Saturday March 2nd 2024

The weather forecast called for rain in the morning and clearing in the afternoon. In the late morning it looked like they nailed the forecast. I drove down to the prairie and set out on the Cones Dyke trail out onto the prairie. This is the same trail I allowed the deer to block my path earlier in the week.

This is an out and back trail that starts by following the park boarder before heading out into the middle of the prairie. On the first mile of the trail I passed the sun bathing young alligators I’ve seen on each of my excursions onto the trail this year. As I continued on I was soon past the area of the deer blockade. There were only a few other people on the trail, but everybody was well spaced. The dung along the first part of the trail was largely from the wild horses. A new form started to appear that I assume came from the bison that live on the prairie. It didn’t appear to be very fresh. I didn’t see any wild horses or bison on the hike.

Soon after I passed by the line of trees that marked the boarder of the park from grazing fields I spotted a big brown animal. It was in the fenced off area outside the boarder of the park and turned out to be a lonely domesticated bovine, most likely a bull that’s getting kept isolated. I continued my walk deeper into the prairie, but started to get concerned with the weather. A big black cloud area was on the western horizon. Checking the radar on my phone, everything looked OK, but not much later I think I heard thunder. I wasn’t prepared for rain and I was close to being the tallest think for a few hundred yards in any direction. It was timed to turn around. There was a light rain before I got back to the trail head, but the real heavy rain waited until I was back at my RV home.

A thunderstorm rain intensity level storm without any real thunder or lightening moved through the area in mid afternoon. Similar to Friday, the sun was attempting to break through the clouds just before sunset. I took my usual late afternoon to the day use area. The weekend level of activity was apparent. A few boat trailers and cars for hikers and fishermen occupied the parking lot. I passed several hiking groups along the trail.