I was able to have a conversation with one of the employees about their new program “Health Starts Here.” This promotes eating whole, unprocessed foods, colorful variety of plants, healthy fats, and nutrition dense foods. She told me how she has been a vegan for 12 years and she would not change for anything. She talked so highly about her job and how much The Whole Foods Market does for the community. She continued to tell me about her road to being a vegan: She had a natural aversion to meat. She told me stories about how after church, when she was young she would go to Friendly’s and order a cheeseburger without the cow. She made connections between what appeared on her plates and the animals that, as a child in rural upstate New York, she had seen grazing around her home. She was taught by her parents at an early age to empathize with other creatures. So many people go through childhood, if not their entire lives, without bridging the mental divide between cow and hamburger, pig and bacon, and all those other carefully created euphemisms.

I also picked up a couple foods i never tried before. I heard many things about jicama on shows like Dr. Oz and The Doctors. It’s usually served raw in salads or as a snack. It tastes  like fresh green beans but with the texture of a crisp apple. I also picked up Kumquat.  At first i was afraid to eat the whole thing at first, rind and all. But to my surprise it was really sweet and GOOD!

There isn’t as many people shopping around there as Aldi. Of course because of they average to high prices. But I believe it’s well worth it because you are what you eat and you should treat you body with respect.

Yum

Interesting . . .

Success

Part of our task was to take pictures of things out in the nature and come home and identify them. These are some of the things I identified:

This is a leaf from an oak tree. The wood from oak trees are very strong and hard. They are also very resistant to insect and fungal attack. Oak wood is commonly used for furniture and flooring. It is also used for the barrels in which wine, scotch, brandy, and whiskey are aged in.

This is a leaf from a maple tree.  The maple leaf is on the coat of arms in Canada and also on the nation’s flag. It is a common symbol of strength and endurance. Maple trees are mainly used for their syrup and their wood. Died wood is commonly used for the smoking of food. Maple wood has been used for making furniture for many years.

We also found both of the images below but i wasn’t able to identify them. I know that the furry ball is a seed for some kind of tree. I also know that the orange stuff was some kind of fungus that we saw growing on some trees in the woods.

All in all I thought we had a good time on the trip. I think the coolest part of it was when we found the old smashed car in the middle of the woods. I know me and some of the others started making up silly stories about how we were going to die out there. I also enjoyed the flint and steel trick to start a fire.

As my mom was saying the ENTIRE trip. “Imagine being an Indian, or a colonist discovering  America and sailing down this harmful river and boom, you’re dead under the falls.” Its not too happy of a thought but it made me think of the situation they would be in.

When we went most exploratory things at the Falls weren’t open. For the Maid of the Mist we were a week late. But we did get to go down and go on half of the Cave of the Winds adventure. The Cave of the Winds is where you take an elevator down to the bottom of the falls and you can walk around on a series of decks and see the falls from a different view than being at the top. They take the decks down every October and reassemble them every spring so the decks dont freeze over in the winter. When we went the actual Cave of the Winds, cave wasn’t open because the decks to that part were not yet built. But we did get to go to the other end under the smallest fall, the Bridal Veil Falls. It was totally an amazing experience. My mom stood at the top and waved to my dad and I. She was a chicken and didn’t want to mess up her hair.

Although we spent most time on the American falls side we did make a quick trip over the Canadian boarder. Mostly to get a stamp in our passports, and have bragging rights that we went to another country over break (teehee). The view from the Canadian side was BREATHTAKING! You really saw the beauty of the falls from that view. It was an exceptionally sunny day, so there were many rainbows that I caught in my pictures.

I look forward to going back to the falls this summer on my trip to Toranto. I would like to go on the Maid of the Mist and the other half of the Cave of the Winds. But otherwise i had a beyond amazing time on my day trip to Niagara Falls!

Some pictures from the trip:

The view from the outlook point on the American side of the falls.

The top of the Bridal Veil falls and a rainbow. I held my camera so tight that i didn’t drop it over the edge!

