January 20th.  Pre-dawn.  I was a few minutes too late arriving to capture a time when the sky was pink way overhead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinks in the western and northern skies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the east.

 

 

 

Lots of contrails at this time of day (roughly 7:30 A.M.).

 

An early afternoon stop at the trail's Brownstone Bridge over River Road.  On the abutments, there are...

 

...patches of Liverwort (Marchantia sp.) which grows as a flat thallus.  Haircap moss surrounds it.

 

 

 

 

 

At the Route 85 trailhead, atop the last of the snow, was this Winter Stonefly (Family Nemouridae).

 

These and many other insects and spiders are active when winter temps are near or above freezing.  (It was above 40 today.)

 

January 21st.  Out a bit earlier than yesterday, in hopes for a better sunrise.  It didn't look promising.

 

And then things got better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And odder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the sunrise, the show was over.

 

January 24th.  Mid-morning, bleak, but above freezing.

 

The treetops against the sky should look familiar; they're in some of the sunrise pictures above.

 

Green!  Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides).