A Saga of the Lone Star Hiking Trail: Part I
By John S. Copenhaver, LSHT Club Past President, 2007-2016
Fellow Hikers,--Some of life’s most rewarding experiences are on a hiking trail. Sharing with so many wonderful friends for nearly 3 decades on The LSHT has enriched my life in countless ways.
Trail Environment: The LSHT is a jewel set in the canopied background of dense, exotic semi tropical forest. Occasional creek bottoms and ridges offer a changing variety of trees and other plant life. There are more than 100 miles of trails accessible year-round and more than 30 different common wild animals, including deer, wild pigs, bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, rabbits and armadillos. The study of animal sign led me to collecting plaster casts of tracks, a quick and simple hobby.
There are also snakes; copperheads, water moccasins, coral, hog-nosed, rat, king, and garter snakes. Seeing a snake climb a tree will take one’s breath away. There is nothing quite as strange as a hog-nosed snake coiled, hood flared and arched like a cobra. There is probably nothing quite as humorous as an armadillo crossing the trail running and waddling like a miniature rhino, followed by her 4 pink clones in a row--or as surprising as meeting a buck head on or a herd of wild pigs when rounding a corner.
Copperhead seen by the author on the Richards Section
Night Skills and Experiences: Adding the skill of night hiking to hot summer miles enabled new possibilities to ultra-endurance, trail maintenance and animal sightings. Summer hiking before sunrise shortened hiking time in the heat of the day. Hiking in the fall at night when the trail and forest floor are carpeted with leaves could be challenging. One notices the softness of the ground and a noisier crunch of leaves when off trail. Also, looking over a distance and low to the ground would reveal a slight depression where the leaves covered the trail. Animals are occasionally seen in the daytime.
The night world revealed a “carpet of sparkling emeralds” on the forest floor (iridescent, green spider eyes). I have also seen: iridescent, yellow, round eyes of a bobcat; iridescent, green, ovoid eyes of a herd of deer; iridescent, red eyes of an alligator; the iridescent, orange, round eye of an owl asleep on the ground with one eye open. Wild pigs, armadillos and pileated woodpeckers have no iridescence in their eyes. Night hiking had some embarrassing surprises like: getting lost, 50’ away from the trail for a “nature break”; running out of battery power for light near sunrise and hiking the last couple miles with my hands outstretched in front of my face to avoid walking into a tree.
All the techniques for hiking in the forest are the same for the jungle. Continuous scanning 30’ ahead and subconsciously memorizing the trail was a technique for both day and night hiking. The combined ultra-endurance hiking and night skills enabled hiking trips in the Americas and Europe with a daypack to locations usually reached only by backpackers.
Stay Tuned for Part II.
Happy Trails.
Respectfully,
John S. Copenhaver