If You Could, Where Would You Walk?

We've been planning on taking this hike for weeks now.  But, I'm sure everyone knows how this goes.  The week was a long one.  There's so much we need to do.  We're just feeling tired and want to sit still for a while.  Sitting in the car just to get there doesn't sound attractive.  The weather isn't very nice.  There's another thing we have scheduled instead of a hike, so I guess it won't be today.  Feet are sore, maybe another time.

All of the normal excuses - and I am sure there might have been some non-excuses as well.

But, once we actually finally get there, we always wonder why it took us so long to make the time and space to visit the beautiful places in our world that are not all that far from the Genuine Faux Farm.

A warm November morning turned out to be the perfect time for Tammy and I to take a walk to Malanaphy Springs, just off of Bluffton Road.  The sign indicating the pull off to a small parking area is not terribly conspicuous, but most people who go to Malanaphy know what they're getting into when they take this walk along the Upper Iowa River.

I noticed that an artist had left painted rocks at the trailhead (and in a few locations on the first third of the trail).  One of the earlier painted stones encouraged up to "Let our dreams soar!" and others invited us to "relax!"  

I will say this - if there is going to be evidence of human intrusion in nature, this was a pretty pleasant way for it to manifest itself.

As you might expect, the trail was covered in fallen leaves.  All but the Red and White Oaks had released their foliage and allowed gravity to turn it all into a carpet for the woodland floor.

And, as we walked, the sun angled in beneath a cloud and just over the ridge so it could highlight the textures of the world around us.  The hill to our right invited us to stop and admire how good things look even when the trees were preparing for slumber.

The trail ahead encouraged us to continue after we had climbed a short rise.  There were a few slick spots where the damp leaves on the limestone attempted to trick us into sitting a bit more abruptly than we would normally like.  But, otherwise, it felt good to walk the trail and the land seemed to welcome us - whispering encouragement and hinting at more to come.

The understory of the forest still had a fair amount of greenery, considering it was November 7.  The Hepatica showed up in several locations near the trail, so it was easy to take a picture.  This Iowa Association of Naturalists publication gives some nice descriptions of some of the plants we found on our walk.  Apparently, it is not uncommon for hepatica to keep some green leaves through the cold months.  I think we need to go back in the Spring to see its blooms.

Evidence of the warmer fall came in the form of some new growth on other plants.  This one shows some older leaves at the top and left and a newer sprig in the center.  If my identification skills are correct, I think this is a Virginia Waterleaf.

A bit more familiar to the two of us - we also saw a fair number of Columbine.  We've noticed these plants are putting on a little growth at our farm again this Fall.  I keep telling them that they should just go to sleep because the cold weather IS coming.  But, they usually don't listen to me.

We didn't just look down on this walk, we also took the time to look up.  There is so much to learn and observe when you take a walk in nature.  We were both amazed by how trees found ways to claim their part of the forest canopy.

As we walked down the trail, we both came to a halt when we saw a familiar leaf from our past - a small elm tree came up to our knees in height.  And, where there is a baby elm, there must be an adult - so we started looking.

After some searching, Tammy noticed the triple trunk in this picture, which appeared to be an elm.  I suppose it is possible that this is an American Elm or a Red Elm.  We weren't able to get too close to those trees to inspect them further.  And, let's be honest, neither of us has seen an American Elm for a long time since Dutch Elm Disease took most of those beautiful trees away from us.

Still, as we explored further, we kept finding evidence of elms (look at the reddish leaf center left).  We do know that elms were prolific with their seed, which means it is not impossible for smaller trees to be found in areas such as Malanaphy.  It was good to see them, even if there was some melancholy that came along with it as we both wished for more of those stately trees in our lives.

I suppose for most people, the highlight of the walk is supposed to be the waterfall.  But, we were enjoying the walk so much to get there that I think we both figured a waterfall would be a bonus.

The Malanaphy Spring falls actually come in a couple of stages and a person should reign in their expectations that this is on a par with Niagara or some such thing.  Like Dunning's Spring and Twin Springs in Decorah, Malanaphy is another cold water spring that is typical of the karst landform in the area.

The waterfall, starts fairly inauspiciously with a small stream towards the top.  But, if you climb up there, you might be amazed by how much water actually pours from a fairly small fissure in the rock.

Now, certainly if it had rained recently, there would likely be more water feeding into the falls and Spring from outside sources.  The underground cold water source emanates from an area where it is possible for a fair amount of run-off to join it.

However, the great thing about Malanaphy is that the underground source just keeps pouring out its water.  Drought or no drought, you can go sit and listen to the water trickle down the rocks and to a stream bed that finds its way to the Upper Iowa River.  And, the underground water source means it will flow in the middle of Winter too.

And, if you thought Tammy and I were done observing and exploring at this point, you were wrong.  We were able to identify what looks like an old hornets' nest in one of the trees to one side of the spring.  My best guess is that this was the home of some Bald-faced Hornets.

When I did a quick search for this sort of nest, I was somewhat appalled by the number of pest control sites that worked on the fear factor for these wasps.  Generally speaking, they will be aggressive and stings will be painful when you climb fifty feet up in a tree to disturb their nest.

I've heard that some humans can be pretty nasty when you bother them in their home too.

We were also able to explore textures of wood and rock.  I probably could have spent significant amounts of time just looking around and making excuses for one more picture.

I even noticed an particularly interesting mushroom on one log.  While I have attempted to identify some trees and plants, I'll leave it to someone else to tell me if they can identify this type of fungi!

We followed the stream down to the spot where the water falls again into the Upper Iowa River below.  Tammy and I spent a fair amount of time just absorbing the gift that is this place in our world. 

I suppose I could have taken more pictures, but the camera informed us that our memory card was full. 

That's ok.  Tammy and I each have our own memory cards, and there is plenty of room for more.

So - that was the place where we went to walk.  If you could walk in a beautiful place in Iowa, where would it be?  Maybe you can encourage the farmers to take a walk there too.