The bottom view of the Bridal Veil. The previous picture was taken all the way at the top of the falls! Much different perspective!

Lastly, the amazing view from the Canada side of Horseshoe Falls, also with a breathtaking  rainbow. Probably one of the best views I’ve seen in my life!

During the trip we saw many different animal prints, different plants (we even ate one!) and things you wouldn’t normally see! The assignment was to identify a few things that we saw!

One find was a Maple leaf. Which is from a nearby Maple tree. Maple trees are quite popular for the ever famous maple syrup and sweet as can be maple candies. Also a Maple leaf is found on the Canadian flag. Its on the flag because Canada has 10 native species of Maple trees and they are located in every Canadian providence. There are 126 species of maple trees world wide. Even though this leaf is red and aged I identified it as a leaf from an Acer Saccharum maple tree. That type of tree is native to the midwest region. Which is perfect because its exactly where it was found!

This is an animal print from what I discovered to be a deer track from a White-tailed deer. White-tailed deer are extremely native in Ohio! And one of their major habitats are national protected parks because they are kept nice and safe. Most deer overall like to live on higher ground, so their habitats are dry and safe. I live on a hill and we have lots of deer living in the woods down the street from me, and now I know why!

Lastly, this is a picture of a type of fungi we found on a tree. I’ve spent about an hour trying to identify this type of fungi mold. And although I could not pin point the name of it exactly I did find some similar pictures to the picture I took:

This mold looks extremely similar to the samples we found on the vine of the tree. It is in the family of slime mold. Which is a common mold for wet places in nature all over the world. Although I cannot identify the exact type of mold. This substance was very interesting, and gross to look at. It seemed to inhabit a few of the branches around it. If anything… I dont recommend eating this fungi. You may die. Or thats what it looks like you would do.

Those were only a few of my findings at Terra Vista! It was a fun trip, I enjoyed learning how to “survive in nature.” I will forsure take a trip back to Terra Vista someday!

Before going to this program I’ve always been terrified of snakes. And when I heard that the snakes for the program were being temperamental and no one was going to be able to hold one I was thrilled. But after going I realized that as long as I live in Ohio snakes aren’t that bad. In Summit County there are no poisonous snakes so there is nothing to fear. Although they can bite that doesn’t scare me as much as the classification of poisonous. Going to this program helped me confront my fear and maybe next time my mother picks up a snake I won’t scream.

Before our little hike we learned some interesting facts about the canal, but the focus of our trip was picking up on the simple things in life, like the nature that surrounds us daily that most of us ignore! We were asked to photograph nature and identify it which isn’t always as easy as it sounds, when you’re surrounded by thousands of different life forms!

There were many interesting things on this hike, but the first I picked up on were these bright orange markings on a bunch of the trees! at first we all thought it may have been spray paint but with further identification we saw that it had to be a natural moss that was growing on the trees. with further investigation, and a lot of google, I discovered that the moss may be known as Trentepohlia (alga). however, I may be wrong, but this was the closest I could come to finding out the specific name to this mysterious orange moss. this ‘Trentepohlia’ grows on tree trunks or wet rocks and is known to have a strong orange color due to the large quantities of carotenoid pigments which mask the green pigments from the chlorophyll!

the second thing I picked up on were some animal droppings! instantly I thought it was from a deer, but I researched how to identify deer droppings anyway just to make sure! the droppings were round and individual which immediately points to the matter being from a deer, but I never knew you could tell what a deer has been eating specifically from its poop! apparently if it had been eating leaves twigs and acorns, the droppings would be small and individual, whereas if it had been eating grasses, apples, clover or alfalfa, the matter would be more compact and together!  our deer clearly had a diet of leaves, twigs and acorns!

Throughout our hike, I not only learned about our area and what the canal did for us, but I learned about nature and just how much surrounds us in a place that is as close as our back yard!

