Destination: Buried Cars

Destination: The buried cars along the Wabash Heritage Trail
Miles hiked: 9
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikkor 50mm 1:18 non DSLR lens.

I decided to go back to the buried cars again. This was a risky choice due to the rain we had last night. The trail did have a few muddy spots but it was not to bad. It rained at least a .5 in last night.

I set up a tent Friday evening and slept it in. It was relaxing to listen to the rain. This something I like to at least once a year.

Along the way I visited a site I photographed this spring. I wanted to bring a tripod this time since the area is well shaded. I have not posted my original visit, but here is a link to the set on my Flickr page. The site is a pile of rubble on the bank of the river. I liked the old twisted i-beams or rail road tracks.

Here are some flower shots along the trail

I saw many of these colorful bugs today. I have not seen it before. I wonder what it is?

Flower with a bee of some kind.

Photo's from the rubble pile

The photo's from my last visit came out better. I think I will try again with a different lens some time soon. Today lens was a manual focus lens and I was have troubles telling if I was in focus or not. This area was somewhat muddy.

A tree near the rubble pile.

The buried cars

There are three old buried cars along the the Wabash Heritage Trail. One of them can only be photographed well from the bank of the river due to the weeds. It was too muddy to do that today. Here is a link to a photo of it I had taken in the spring. I was able to photograph the other two cars.

The red car. This one was a little out of focus. It looked OK in the view finder.

The blue car. This car is hard to get a good shot of. It is much more buried than the red car. The surrounding weeds don"t help much either. Maybe next spring?

The tail fin of the blue car.

Interior of red car.

Someone painted this cat on the side of the red car. It is nice simple graphic.

South leg of Wabash Heritage Trail

I forgot to turn on my GPS tracker this time. So, I am not sure how long a hike it was. But I am guessing it was about 7 - 8 miles. I was hiking almost 3 hours around trip.

My destination was a large exposed portion of the river that I found a few months ago. It  has been under again since then. It is a large area of gravel, sand and shell covered beach.

On the way there I came across a few thing of interest.

My favorite black iron bridge

Exposed roots

Soon to bloom flower

Spider web. It took a while to get this shot. It was windy and I had trouble finding an angle that would show the web well.

A weed going to seed

And finally we reach the destination. Unfortunately I did not take a overall picture of the area. Next time I go there I will take one and add to this posting. Here are some shots of the things I found on the beach.

A mussel shell

Assorted shells, rocks and sand

A lone spiral shell

A feather in the sand. It was a little over a foot long. I found it this way.

Part of the beach was still under water. I liked the look of these fallen trees.

Fallen trees in some still water.

Somebody left a large pile of dead fish. There were a couple of Gar, a catfish, and some carp. There were about 10 fish. Most about 2 feet long. I brought the head of the Gar home. I will photograph it later. I wanted it for my Halloween display.

Fish tail and some scales.

Close-up of some spiral shells.

If you want to see more photo's from this trip click here.

North end of the Heritage Trail

I decided to hike the north end of the Wash Heritage Trail today. It begins at the Tippecanoe Battlefield Park. It was an 8 mile, 3 hour hike round trip. I had the trail to myself most of the time.It was peacefully quite.

I brought and used my tripod this time. I think I may want to get a taller tripod soon. I missed some shots because the tripod was need due to the heavy shade but it was not tall enough to shoot over some obstructions.

No really great photo's this time. But a few nice ones. Here are some highlights.

Follow this link to see the rest of the photo's from this walk.

Middle of the Wabash Heritage Trail

Decided to hike the middle portion of the Wabash Heritage Trail today. The middle portion start at Lafayette and go'es to Battle Ground Indiana. I only hiked part the trail today. About 7 miles from my house, down the buried cars and back.

This is the tail that I hike the most. It is not the most interesting but it is paved most of the way which is nice if it has been raining recently. I rained last night. When it rains a lot, large portions of this trail are under water. See earlier post about the flood.

I encountered a cluster of cooperative Cabbage Moths. But most of the photo's did not come out very well. This one is OK.

There are two cars buried along side of the trail. I did not photograph the other this time,

Door handles at a bank downtown

This appeared on the telephone pole next to our house a few weeks back.

Flight of the Bumblebee and other photo's

During a recent hike I was trying out an old Nikon lens Series E 75mm - 150mm zoom lens. It works with my digital camera (Nikon D40) but was made for SRL camera. So it has no electronics. I must use the aperture ring on the lens and manually focus it as well. I think I prefer using the manual aperture ring instead of an electronic setting on the camera. But the manual focus is difficult for me with my bad eye sight. Maybe when I get new glasses it will be easier. Also the weight of the lens was a problem sometime.

 I will take a tripod with em the next time I take this lens on a hike. This first photo was my best shot of the day. At the time I did not know what I had caught. I was trying to take a picture of the bee while it was sitting on the flower. But it had moved from one flower to another as I press the shutter release. I did not know I caught it in mid-flight.

I have no idea what kind of flower/weed was in these next two photos. They were around 5-6 feet tall.

Some mushrooms along the side of the path.

Follow this link to see the rest of the photo's from this walk.

Turkey Run State Park

I visited Turkey Run State Park last month. I spent about 7 hours hiking about the park. From about 12pm to 7pm.

I can not express how much I enjoyed my visit. The trees, canyons and other rock formations were were amazing. It felt like I was walking in a mystical place. I plan on going back soon and camping for the weekend.

I took over 400 pictures, most of which were not very good. I am still learning to use my camera. The low light conditions were a challenge for me. But I did get some good shots. Here are a few.

These are some photo's of the canyons.

Some water falls.

Some dead wood.

The River

Stone steps.

Follow this link to see the rest of the photo's from this set. Thanks for looking.