded my goal by sixteen species, coming in at 66, which is a solid two-thirds of the way to my second goal. I will say that this is becoming increasingly difficult, as the number of species easily identified while riding dwindles with each new addition to the list. I will need to continue to brush up on my flowers and trees in the coming months if I am to identify 34 additional species this year.

It's time to break this thing up - that list above is getting to be a bit of an exercise for the scroll-wheel finger. There is not yet a ton to add, but as above it has to start somewhere. I'm starting to get a "bucket list" of species that I just can't believe I haven't picked out yet. Maybe that'll be the next challenge?

The train-wrecker mushroom, so named because it is wont to grow on railroad ties and weaken or destroy the wood.

 

• Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag) added 5/23/11
• Quercus alba (white oak) added 5/23/11
• Panaeolus foenisecii (mower's mushroom) added 5/23/11
• Coprinus comatus (shaggy mane mushroom) added 5/26/11
• Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace) added 5/26/11
• Neolentinus lepideus (train wrecker) added 6/1/11
• Quiscalus major (boat-tailed grackle) added 6/1/11
• Morus alba (white mulberry) added week of 6/13/11
• Morus rubra (red mulberry) added week of 6/13/11
• Fraxinus americana (white ash) added week of 6/13/11
• Persicaria perfoliata (mile-a-minute) added week of 6/13/11
• Carya laciniosa (shellbark hickory) added week of 6/13/11
• Hedera helix (English ivy) added week of 6/13/11
• Alliara petiolata (garlic mustard) added week of 6/13/11
• Cichorium intybus (common chicory) added week of 6/13/11
• Cucumis sativus (cucumber) added 7/5/11
• Dumetella carolinensis (gray catbird) added 7/5/11
• Plantango lanceolata (English plantain) added 7/5/11
• Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed) added 7/7/11
• Hybiscus syriacus (rose of Sharon, shrub althea, rose althea) added 7/7/11
• Agelaius phoeniceus (red-winged blackbird) added 7/8/11
• Columba livia (pigeon, rock dove, rock pigeon) added 7/10/11
• Salix babylonica* (weeping willow) added 7/10/11
• Sassafras albidum (sassafras, white sassafras, red sassafras, silky sassafras) added 7/10/11
• Phytolacca americana (American pokeweed) added 7/10/11
• Aesculus flava (yellow buckeye) added 7/10/11
• Persicaria maculosa (lady's thumb) added 7/10/11
• Hemerocallis fulva (daylily, tiger daylily, orange daylily) added 7/10/11
• Campsis radicans (trumpet creeper) added 7/10/11
• Sphecius speciosus (eastern cicada killer) added 7/10/11
• Albizia julibrissin (silktree, bastard tamarind, Lenkoran acacia) added 7/10/11
• Ginkgo biloba (Ginkgo) added 7/15/11 
• Leucophaeus atricilla (laughing gull) added wk of 7/24/11
• Uniola paniculata (sea oats) added wk of 7/24/11
• Pelecanus occidentalis (brown pelican) added wk of 7/24/11
• Yucca filamentosa (yucca, Adam's needle) added wk of 7/24/11
• Ammophila breviligulata (American beachgrass) added wk of 7/24/11

*"weeping willow" is actually a cultivar of Salix babylonica and one of two other species. I didn't make a rule for handling cultivars, and I know what it is, so I'm counting it.
 
New species from most recent edit: 5
Running Total: 103
Animals: 40 (11 mammals, 23 birds, 4 insects, 2 reptiles)
Plants: 58
Fungi: 5

Time Warp: Watkins Regional Park in Fall of 2009

So, I was prepared to post about Watkins Regional Park last week when my new camera arrived; instead I cheated and posted about the new camera itself. That has worked to my advantage, as I ended up visiting Watkins yesterday, and took snapshots of some of the same things I photographed last time, about a year and a half ago.

I didn't really take any shots at the nature center last time out, so I'll start with the mushrooming this time. Yesterday's trip featured Polyporous squamosus (dryad's saddle), several LBMs, and some additional polypores. What was the Fall mushrooming like?

First, I found Amanita muscaria formosa, the "American" subspecies of the fly mushroom, or fly agaric. There is ongoing discussion about how to separate subspecies, and the nominate subspecies is red rather than yellow, but I am nonetheless very confident in my identification of this specimen. If you see this, please don't eat it.

No matter the season, polypores are gregarious. I rarely try to identify beyond "some polypore" unless I suspect it's something of particular interest.

This hen of the woods mushroom (Grifola frondosa) was enormous but too rotten to eat. The monster was around three feet across.

I thought these sulfur tufts (Naemotoloma fasciculare) were beautiful. They're now my excuse to introduce you to the concept of a synonym as the term is used in biology. It has a specific meaning in the field - a synonym is another binomial name which refers to the same species, usually because there are ongoing arguments as to how the species should be classified. My favorite mushroom site has this in genus Hypholoma.

