City person that I am, I learned a lot. I saw these black bark, skinny poles, and I asked "What's this?" I was told it was a white pine tree. Pine? Then I saw these skimpy, flimsy, pine needles on the branches. Now I know. The Charlie Brown Christmas trees are called white pine.
I also saw a ring tailed hawk. The birders in our hiking group were complaining that they didn't see any birds, when we saw a hawk, way up high, circling round and around. We were told that the hawk was on his way south. Hawks circle up, again and again. They even go up to 2000 feet. That's where they catch the thermal currents of the wind. Hawks expend very little energy flying south, because they use the wind currents. Did you know that a group of hawks is called a kettle of hawks.
