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Kimsey Bald Clay & Macon Counties, NC |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2021) |
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Kimsey Bald Clay & Macon Counties, NC |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2021) |
| I wanted to explore a rock outcrop I had noticed on an aerial view of this peak. On my way up, I noticed that the woods looked like a great environment for yellow lady's slippers, but didn't see any. Near the top, I did come across a huge group of lady's slippers, but they were the more common pink species. Arriving at the summit and the "rock outcrop", I found that I had been fooled, and it was actually a glade. I had thought it didn't look quite right on the satellite view! I came down the mountain by a different route, and low and behold, I did come across some yellow lady's slippers! |
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| Cow Wheat (Melampyrum lineare) |
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| Old school bus and trailer I always say, you never know what you'll come across in the woods. Someone must have used this bus for a "mobile home" before the Forest Service owned the land. Both vehicles are missing their undercarriages and axles/wheels. |
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| The bus door was still locked with a padlock! |
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| The old safety crossing arm is still attached to the bus. |
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| Solomon's Plume (Maianthemum racemosum) |
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| Part of the Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) colony. |
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| A nice pair of Pink Lady's Slippers. |
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| Another pair of Pink Lady's Slippers, posing... |
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| Mountain-top glade |
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| Mountain-top glade |
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| Wild Strawberry (Fragaria sp.) |
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| Ragwort (Packera sp.) |
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| I was surprised to see Trillium grandiflorum in such fresh condition. Granted, the elevation here was just shy of 5000 feet. |
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| Small Yellow Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum) Descending by a different route, I encountered what I'd hoped to find here... |
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| This cute plant was one of the smallest of this species that I've seen. |
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| Another Yellow Lady's Slipper |
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| At 4 foot diameter, this is one of the few trees I've seen old enough to have been an "Indian direction tree", although I doubt that was the case with this tree. |