It feels good to be back in a natural setting with trails to explore and wildlife to watch. This is one of our favorite things to do as we travel across this beautiful country. After being immersed in the tall tree forests in the east, it was interesting to be hiking again among the spindly mesquite of Texas.
Their two-inch thorns are as sharp as needles, and remind us that we don't want to get off the trail too far.
We are also in the land of prickly pear cactus, which grows into mounds that can be ten feet across.
We see a few of those mounds sporting curious white splotches. We recognize that as an indicator of a tiny organism called cochineal. There is a tiny worm responsible for the cottony white splotches that we are seeing.
We know from an earlier nature walk that the tiny worm inside the white web are white as well. But if the worm is squashed, the insides are a vibrant red that can be used for dying food and fabric (and your fingers) to that same shade of red. Who knew that bugs were used to make that favorite red lipstick or many of the red foods we eat? Look on the label for cochineal extract or carminic acid to confirm you are eating these bugs on a daily basis.
Those prickly pear cactus also make great homes for an army of kangaroo rats. We saw dozens of these long-tailed rodents while we were hiking, but could never get a good picture of one. Our best efforts caught a glimpse of one inside his cactus home. If you look carefully, you can see the kangaroo rats' fur and the beginning of his long tail in the center of the picture below.
The rangers told us they had never seen so many kangaroo rats as they have here this year. There is enough rat traffic to make "game trails" worn across the grass.
Mark took a picture down one of the rat trails. The trails would end in rat holes or prickly pear rat penthouses. Those kangaroo rats are everywhere!
The more we learn about the natural habits of flora and fauna, the more we are in awe of this world that God created. We saw wasp nests hanging from many of those spindly mesquite trees. This nest was deserted, but we still are fascinated by the perfectly spaced, perfectly shaped modules that the tiny wasp brain can design. Even though it is as light as paper, it is sturdy and weather proof. That is another wonder to us.
A similar configuration can be found in the seed pod of the lotus blooms found around the edge of the lake. The dried lotus pods are now home to spiders that spin webs where the seeds once were.
We are surprised to see a few of the tiny purple aster blooms still on the plants in December. These plants were three foot tall, and covered one of the meadows we hiked through. That must have been an awesome sight when they were in full bloom this fall.
Another blooming plant is the mistletoe hanging from the mesquite trees. Denisa is ready to be kissed under the mistletoe, but Mark is too busy taking her picture instead.
Besides the prairie dogs that seem to get the most attention, there are plenty of other animals to entertain us here at Lake Arrowhead. The lake is filled with all kinds of water fowl. But the Canadian geese are the biggest, and venture on land, where they are easier to photograph.
The white herons are more shy, as they keep their distance at the edge of the water. But Denisa loves the squiggly reflection that the white bird makes in the lake water.
It was sunny and warm when we took our 6-mile hike on the Onion Creek trail. The turtles were vying for spots on a log to soak up some of that sunshine.
We also took a bike ride on the park roads to get some exercise. We are trying to soak in as much sunshine as possible, before the rainy weekend.
From visiting with the park rangers, we found out that a Texas fishing license is not needed inside a state park when fishing from the shore. We've been carrying around rods and reels for two years, but the cost of buying a fishing license for each state we visit has kept them in storage. The state of Texas will even provide free fishing rods and tackle boxes of supplies. So we headed out on our first retirement fishing adventure.
It was a cloudy morning with no wind as we made ourselves comfortable on the fishing pier.
We saw evidence that Lake Arrowhead has some good-sized fish. The woman fishing from the next pier showed us a couple 15-inch bass in her bucket. Another group of fishermen was busy cleaning a dozen 3-pound catfish at the cleaning station. They were also full of stories of the 52-pound catfish they had the ranger weigh earlier today. Still 22 pounds below the lake's record, they returned him to the water to grow a little more.
After close to two hours of wetting a variety of lures, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is we didn't get any good bites. The good news is we didn't even smell fishy after our fishing adventure.
When Denisa got bored with casting and reeling in her lure, she watched the coots eating sea weed at the edge of the lake.
Next on the list of fun things to do at Lake Arrowhead is the disc golf course. The park office has discs to check-out for free, but we used our own set. We have heard of fancy golf courses with beautiful water features. But we think the water views from this disc golf course would rival those Arnold Palmer courses.
We were greeted to the course by this young white tail buck, who was wandering around the equestrian campground section of the park.
There is a 10-20 foot wide mowed fairway that connects the tee boxes to the disc golf baskets at the end of each hole.
But we spent a lot of time retrieving our miss-thrown discs from the tall grass and mesquite trees that lined the fairway. Considering the thorns on the mesquite and the needles on the cactus, making an errant throw can be a painful experience.
But who doesn't love a game where the rules on the information panel states, "Remember the most important rule: The one who has the most fun wins!" We enjoyed it so much we played again. We have really enjoyed our time at Lake Arrowhead. With upcoming rainy weather in the forecast, we have decided to stick around a couple more days to see what other things this north Texas region known as "Texoma" has to offer.
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