Ah, food. These oyster mushrooms became one heck of a dinner when we got home. One of my first mycological feasts, in fact. I'll never get tired at looking at this set of photos.

Despite the boring appearance and lackluster picture, I was pumped when I found this fungus. I had hoped this belonged to the genus Termitomyces.  These unusual fungi grow only from termite mounds, and the genus includes the largest mushroom species in the world. They have a strange symbiotic relationship with the termites. Unbeknownst to me until later, the family of termites, and therefore the genus of mushrooms, is not found in this area.

So yeah, fungal life was abundant during both successful Watkins trips. I think the species I've discussed and shown provide a good survey of the way fruiting mushroom species vary with season.  Moving on, I want to share some photos of the beaver pond as we discovered it around 18 months ago. It almost looks like a different pond.

The pond. (Compare to yesterday's photo with the same caption, taken from a similar location)

Here's a shot of the beaver lodge when it seemed to still be in use (well, by beavers). Remember its current occupant?

This is the accompanying dam. Although I didn't shoot it yesterday, it was quite grown over as well. This again leads me to suspect that the beavers are making their current home elsewhere.

This time, instead of a decently-captured boring thing (a big empty field) I'll leave you with a cool but poorly photographed thing (this Araneus marmoreus, or marbled orb-weaver spider).

Today's Outing: Watkins Regional Park

I thought about titling this post "Today's Adventure" for my own nostalgic reasons. In any case, adventure it was for a lover of the outdoors. It was an overcast but rainless day that saw us hiking through Watkins Regional Park. This place seems underused to me - it's relatively small but has a lot to offer, both in terms of facilities and hiking trails (although, their trail map and blazing is suspect). Laurel and I have visited three times but never encountered many people. Prince George's County has some negative associations for a lot of area residents, but this place is a true gem. The Nature Center is filled with rescue animals including hawks, owls, and turtles. They also host non-native species - which might be confusing to youngsters. Among their various terraria are a ball python, an emperor scorpion, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and other exotics. In another part of the park they keep peafowl (yes, that's the word - 'cock' and 'hen' are sex specific, after all). Two of our three trips to this park have been wonderful; the third was unfortunately cut short by unexpected and intense rain. Today was something of a makeup trip for our previous, aborted hike.

Laurel checks out some of the park's rescue birds, located behind the nature center. These enclosures house a turkey vulture, a black vulture, a barred owl, and a pair of red-tailed hawks. Inside were several additional birds of prey native to the region.

Also behind the nature center is this frog pond, which held my attention for a solid ten minutes at least. If you've got a good eye, you'll be able to spot three frogs in this shot. I believe most, if not all, frogs in this pond are green frogs (Lithobates clamitans).

Why depart from a good theme? Also behind the nature center are several birdfeeders. I was able to grab a snapshot of this American goldfinch (Spinus tristis) but the downy woodpecker and white-breasted nuthatch on the neighboring feeder were too quick for me.

My last photo from "behind the nature center," I promise. A closer picture of the frog in question. I am basing my identification as a green frog on the presence, and relative straightness, of a dorsolateral fold.

To move on from all this nature center talk, I'll discuss the day's mushrooming. I didn't bring home anything for the table, but I did see several LBMs (little brown mushroom - I didn't just make this one up), a number of sizable Dryad's saddles, and your typical assortment of polypores. One of these I brought home to identify, but I'm not there yet.

Here are a few of those LBMs I mentioned. There were quite a few of these nestled among the moss, but they were very easy to overlook. Once Laurel pointed the first out, they seemed to rise up out of the ground and sing all around us.

Dryad's saddle is such a photogenic mushroom. Unfortunately, the taste is a bit odd to me, and once they are large enough to be showy the taste is reportedly not very good even to those who generally like it.

I had to push through vines and ford a small stream for this photo, but I think it was worth it. It was my first legitimate tromp through the woods of the year.

I don't know precisely what these polypores are, but I thought they made for a quaint photograph. This tree was just between the park and a private backyard.

There's also a secluded beaver pond on the property. While we didn't spot the craftsmen themselves, evidence of their presence was abundant. I noted the growth atop the lodge we had seen in the fall of 2009, along with a surprise (more on that below). I think the beavers may have moved on to another part of the pond. Their work was still pretty neat to observe.

The pond

The beaver lodge - complete with nesting Canada goose! That's her about bottom center. I have to believe this lodge has been abandoned by the beavers, because I don't see mother goose here as comfortable sharing with a fairly large mammal with enormous teeth.

Here's a better shot of our dedicated mother. Camera zoom did much better than our naked eyes.

I will leave you with this landscape of one of the park's big empty fields. I hope you have enjoyed your vicarious trip to Watkins Regional Park. I can't promise not to drag you there again soon.