Tuesday, July 28, 2020

7-19-20 - 7-25-20 - Camp Host Week 6

It was another great week in Washington Parish.  We came back to camp on Sunday with no work scheduled until Friday.

Sunday afternoon, was another hot day in July.  We spent the afternoon enjoying the birds and the bees at our campsite. 


Peter Cottontail came by for a visit.

Monday was hike day.  We now have hiked all of the Gorge Run Trail as well as most of the spurs.  We still haven't got acclimated to the hills, but we are enjoying the challenge.  We saw these 2 guys running like they were in the flatland.  It must be nice to be young and in shape.

When we got back to camp, Ferny Kat bailed out of the back door and enjoyed the dripping of the water from the yeti.

The Purple Passion Flower vine that grows in the woods near our campsite has fruit.  We plan on sampling it when it gets ripe.


Tuesday, we had an early morning appointment at the Chevrolet dealer in Franklinton for the truck.  When we got back, we put on our swim suits and went to the beach.  The heavy downpours delayed our beach going.  It was not a problem, we sat in the truck and watched the river flow by, then took a nice stroll along the beach.



We decided to take a walk on the disc golf course on Wednesday.  Let's just say, (again), we still are not use to the hills.  We hiked about 2 miles and had 8 flights of elevation.

We were in awe when we saw a Fawn motionless in the brush watching us as we walked by.

We saw lots of other cool critters on our walk and on our drive around the park.  The alligator and the turtles were all perched on their logs.





We finally saw our first live Copperhead.  He was napping near the Gill's deck.

We found a cool Caterpillar as we were walking on the Gorge Run Trail on Thursday.  After it emerges it will become a Silvery Checkerspot Butterfly.

Our walk continued to entertain us with more butterflies and a hungry Great Egret.





We found frogs, lizards, butterflies, turtles, and birds on the last loop of our walk this morning.





We got back to Camp and had 2 Swallow-tailed Kites soaring above us.


The campground got really busy Friday afternoon with all the folks coming in for the weekend.  It looks like everyone is having a good time.

While we were picking up litter on the beach on Saturday, we watched a Little Blue Heron on the shore and a Mississippi Kite perched in a tree across from the beach.


Our second trip to the beach in the afternoon, we saw a Mississippi Kite snacking as he was soaring overhead.


On our ride back to camp, our resident alligator was yawning as he laid on his favorite log.

It has been a great day in the south in our neck of the woods.  An overcast day with one heavy downpour, which has resulted in nice temperatures.   We could get use to this!

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Sunday, July 19, 2020

7-12-20 - 7-18-20 - Camp Host Week 5

Sunday was our first back to the old grind day.  We got our 31 campsites tidied up along with the restrooms by 1 pm.

We took a stroll around the campground this morning and found some pretty Slender Vervain blooms.

Monday, we found a couple of cool moths, and some pretty bees and butterflies.




We saw a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk as we were going to get supplies on Tuesday.

Two Swallow-tailed Kites were circling above us catching bugs to eat as we were picking up litter.

We also found A Delta Flower Scarab chomping on a plant.

We took a walk on the Gorge Trail Wednesday.  It was a little bit cooler under the canopy of trees walking along the creek. The birds seemed to enjoy being under the canopy of trees as well.








Thursday, we had a lot of rain that cooled us off.  It also cooled off a Cottonmouth that was in the middle of the road when we were headed back to camp from the beach.  Needless to say, he was not as cool when Lauren was coaxing him out of the road with a mop.



We saw Spotted Sandpipers and Eastern Kingbirds when picking up trash on the beach Friday morning.   We were Crossroads bound after we wrapped up our work week.  We will get a few things done at home and return to the park when it is not so busy.






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