Hike: Rockdale Park

Last week I went venturing into the area that is deemed Rockdale Park. It appears to be part of a future phase of Atlanta's BeltLine Project.

http://beltline.org/progress/planning/master-planning/

http://beltline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Atlanta-BeltLine_Subarea-9_Master-Plan.pdf

The webpage promises, "As Atlanta continues to grow, the Atlanta BeltLine will provide the framework for smart growth, enhancing the city’s sustainability and economic vitality. The Atlanta BeltLine Redevelopment Plan and Atlanta BeltLine Master Plans include recommendations for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), which guides the growth of vibrant, livable, mixed-use communities by applying national best practices for mixing uses, strengthening the pedestrian and bicycle realm, compact development, and managing parking."


The plans look amazing, and I hope to keep an eye on the progress and see what becomes of this area. Even so, in its raw form, the small clear cut area is fascinating to those like me who tend to trod in zigzags, wander well off the trail, hither thither and yon, and since there's not yet a trail laid out here, the whole area is wide open for exploration.

Looking back toward the sign/entrance for Rockdale Park

Jaunting up the hill to the left, I trek amidst the broken glass and debris. The world is a museum gallery, everything placed just so, like wild cascading paint splatters or delicate and graceful brushstrokes, a shoe fading in the sun, a likely home for spiders or a shelter for a shrew, a busted rusted boob tube with its naked capacitors and resistors jutting out toward fallen leaves, Wild Kingdom memories melded with the true force of the elements. I find myself wondering what hand dropped these items in place. Not sure their purpose, but the juxtaposition of the vial, the acorn cap and the shredded tire holds remarkable beauty for my eye. I can appreciate this for what it is, gotta love some disarray; but at the same time, as I look upon the mess, I'm saddened by the carelessness of it all, the work it will take to clean this up, the damage done by whatever chemicals leaked from these paint cans and rubber tire treads.

My walks often include picking up plastic, gathering bottles, cans, attempting to leave negative trace, leave things cleaner than I found them, but this heap would take weeks and trip after trip. I intend to hike back to this space, try to do my part, but honestly, it is difficult sometimes to want to clean up the messes that are scattered here in Georgia.

A few years ago, when I lived in Marietta, I would look at the scattered Chik-Fil-A wrappers, coffee cups, cans, bottles as I drove to and from work and wonder at the state of things. Why? Who are these slobs that just toss their trash out the window of their car? It's not difficult to put trash in proper cans. It's almost like they're making a concerted effort to foul up my world. Beautiful backdrop of a pine forest on both sides of this road, a wonderful little pocket of green before the avenue opened up for a cleared out soccer field tucked behind a church, all that is and could be clean and pretty spoiled by the litter of a careless commuter.

I eventually came to the point where I couldn't sit back and stare at the heaps of garbage anymore. I started taking two large garbage bags with me and walking up the road a ways, then turning and walking back. The first time, my ambitions were heftier than my bags. I filled them both up by the time I'd even gone ten feet, so then I had to lug them, filled with beer bottles, styrofoam and random refuse for a half mile. This cleanup effort went on for quite some time, week after week, but it seemed like I never made a dent. Folks were throwing garbage out along this beautiful street faster than anyone could collect it. Despite this, I was happy to continue my little effort, I figured I'd eventually have a clean roadway to admire on my drive to work.

Now, garbage is one thing, but the truly confounding thing about all of this is the sheer volume of beer bottles, cans and mini liquor bottles I was finding. It is honestly a travesty that there appears to be either many many drunk drivers, which is awful enough, or one very prolific drinker responsible for all of this. My mind runs through the thoughts that these people are out there on the road, day in and day out getting hammered or impaired in their cars, driving past schoolkids, and causing the entire world to not only look littered and fouled up, but also endangering everyone around them. As if that weren't bad enough, several weeks into this cleanup effort, I stumbled upon one, then another, then another makeshift pipes of some sort. One made from pens, one from soldered copper piping used for who knows what crack or weed or whatever. Either way, I had no idea what to do with them. Do I throw them in my garbage? What if they trace this back to my home, will an officer accept that I was just cleaning up the roadway as the excuse to finding drug paraphernalia in my recycle bin? Do I leave them? Now this also appears dangerous, what toxins are leaking into the wild, what if a child finds this? This attempt to clean up my world went downhill from here, as the following week I found a plastic soda bottle filled to the brim with used needles, so now my thoughts race about accidentally getting stabbed with a dirty needle as I'm picking up trash. All in all, an enlightening experience. It opened my eyes to the sheer magnitude of filth that is on the Atlanta roadways and the amount of work it will take to clean this up. That said, it is still worth the effort, every little bit should help, and I intend to continue to do my part to keep Atlanta beautiful.

The next photo is kinda sad, I am going to head out there with some kind of heavy-duty shears and cut this tire off of this poor little tree before it's too late. For that matter, the tire problem is another issue entirely and I'd like to get into a discussion on that topic at some point with my blog. For now, please visit the following sites for more information on cleaning up the tires. Thanks for reading! If you wander out here, enjoy the hike, take some pictures and do your part to keep our world beautiful!

http://greenlaw.org/scrap-tires?mode=p
http://publichealth.gsu.edu/1621.html

Walking beyond the park, the area opens up to a clearcut power line run.

Algae stream at the bottom of the Rockdale Park hill.

