E.P. 'Tom' Sawyer Naturalist and Recreation Blog

Butterweed at the Vernal Pond

Just yesterday, I lead a group of enthusiastic hikers back to our vernal pond to enlighten them on the wonders and beauties of wetland areas. The weather was perfect for us warm blooded humans to be going for a hike, but may have been a little cool for our cold blooded amphibious friends.

Even though we didn’t get to see any frogs or toads this time around, we did get to get a glimpse of a juvenile Common Garter Snake. This little guy was hiding out in a patch of sun trying to warm his bones when we came across him. All of the children got a kick out of seeing this little guy as he tried to stay hidden from us. Read More

Just three weeks ago, E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park kicked off its first of three races held annually at the park. The year starts with the Irish Classic 10K, this year celebrating 20 years running! We had a really good turn out, with just over 130 runners, half of which registered that morning! We hope to have numbers like these for our next race, the Goose Creek 5K Run and Fun Walk, more info on the Goose Creek 5K below.

Now to the topic that everyone wants to hear more about, the race winners! Awards are given in each age group for the winner and runner up in that division, then there is an overall men’s and overall women’s winner, with that person taking home a nice sized trophy.

The overall Male winner was Austin Curtis with a time of 37 minutes and 10 seconds and for the Females Jill Bickel finished strong with a time of 39 minutes and 20 seconds. For a full listing of finish times for the Irish Classic 10K, please visit our website. Read More

Pink Lady Slipper
Photo courtesy of Steve Nanz

Buds are bursting out all over. Spring is here and Kentucky is radiating with many species of wildflowers. Find your favorite outdoor location to enjoy everything Kentucky has to offer. Please click this LINK to review some of the wildflower reports from naturalists across the Commonwealth.

For additional information about Kentucky State Parks and some of the upcoming Spring and Wildflower Events, please view this SITE.

Pickleball Paddle
Photo Courtesy of Wix.com

“The gym was rocking last weekend as Rodney (Rocket) Grubbs led a strong group of out-of-town players to the Inaugural E. P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park Pickleball Tournament.” This is an excerpt from Oakle “Pistol Pete” Petrey’s monthly news letter he sends to the rest of the regular players at our park.
We get a lot of feedback from our players, and one piece that we kept hearing was that they were interested in hosting a tournament here. Most of our players had never entered a tourney, due to the long drives that were involved, but wanted to see how they matched up against other regional players. One player, John Tackett, had entered a few before, and he graciously helped us out; setting brackets up, forming teams from the local players, and getting players from across Northern Kentucky and Southern Ohio involved.
To say the least, the first ever E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Pickleball tournament was a huge success. We had 32 teams enter, with a total of around 50 individual players. The divisions were divided into Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed doubles. Read More

Male Eastern Towhee
Photo Compliments of Steve Nanz

This hike was not for the birds, or was it? Yesterday I lead a group of enthusiastic birding beginners to some of the more valued areas on the park to see what we could find. Boy did we find a lot! A person might have thought that I paid the birds to put on such a display for us on this lovely day.

The day started off with a quick talk about how to attract birds to your feeders, what some of the common birds of the region are, and tools and techniques to get these birds identified. After our brief discussion, we set out to put our newly gained knowledge to the test. It didn’t take long to hear our first bird, an American Robin. These birds have such a cheerful call, “cheerio cheeri cheerime”, I think they make a great start to any birding adventure!

In a short one hour walk, we heard and saw over 15 different species of birds. Every time I would begin to talk about one bird that was just heard, another wanted some attention and decided to interrupt and get a piece of the action for himself. I couldn’t ask for a better beginner bird hike, thanks birds!Read More