Kevin Bae: All right, good morning it's December 14. We are
at Watson MIll State Park Watson Mill Bridge State Park got this
old long covered bridge and we're gonna go on a very easy hike
only a couple of miles
right guys it's a brisk morning but 45 degrees
Christmas is 11 days away
beautiful stream right next to us I got a little bit deeper
into the trail so I like Godfrey off the leash see if I deal with
any trouble at the state park I don't think so. It's kind of
empty here
got for you let's go
I don't think I have too much to say today
I know it might be a little strange. I'm used to usually
yapping about nothing. I suppose I'm doing at the moment but
I don't know I feel very silent coming up to a bridge flips to
go Godfrey bridge number one All
right feel like in the in the parking lot is about 45 degrees
and back here in the woods a little bit now just like it's
dropped about five to 10 degrees but I don't know how much of a
Okay, let's see we got a sign over here gotta worry about some
snakes water snakes water snakes
so water snakes these two snakes share the same habitat and look
very similar Be careful the cotton mouth is venomous look
for its heavy body, narrow neck and thick blocky head both feet
on fish frogs, snakes, birds and small mammals well I'm hoping
it's cold outside so there are no no snakes. So we are on a on
the purple trail it see the loop so we just hit it off and this
time I'm gonna go clockwise normally I go counterclockwise.
So I'm going to shake it up and go clockwise today
I'm glad there's an incline on this side. Because it's set very
steep. This trail is rated as easy 2.3 miles or something like
that. So we may we may branch off and go on another trail
after this depending on what time we're done and what I feel
like doing.
We are in Georgia's state park system
so the trails are well marked. well traveled but this is kind
of far away from other populated areas. So I don't think this
area gets packed too much maybe in the summertime. This is about
an hour and a half away from where I live. This is just
northeast of Athens Georgia.
And it costs five bucks to park unless you buy a parking pass
then parking passes 50 bucks annually. So you got to go at
least 10 times to get your money's worth. Which I plan on.
I have a state park that's closer to my house. They have
flying squirrels here. This member of the Rhoden family does
not really fly but glides on flaps of skin. The stretch
between the front and back legs it's thick shiny, furs grayish
brown above and white below. Unlike other squirrels it's
active only at night. Feeding a variety of seeds, not insects.
Old Walker. Old woodpecker holes are often used for nests. I
haven't seen a flying squirrel. I've heard that they that there
are some in my area too but all I see are these tiny squirrels
tiny plain old grey squirrels haven't seen a flying one yet.
Illinois I'm from Chicago so there's a lot of stuff I don't
know about the state of Georgia I certainly know nothing about
the wildlife here. We got another black forest layers.
plant communities are made up of different types of vegetation
the canopy consists of the tallest plants, usually the most
dominant often trees. understory plants such as small trees
shrubs are usually subdominant grow in the middle layers of
ground layers made up of grasses ferns. That's just general
forest information which I already know educated by PBS in
the 70s and 80s
There's a pine forest because it's covered in pine needles
earlier in the trail was regular leaves I didn't take a look
maybe oak trees and shit sorry I didn't mean to say shit twice
trying to keep it clean but deeper and a little bit it's now
changed to all almost all pine needles
Godfrey this way this way this way
Come on come on Godfrey Godfrey this way he's gonna have to go
on leash if he's not going to be able to pay attention this way
think he smelled some squirrels regular squirrels.
Really quiet really very pleasant animal track that would
be quite the encounter. A guy from the city encountering a
bobcat at a Georgia State Park.
I don't know what I would do. I don't know what you're supposed
to do.
All right the bridge number five we we we passed bridge number
one I didn't see two three and four but here's number five I
guess maybe if I went in the other direction
that most people went clockwise so I thought the bridge numbers
would go in a clockwise ascending order but I guess I
can't it's hard to get over how big the trees are here compared
to Chicago
then website me to take a video it's hard to capture it in a
photo let's go back and go put on the trail
they feel like they're twice as tall as trees in Chicago. 20
feet 25 feet 50 feet when you go hiking in the fall, which I tend
to do, I guess more than I know I hike in the fall more than I
do in the summer summers too hot. But I'll hike in the spring
as well. And through the winter, but when there are there are no
leaves on the trees. In the fall I really see how tall these
trees are when the leaves are all full. It kinda lowers the
ceiling of the canopy. And you don't get that that feeling of
like, holy crap these trees are are huge.