TurtleFest

Last week the organizers of the TurtleFest in Plymouth posted an event on Facebook. As soon as it popped into my feed, I knew where we would be spending part of our Saturday. While no turtles needed to be rescued at the French Regional Park, we enjoyed our excursion to see the turtles.

The Clifton E. French Regional Park is about 25 minutes from our house, the drive took hardly anytime at all as the traffic was light around 10:30 am. We walked a half mile trail from the Visitor Center to Medicine Lake where we could observe the turtles. Along the trail, there were signs on temporary posts with information about turtles. There were hundreds of families along the trail, and they were as excited as we were to read about turtles. One sign would ask a question about turtles and about twenty feet away would be a sign with the answer.

One view on the trail. I love the blue and white of the sky

along with the varied shades of the green vegetation.

Once at the lake, I found a spot to rest near a fenced turtle nesting area. Joe wandered off to another part of the shore where you could be on the beach and see the turtles from close range.

The view of Medicine Lake from where I was resting and relaxing while Joe explored.

A nesting turtle (Joe used 15x to shoot and then I cropped the photo so you can

see the turtle a bit better. In additon to this turtle we could see seven other turtles right

nesting closer to the water.

Joe took this photo during his exploration.

On our way home from the park we decided to run errands. One stop was at Lowe’s to see if they had a twelve-foot orchard ladder and to buy a piece of plywood for the back of the Subaru. Joe will use the plywood to cart around compost and gardening supplies. He thought Lowe’s would cut the piece to size but discovered they will not take off anything less than 12” as it is considered a safety hazard. Joe bought a small handsaw and made the cut in their parking lot. I was waiting for someone to come out from the store and tell us we couldn’t do it. Joe got it cut without any interference.

I did my part – hold the cart the plywood sat on so it wouldn’t roll. Oh, and stopped holding long enough to take a photo of Joe.