Hitchiti Ginger =D

We went hiking through the Hitchiti Forest and got to take in the great nature. There are controlled burns in the forest to observe  and study the ecosystem and how it works. Me and a couple of others took a crazy route to go up the river. I wish we could've taken pictures and a video but a couple of people fell into the river. There were two plants in particular that we emphasized and it was sassafras and wild ginger. The wild ginger is low growing and they prefer the shady areas under the giant oak and pines in the area.

The other plant we emphasized was sassafras. It was very interesting because it had multiple different types of leaves growing from the same stem. Sassafras can also grow to be a medium sized tree. I'm still waiting on Dr. Rood's answer on how sassafras and genetically grow 3 different leaves at once.

Dr. Rood also found this nice hole that seemed to be a rotting trunk but we could stick our arms in there and explore. I definitely didn't want to be bitten by anything so I decided not to. But here is a great picture of me hugging a tree at Hitchiti =)

Jackson Springs!

     Jackson Springs Park is located within the three oldest suburbs in the city of Macon. The park used to be apart of Baconsfield park and had an in tact zoo. The park was split up for commercial development. We had rock hammers and picks. We also used a magnifying glass to examine the quartz and different elements of rocks we found. There were a lot of granite and quartz. We found some feldspar and other rocks that had mica and hornblende crystals as well. Some people decided to go through the tunnel and come around back to the group. I couldn't do this due to unsuitable footwear, but I still had a fun time bashing rocks and examining them =) We found a nice salamander to play with as well.