Rockdale Park leads to a portion of West Midtown that is still in development.

This entire area appears to be inhabited by the homeless, as there are heaps of refuse and heavily trod paths going along here. What is kind of terrifying is this hole cut into the fence of a playground, cigarette butts litter the area as if someone has crept here daily watching the children play...makes me shudder at the possibility that there could be sketchy creepers roaming about along here. Hope security is beefed up here as they develop this area. Cameras and danger call boxes to deter harm.

Wood Ear Mushroom

Wood Ear Mushrooms

Knowledge of the world around us, being able to tell one plant from another, or one mushroom from another can cut through what would otherwise be a hazy picture, blindness, deafness, and add distinctiveness and features to a world that, in ignorance, just simply blends together in a blur. I don't claim to be an expert on any topic, but I do consider myself a perpetual student of everything; you can never know enough, there are no masters, only those who know more than most. Striving to soak up more, reaching our intrigue out at the world like tendrils ready to deconstruct knowledge and pull it into our mind and our being. I may attempt identification of wild plants, mushrooms, but I am merely an amateur Mycologist (one who studies mushrooms and fungi) please do your own research and consult resources before attempting to consume any mushroom you may find.



I highly recommend the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mushrooms. I am a human and we creatures have a history of being wrong or misinformed.

These squishy, springy little growths in this photo are Auricularia polytricha, the Wood Ear Mushroom. You'll find them primarily on dead hardwoods. They differ from Auricularia auricula-judae in that they are slightly fuzzy.Often, you can find a whole lot of them all in one place, look high, look low, they may be on a tree that is dead, but still standing, or on a log that has collapsed, sometimes they'll bulge out from between the bark and the hardwood.

Wood Ears are edible, so when I found these and identified them, the next step was to bioassay, which in Mycological terms means to test upon oneself. Eat a tiny bit of the mushroom, wait a day, see if you have any ill effects, if you do not, they're safe(r) to consume. This serves two purposes, if the mushroom is toxic, you'll only have ingested a portion, and secondly, you'll learn if you're allergic to it. Sometimes, even well-documented, instantly-identifiable fungi which may be known to be edible may still cause allergic reactions to some so you should always take care. Obviously, you'll want to consult a doctor if you end up getting sick from these experiments upon your body, but use your judgement. My bioassay went well. The next day, I cooked them up in beef stew in a crockpot. They have a very strange texture, springy, like gristle, and on their own, they are flavorless, however, soaked in beef and vegetable juices, they become filled with flavors they absorb.


In the bottom right of this photo is Poison Ivy, tends to grow wild and thick in Georgia. I highly recommend that you avoid touching it or touching boots or jeans that have touched it as the oils can remain active long after you've trod through a patch of it. I've had a few run-ins with Poison Ivy in my day and it's bad news. Seriously brutal. A couple years ago I was renting a room in a friend's house and when he told me he'd knock fifty bucks off the rent if I mowed his lawn, I went outside in a rush, pushed his lawnmower all around his 2 acre property and then for the next few weeks, suffered unbelievable pain on my legs from the blisters and irritated skin, leaf-licked lesions. Some people are immune to it, but I am not and suffer greatly. My other experience with this awful leaf was when I was about thirteen. During a long day of fishing with my dad and brother, catching all manner of Bluegills and Catfish, we, at midday, pulled alongshore for a bathroom break. The rest of the summer was spent on a couch recovering from horrible rashes. I was placed on steroids to regain strength, wore oven mitts to mitigate the temptation to scratch anywhere and cause further agony.

Calamine-coated calamity. Price is Right buzzing on the TV and Poison Ivy buzzing through my brain with a call to claw at these itchy knees and ankles, it's a battle to halt your hand from indulging. A shower feels remarkably satisfying, though, if you take the sprayer off the dock and run the water over the area, it's like your nerve endings don't really know what to do, a wild sensory overload, your mind begins to buzz a bit. It's such a relief when the pain and rash and blisters go away and finally heal, though. Part of me never wants to go back into a forest at that point, but once I step back under the canopy, hear the crunch of pine needles and last year's leaves under my feet, hear the birds singing, and see the multitude of wild species, hundred different kinds of trees, random mushrooms poking up next to a fallen log, I feel at ease again, back in the wild where I belong, it beats me down but then pulls me back with a rejuvenating hand.

Introduction

Hey everyone! Starting a new blog for the purpose of sharing some of my experiences and posting reviews for products that I personally use. Focus will revolve around the camping world. I'll talk about hiking, backpacking, hunting, fishing, campfires, and may get into some stories of finding wild edible mushrooms, edible plants, gardening, tree identification and so on.

I am 30 years old, originally from a tiny rural Wisconsin town, now living in Midtown, Atlanta. I'm finding that there is an abundance of parks and random green spaces sprinkled in and around metro Atlanta; nestled between the highrise hustle, concrete bustle, there is so much natural beauty to explore!

As a youth, my dad would take us hunting, fishing, foraging in the woods of Wisconsin, my mom would put us to work gardening, growing vegetables. My childhood held a lot of outdoor fun and excitement and I hope to share some of my tales with you! Although my day job is in the telecommunications field, I truly enjoy spending time outdoors and I find nature very beautiful; there is peace in plant life, and learning about nature puts you closer to it and can sharpen the appreciation of all that the natural world has to offer.

I hope you find this information entertaining and/or useful! Thanks for reading!