For this weeks post, I divided it up into two separate trips out in the Wild Basin Preserve off of 360. The first expedition was on Tuesday, June 10th, as one can tell from the picture of the scenery, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. The weather that day was warm and enjoyable, temperate was 81 degrees fahrenheit. The second expedition took place on Thursday, June 12th, and let me tell you, it was HOT, 92 degrees fahrenheit! Not only was it hot outside, but it was extremely humid as well. Thanks to these particular weather conditions on Thursday, the mosquitoes down by Bee Creek had a field day on me, this detracted from the overall experience a little bit.
It was extremely enjoyable to be able to relax and sit out and enjoy the view while the warm sun shines down. Due to the nature of the Wild Basin Preserve it was difficult to explore because you had to stay on the path. This makes sense and is understandable because it is a “Preserve” and if you go off the trail you could be potentially disturbing the natural habitat of several species. The trail was beaten and worn from previous hikers/explorers before my time, but at time was very steep especially when descending to Bee Creek or the natural water fall.
The creek itself along with the natural pool underneath the waterfall isn’t able to support fish life. But amphibians such as tadpoles and water stryder insect are able to thrive in these particular creek. If you look closely in the picture that is zoomed in above the creek you can catch a glimpse of water stryder. These guys were tough to take a picture of, especially one that was focused at least because they are constantly on the move on top of the water.
Along the creek line was full of life. As you can tell from the pictures, the vegetation is vastly different from the top of the Wild Basin Preserve as opposed to down below where the water was. For instance towards the top of the preserve the vegetation such as the trees and brush were a lot more spread apart from one another and actually somewhat shorter in height. As opposed to the vegetation along the creek line which was cramped and crowded because they are fighting for the water source. Also, trees and other plants were thicker and taller than there counter parts at the top of Wild Basin Preserve. It’s not surprising to note that I spotted several tall and healthy Sycamore trees in and around Bee Creek, this particular trees thrive near the water. As you can see from the picture above, the Sycamore trees root system was actually running along the bottom of the creek floor and was visible to the naked eye as opposed to having its roots underground like the Juniper Ash that are abundant in the preserve.
I was unable to actually spot many birds, but I could hear them singing along the trail line. I was able to spot a snake and several lizards but unfortunately just as quickly as I spotted them they were gone, so I was unable to define what particular species they were.
Taylor Johnson
