{"id":222,"date":"2009-04-10T17:27:05","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T22:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/?p=222"},"modified":"2009-08-18T17:54:51","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T22:54:51","slug":"trip-to-white-pines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/?p=222","title":{"rendered":"Trip to White Pines (with pics!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes things just work out right.  The other day I took my son to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.triangleland.org\/lands\/tlc\/white_pines_np.shtml\">White Pines Nature Preserve<\/a> south of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pittsboro,_NC\">Pittsboro, NC<\/a>.  This is one of the properties owned and preserved by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.triangleland.org\/index.html\">Triangle Land Conservancy<\/a>, and according to their Web site, the White Pines Preserve is \u201clocated at the confluence of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deep_River_(North_Carolina)\">Deep<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rocky_River_(North_Carolina)\">Rocky<\/a> rivers.\u201d  The preserve is unique in that it supports several stands of white pines and other plants that normally are found in the cooler mountain region of North Carolina.\u00a0 Apparently, because of the rivers and a north-facing hillside, the area supports a cool <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Microclimate\">microclimate<\/a>, and because it is a little out of the way, people have left the area pretty much undisturbed.\u00a0  The trails are well worn and easy to follow, so it seemed like a good day&#8217;s hike for the two of us.[googleMap name=&#8221;White Pines Nature Preserve&#8221; description=&#8221;A land holding of the Triangle Land Conservancy&#8221; width=&#8221;500&#8243; height=&#8221;400&#8243; directions_to=&#8221;false&#8221;]+35\u00b0 36&#8242; 51.94&#8243;, -79\u00b0 9&#8242; 28.48&#8243;[\/googleMap]<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/whitepines.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"left\" \/>Everything turned out well, and I can&#8217;t always say that.   The weather was cool, and the early spring day was bugless and not too sunny.  (Neither of us likes the blazing sunlight.)   The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eastern_White_Pine\">white pines<\/a> were much in evidence, along with many other tree species.<\/p>\n<p><br clear=\"all\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/shagbark.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" \/>I have always had an affinity for <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shagbark_Hickory\">shagbark hickories<\/a> of which we saw a few remarkable specimens.<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/glade.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" \/>We also saw many different kinds of ferns in the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fiddlehead\">fiddlehead<\/a>\u201d stage and some nice <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jack-in-the-pulpit\">jack-in-the-pulpit<\/a> .<br \/>\nA few specimens of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tiarella\">tiarella<\/a>,\u00a0or foamflower, dressed up the landscape.  This native plant has been developed into a bedding variety similar to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heuchera\">Heuchera<\/a>.<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/bfly-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"left\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/bfly-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" \/>We saw some pretty butterflies as we walked through an extensive glade near the river.  To the left is one of the \u201cduskywing\u201d varieties, probably a <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.butterfliesandmoths.org\/species?l=1993\">Juvenal&#8217;s Duskywing<\/a>.  We also saw a really sporty little <a href=\"http:\/\/www.butterfliesandmoths.org\/species?l=1416\">Falcate Orangetip<\/a> who posed for a few quick snaps. <\/span><br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/ninja.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"left\" \/>Nathaniel seemed to have fun on our excursion.  <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/lunch.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" \/>He got to do a lot of pretending, had some lunch,<\/p>\n<p><br clear=\"all\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/log-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"left\" \/>&#8230;and got to pose for his ol&#8217; Dad on an impressive fallen log.<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-img\/dad.jpg\" alt=\"\" align=\"right\" \/>Then, to be fair, I let him wield the camera to take a picture of ol&#8217; Dad himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes things just work out right. The other day I took my son to White Pines Nature Preserve south of Pittsboro, NC. This is one of the properties owned and preserved by the Triangle Land Conservancy, and according to their Web site, the White Pines Preserve is \u201clocated at the confluence of the Deep and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-googlemaps","category-haz-pikshures","tag-life-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":87,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/byers\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}