Thursday, August 1, 2013

A Person With Any Common Sense Would Not Be HOT Hill Hiking Today In Texas

This morning when I found Don Young's Prairie Notes #80 in my inbox I realized it has been weeks since I have been on the Tandy Hills.

So, with today scheduled to be HOT enough to have a good sauna steam bath I decided to drive to the summit of Mount Tandy and have myself a HOT walk.

As you can see, looking west, across the wagon train trail that leads towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, the air does not appear to be all that smoggy, despite the air quality alerts.

It did not take me long walking to realize maybe I should pay heed to all the warnings I hear advising the elderly to stay inside during these troubling HOT times.

When I began to be blinded by the copious amount of moisture leaking from me I cut short the hiking, down to only 3 hills from the usual 5.

In addition to being HOT I had to contend with getting around the trail block you see in the picture below.

Just north of the currently dry Tandy Falls, where one takes a left to a shady trail up to the View Street Trail, a big tree has fallen across the trail.

I do not know what the policy is regarding windfalls in the Tandy Hills Natural Area. Is it like a national park, where the tree remains where it fell, unless it is blocking a highway or causing a hazard?

I am thinking for the duration of this 100 degree plus HOT time of the year, my mode of getting aerobic stimulation will be my morning swim, shady walks and bike riding, saving the Tandy Hills for the cooler time of the year.

This current plan is subject to change.

2 comments:

Stenotrophomonas said...

I likewise took leave of my senses and fried my brain in the Hills, only a few hours later and a few degrees warmer than you.
First time in a few days, and first time seeing the fallen tree.
Not sure that I want the city in there messing with it. Have you seen the "improvements" to Tandy Highway/Sewer Road? Widened all the way from the Chelsea & Meadowbrook entrance
(as well as the widened branch to Meadowbrook west of Stratford)all the way to the depths of Chesapeakestan. This part of East Fort Worth must have the rest of town green - or is it brown- with envy, with our abundance of sanitary sewers. I don't want those same folks deciding that Shady Trail needs widening, even if all that shrubbery has little to do with prairie. Good that the City of Envy is short of funds, or some genius will want to pave those trails.

Durango said...

Mr. S-----The only road "improvement" I saw was north of Tandy Falls where it appeared brush had been whacked. Does all this "roadwork" portend an incoming mess of digging and rutting around in the underground?