Shoemaker State Nature Area - northern Adams County, Ohio

Bloodroot

Virginia Bluebell

Dutchman's Breeches

Twinleaf

White Trout Lily

Yours Truly!

On my day off Monday I traveled to Shoemaker State Nature Area, a relatively new site in northeast Adams County, Ohio, not far from the intersection of SR32 and SR73.  My big hope for the trip was to find White Trout Lily, as I had been told it was fairly common in southern Ohio.

I found the site very easily, with good road the whole way.  I hate taking the bike on gravel roads!  The trail initially scurts the hillside above the Cedar Fork of Scioto Brushy Creek, but after about a quarter of a mile it drops down over the dolomitic cliffs and then makes a loop along the floodplain.

On the high ground, Hepatica, Purple Cress, and Trout Lily was very common.  I was very pleased to find both the yellow and the white trout lily.  While the white trout lily was on my wish list for the year, I had no guarentees of finding it.  I had only seen it at one other site in the past (Salt Fork State Park), but in my last few visits to Salt Fork I could not find it.

As I dropped down over the cliffs onto the floodplain I was blessed with another surprise, Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphyla).  Another one that was on my wish list but that I did not have a good idea where I would find it.  Twinleaf is relatively rare in Ohio but where the trail dropped onto the floodplain, there was a large mass of Twinleaf, covering at least 100 square feet.

Another common plant on the floodplain was Virginia Bluebells, which was relatively early in the flowering process.  I found a few that had nice bloom set, but most were still in bud.  Also on the floodplain, Spring Beauty was just starting to bloom.  I will add a complete list of sightings at the bottom of this post.

On the way back home I stopped at the McDonald's just south of Peebles to replenish all those calories I had just burned!  In the Micky D's was a gentleman sitting at one of the tables, eating his meal with a Bible sitting next to him.  Ocassionally he would start talking to people in a loud booming voice as they sat down or passed by.  He was a big guy, with bushy gray beard and unkept gray hair.  As I sat down he commented, "How's Willy doin'?"
"Excuse me?"
"Willie Nelson.  I sure do like the way he sings."
"Well, I never have really followed Willie Nelson so I'm not sure."

A woman at the counter behind the man made a gesture indicating she thought the guy was crazy, and I recieved several sympathetic glances from other customers.  The man continued talking and I would nod, grunt, and smile at the appropriate times.  And while I really wasn't interested in getting into a lengthy conversation with the man (which I felt guilty about later), I became convinced that there was probably more lonely in the man's heart than crazy in his head. 

I guess I felt troubled by how many of the other customers were willing to be judgemental of the guy, rather than just humoring with a nod and a smile.  I specifically noticed that in the man's conversations, usually to unresponsive passers-by, he never said anything judgemental, even though he did share some un-Christlike behaviors of members of his church he attended.  He spoke very matter of factly without passing judgement.  So, who was it that was 'crazy'?  The people passing judgement or those who were not.  Humans worry about the head, God worries about the heart.

Plant list from Shoemaker: Bloodroot, Purple Cress (Cardamine douglasi), Cut-leaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), Hepatica, Rue Anemone, White Trout Lily, Yellow Trout Lily, Spicebush, Spring Beauty, Virginia Bluebells, Twinleaf, Dutchman's Breeches, Ground Ivy, Harbinger of Spring, and Sessile Trillium (Trillium sessile, not quite in bloom yet.)