Night Hike

Tonight, I went on a Night Hike at our local park.  It was lovely!  I was a little sad at they didn't do any owl calling, but they made up for it just by being generally cool.  I really do enjoy nature and biology and learning things--all of which this hike had.


And, I can hear you now.  "Ah, a hike at night," you say.  "That must mean that she wasn't able to take any pictures."  


In that, my dear friend, you would be wrong!  To start with, here are some pictures of the park as the sun started to go down...

In the waining light, we traipsed through the woods, looking at the evidence of nocturnal animals and learning about wildlife.  While we did see quite a bit of this evidence--in the form of deer-rubbings and bat houses and so on--we actually saw very little wildlife.  There was a large group of us--complete with fashion conscious teenage girls, their rambunctious younger brothers who kept asking if things were poisonous, and their longsuffering parents.  As the naturalist pointed out, we sounded like a herd of buffalo.  Any self-respecting nocturnal animal decided to give us a wide berth!


As an interesting sidenote, unathletic as I may be, apparently the prospect of learning something is the perfect stimulus for me to engage in physical activity.  "Do you want to know the answer to this question?" my trainer could say.  "Then you will have to walk another mile uphill!"  ...And I would do it!  I must remember this--perhaps I can somehow implement it to encourage more exercise on my part.


Oh, and apparently I will also engage in physical activity for glow-sticks.

At the end of the hike, the naturalist gave everyone glow sticks.  I have no shame; I took one and started playing with it.  And by playing with it, of course I mean taking pictures:

So, that was tonight's nature hike.  I am glad that I went, and think I will sleep very well tonight.  And now, I'm going to go back to playing with my glow sticks.  (And, yes, I have two--my friend who went with me decided to give me hers, too.  Oh, the excitement!)