A few of us headed up north to paddle the Allegheny River on Saturday.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, the river level was perfect, and the water was so clear you could see the river bottom flying by on the swifter sections.  Plus the 18 mile stretch of river we paddled, from Kennerdell to Emlenton, is one of the most scenic areas of the Allegheny and my personal favorite.  It was an incredible day on the water.

Autumn has arrived.  I see more and more leaves falling and the woods are even starting to smell like fall.  This is also the time of the Asters; the woods are full of more wildflowers of the Aster family than I can identify.  And they exhibit a variety of white, blue, purple and purplish-white blossoms, making it even more difficult to identify them but it's enjoyable.

This year has been strange year.  We had cold weather at the beginning of August and then hotter temps recently so there's quite a few wildflowers still blooming that aren't typical for September.  Although the leaves are starting to fall in earnest now, so it won't be long before Autumn is here regardless.

We hiked a different part of the park this weekend over near Allegheny Country Club.  We started off by the creek but then followed a small tributary up the hill and deep into the woods.  The area is always full of wildflowers and mushrooms, plus I've seen some of the biggest bucks in Sewickley Heights in this area, so I like to think of it as an "off the beaten path" part of the park.

The fall flowers are starting to show up en masse now.  Asters, Ironweeds, and even Touch Me Nots are in full bloom even though I saw some leaves on the trees and the underbrush starting to change color.  The Autumnal Equinox is only a few weeks away, so I guess nature is having one last show of wildflowers before winter

It was good to get out into the woods again after having been away for a long vacation and I was pretty excited to see some of my favorite fall wildflowers are already blooming.  The woods were surprisingly dry, at least compared to the summer we've had.  

While we were in western New York vacationing, we headed out to one of my favorite places to hike, Zoar Valley.  The area is one of the best "off the beaten path" places to hike and since the state has developed it, it doesn't even have marked trails.  The area includes both the Main Branch and South Branch of Cattaraugus creek, which were higher than I usually hike due to all the recent rains.

I was on vacation up on Lake Erie a couple weeks ago and I was able to take some really good photos.  We had a great time and I was especially excited to get some good Bald Eagle pictures.  As a matter of fact, we saw the Eagles more on this trip than ever before.  Typically we see them three or four times a weekend, this time we saw them three or four times a day.  It was awesome.

I spent more time up at the park again on Sunday.  As a matter of fact, nine of the featured pictures in this post were taken at the wildflower meadow on Spruce Run trail.  I guess it's a testament to the important role wildflowers play; I saw more than one butterfly absolutely covered in pollen.

It rained a lot of Saturday so the woods were especially wet on Sunday morning when I hiked.  Surprisingly the creek wasn't as high as I expected it to be alhtough it was pretty cloudy from all the runoff, but for those creatures that prefer a damp existence, they're probably in heaven.

I hiked up near the headwaters of Little Sewickley Creek on  July 4th.  It was a great hike; I started down by the creek and then headed up into the park to the wildflower meadow on Spruce run trail.  After winding around up there for a while, I headed back down to the creek and followed it down stream to my car.

I started down by the creek on Sunday, then headed up into the hills near Sewickley Height Golf Club until I eventually worked my way back down to the creek near the backwater I've written about before.  Even though I tend to get more wildflower photos down by the creek, I do see a lot of interesting mushrooms on the hilltops in the forest.  And sometimes it's just enjoyable to wander around...

I hiked a different part of the watershed this weekend; a nice long hollow off of Sevin's road that is conservancy land.  When I was a kid the property was owned by a childhood friend's family and when my Mom was a child, her friend's parents lived there too... so we both spent a lot of time hiking those woods as kids.

I love this time of the year.  The woods are so verdant and rich with vegetation that the entire forest has a heathly green glow.  Many of the summer wildflowers are starting to appear as all the rain of late has kept our area "well watered."

April showers bring May flowers...  It's been rainy lately but here are some of my favorite photos from my hikes in May.

My brother and I headed to the eastern end of Lake Arthur to paddle the area of the lake where Muddy Creek, its main feeder creek, enters the lake.  It's a beautiful area that is not as busy at other parts of Moraine State Park and the three "fingers" that comprise this part of the lake are very shallow, perfect paddling for kayaks and canoes.

A group of us rented a couple of cabins up at Moraine State Park at the end of April to spend a few days paddling and fishing on the lake.  I took my canoe and was able to get a lot of good pictures while paddling and of the local wildlife. 

I've been remiss in getting new posts up so I am grouping all the best photos I've gotten so far this spring in this one post.  Spring is definitely my favorite time of the year and this year's spring is especially welcome after that long, hard winter we had.

Back at the end of March, I spent the weekend in the Laurel Mountains so I headed to Ohiopyle on that Saturday afternoon.  I've never been to Ohiopyle so I was looking forward to exploring a new area. 

We see a lot of fox and coyote tracks on the beach and we even catch a glimpse of them occassionally, mostly in the winter when they prowl the ice near shore looking for dead fish and birds though.  And I've always been interested in animal tracks and tracking so when I found fresh coyote tracks on the beach, I decided to follow them.