-Erin Muri

The entrance of the tour is a suspension bridge (one of two on the tour). The first line is short to let you get your bearings. After that they get longer and faster. I didn’t catch enough speed for the first three and had to perform several self rescues; one was more than 20 feet! One of our guides taught me how to cannonball to catch speed and after that I didn’t have a problem making it anymore. After several lines we had to repel down to the forest floor. I was last to repel and I was so anxious that it felt like forever before I finally got to go. Repelling was so much fun! After we were all down we hiked to the next line which was my absolute favorite. This is the only line on the tour where you go above the tree line and it’s also one of the longest lines. You are going over a valley so you can see the tops of all the trees below you and you can see so much of the state park. After that there are a few more lines, a longer suspension bridge, and a final repel. Then the tour is over.

This was my first time zip lining and I absolutely loved it. I went with my parents and a friend and we plan on going on more zip line tours in the near future. I felt safe and comfortable the entire time I was gliding through the trees contrary to how I thought I would feel which was terrified that the harness would break. It felt like I was sitting in a chair watching the scenes around me change. The feeling of the breeze hitting my face was the best feeling in the world. Zip lining was truly an unforgettable experience and I can’t wait to go back and do it again.

The pits are grown over, but make great little watering holes for many species of small animals and birds that live there.

I took a picture of a paw print that I think, based on the chart in the website below, was made by either a smaller to medium size dog, or a coyote. I came to this conclusion because the top part of the paw on the dog is more open than in the picture I took.
We also saw a strange slimy orange fungus. There is a picture of it below. I looked it up on the internet, and mostly found other people asking questions about it. One guy called it “deer vomit.” I think the scientific name for it is Fusarium Merismoides, and apparently it grows on tomato plants. It also grows in areas where the CO2 levels are high or O2 levels are low. I guess something about the spot where we hiked was just right for this fungus to grow.

Coyote Print

Mystery vine

After doing some research I’ve pretty sure this is a wild grape vine; to be more specific  Vitis aestivalis vine. I found that grape vines use tendrils (above ground roots) to attach to other trees and large bushes. If we come back in May or June we might be able to see them bloom. And if we made another trip sometime in August through October we could even pick some grapes. A very interesting fact I on the Fairfax County Public Schools was, “Each berry contains two to six seeds. When animals eat the fruit, they help spread the vines by pooping out seeds in new places.”

Brian on wild grape vine

Mystery Insect

I didn’t great any great quality pictures of the grasshopper so when I went on an identification website and it was asking me how long it’s antennas are I couldn’t really answer so I started looking for pictures of grasshoppers that had a pink head and a green body. After going through a couple pages of google images i found one that could me it’s brother.  On http://fieldbioinohio.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html, where I found the picture, a group of Ohioans going for a hike toke pictures of different organisms to come home and identify them. Their research on the grasshopper was, “The most colorful creature of the day was this young grasshopper nymph, probably a Melanoplus species. You would think with these bright colors, finding a species name would be easy. On the contrary. After looking at hundreds of plates, I gave up. Because so many grasshoppers change color as they grow, I’ll quote a more respected entomologist than myself. “Trying to identify grasshopper nymphs like this is impossible, it can’t be done”. That means I’m done with it. This time I will simply appreciate it for its striking color pattern.” After reading this I went to wikepedia to confirm and they are right it’s extremely hard to identify grasshoppers because of their changing colors.

Mystery joint

After playing with the joint for awhile I found that the patellar tendon is still attached and the  joint still works. Seeing that it’s a hinge joint that means that the two bones are the femur and tibia. I not exactly sure which is which though. But one is way shorter than the other. After looking up pictures of deer skeleton and turkey skeleton, I found a picture of a knee joint that look kinda like this one.

It’s a Dodo bird skeleton.

My last one is probably the easiest of them all. I didn’t even have to look up different kind of tracks to know these are deer tracks. But i did find this picture that help decipher how old the deer is.

I probably should of put something in the picture to scale off of, but by estimating i think they’re around 4″ which would make it a young doe.

I had a great time on the hike and I learned tons of things. For example where salary comes from and why the trails of the park are so narrow in the north and branch out farther the farther you go south.

Work sited:

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/wild_grape.htm