Exploring - on foot

PA was really my introduction to - trees. Trees in mass quantities, that is. Non-stop forests. It was in this state that I went from a CA-grown tree hugger to "can't they cut down some of these damn trees so I can see something!" San Diego is chaparral country - mostly herby, aromatic bushes with occasional grassy valleys and rocky mountaintops. And unless you are strolling through a smattering of oaks, wading in a sycamore-lined creekbed, or picnicking under some pines, it's not too arboreal around there... It is also characterized as having postage stamp habitat, meaning that the metropolizing, citification, and suburban sprawl has run so rampant and is so far-reaching that the remaining wilderness is very interrupted and broken up into bits. There are still large tracts of contiguous wild spaces if you go inland enough, but anything within an hour or so of the coast is pretty human-monopolized. So, to be in a whole state where the opposite is true was a totally new experience!


The first hike I went on in the Allegheny National Forest had said trees but was even more heavily ferned! I've never seen so many ferns in my entire life! And all types too. Very pretty.

And a trail runs through it...!

But the highlight of this beautiful hike? On my way out, I stopped to listen to a faint sound of movement in the ferns and plants on one side of the trail. Intrigued and always ready for a good critter sighting, I moved in. However, when, after a few brief and limited glimpses, my best guess turned into porcupines, I grew more cautious - quite a bit more cautious! I didn't know what all it would take to prompt them to throw their quills my way! After a bit, I could tell there were two - evidently a parent and a baby. The parent moved away, out of my sight and well into the thickets of bushes. But the baby held still, probably hoping it was hidden and camouflaged well enough. And at first, it was too hidden to really see well, but I persisted, waiting and slowly moving closer whenever the baby would move enough to make a little noise. Finally the baby crept into a more open spot, and I was able to at least get a couple point & shoot shots. Too cute!!

The end. Well, the baby's rear end, that is...