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Walking the Old Pines Nature Trail
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by Debi Osborne
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| To find the start of your adventure, drive west from the Chamber of Commerce, on Highway 16 in Houston, to the Buck Flats Road. Turn south (left) and head the short distance to the Nordic Ski Trails. Turn right and drive another 2 km past the lake to the parking and restroom area, grab your water bottle, camera and binoculars and walk past the field of daisies. Hopefully, you grabbed a booklet from the Chamber of Commerce that explains all the clearly numbered stumps from 1-12 along your travels. You can use the trail marks to stop and take a closer look at what you may have, at first glance, missed. |
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A well-marked trail through thick forest
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At stop #3, you are encouraged to notice black char marks from a past forest fire. Hard to believe there could have been total devastation in an area so rich in tall lodgepole pines.
Did you know that the pine cones from these trees protect their seeds with a hard resin and that the heat of a forest fire will melt this resin and release the seeds?
Stop #4 shows us the remaining heap of a red squirrel's booty and the large oval bark scars from a foraging porcupine.
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