It's the Little Things
A hiking guidebook update: what keeps me going and how data collection is going.
For the last two months I have been trying to spend at least one weekend day gathering hiking data for my Big Thicket region hiking book. Some days I’m out by myself and others I’m out with my husband and son. I’ve been trying to pool together some of the areas that are near each other and knock out several trails or areas in a day but this isn’t always possible. I’ve also found that biking on trails accessible for that seems to be the fastest way to cover ground in a day but I will also feel frustrated that that also requires me to miss a lot, photo-wise. Great for quick data collection, bad for looking for insects.
I actually really like hiking and exploring by myself. It isn’t something I get to do nearly as much these days and when I am only obligated to myself for those hours I can go as fast or as slow as I want. Deviations to check out plants or sit and stand for a few minutes to take it all in don’t result in a cranky 10 year old wanting to keep moving, or a cranky husband because said 10 years old is cranky. It’s just me and if I’m cranky I can fix that by eating, drinking, stopping, or moving to another area. Now, do I scare myself on occasion? Yes. The last two weekends I have seen more feral hogs than I have seen in a long time. And by “more feral hogs” it has really just been a handful. But I’m really only used to seeing evidence of them: rooting and turned up dirt in the woods. In Florida it was much more common for me to see them while out in a natural area, but as many horror stories I hear from people about feral hogs in Texas, I just don’t come across live ones often.
The downside I am finding to writing a hiking guidebook is that you don’t get to spend a lot of time really getting to know a place. You get in, hike, collect GPS data, make some notes, take photos, and move on. You’ve got a list and a timeline and a pile of behind-the-scenes things to do. I don’t know how it works for other writers but I will write in my head for days/weeks/months before I write something on the computer. Working out the formatting, the plot, the hook, etc. I haven’t done much actual writing for the book other than keeping up with marking off where I hike and making notes of dates.
What I have been doing is a lot of photo editing. I take a lot of photos of stuff I wouldn’t normally take photos of, both on my camera and on my phone. A lot of it is for reference so I can look back and remember what something looked like so I can describe it later. The photos are the hardest because I am truly trying to also include wildlife instead of just flora but that can be difficult. Gregarious mammals are limited, reptiles, too, unless you happen to be in the right place at the right time. So, I have to look for insects, which also require patience. But at least it is a workable situation to hang around waiting for a butterfly or dragonfly to land. The other thing I need to do is ply through my hard drives because I do have photos from previous trips to some of these areas that I plan on using—plus it isn’t like insects are only known to one location, I can use a photo from one public land on another public land if I know they exist there.
I’m also making the maps for the book. Because I have access to mapping software and two decades of cartography experience, this was an easy choice not to outsource mapping to the publisher or someone else. My original thoughts for maps involved topographic backgrounds but I’ve quickly realized that won’t work because half the time the topos aren’t accurate and they aren’t seamless across the region. Waterways will overlap with trails when they don’t actually do that on the ground…it’s a mess. So, we’re going to the basics and I have simplified this a lot. I sent draft maps over to my editor recently for a check-in—I hadn’t reached out since I had finalized signing the contract in May—and he approved of the direction I was going.
Which brings me to thinking of how to portray the trails in the book. When I put the book proposal together I thought it would look one way but I am starting realize I am going to have to group trails, especially in state parks, a different way. Fluctuations happen! That’s how books go!
Ideally, I want to be caught up on everything I’ve hiked so far by the end of this year. Making the maps, writing the narratives about each of the areas I’ve hiked, sorting photos, etc. That will put me in a good position for next year and getting what remains, completed. I still have a lot of reading I need to do to write the beginning portions which will include some background/history on the region. I’m almost thinking I’ll end up doing a NaNoWriMo November and December to get a lot of this accomplished. Tune out everything else, work on books stuff. Easier said than done!
One little bright spot in going out to these locations are of course finding rare and undocumented species. Two weekends ago at the Loblolly Unit I came across what I thought was just a weird looking Mikania scandens, hempvine, a really common white flowering vine in wetlands. I took exactly one phone photo and moved on my way. When I put it into iNaturalist later, the app told me it was Mikania cordifolia. Pause. What?? No way.
I didn’t upload the entry and when I got home I started sifting through a key and looking at the photos online and got a second opinion from a botanist friend/acquaintance I know and got the verification that she also thought it was M. cordifolia. The species is rare in Texas and had not been documented in the county I was in. I need to go back and get a voucher specimen at some point.
Another less rare but still uncommon plant I stumbled across is bearded skeletongrass, Gymnopogon ambiguus. It was literally on the side of the road in the Big Sandy Creek Unit and at first I thought it was a weird Dichanthelium. This is why I love to document plants, love to look for them. They show up in the most random places and often when you aren’t specifically looking for one. And I realize most people do not care about some random grass on the side of the road but someone has to care for these things.
Which all brings me back to wishing I had more time in these places, to actually know them a bit more intimately. It’s been a while since I have felt like I have known a place, really back in Florida. I’m never going to get to spend as much time in some of these places as I would like because some are so remote and I live 1-2.5 hrs away from these areas, too. It kind of kills me when I encounter people who live next to the Big Thicket who rarely get out and hike or see what is in their own backyard. Meanwhile, TxDOT is causing chaos with road expansions between Lumberton and Woodville, inviting sprawl from Beaumont into the region. It’s not or never for land preservation in some of these places: for sale signs are going up on what are currently private undeveloped areas. Let’s put in a few more Dollar Generals and gas stations…that’ll be great for everyone, right?
I’d like to do a Q&A of sorts…maybe an AMA for book writing/Texas hiking. Leave a comment here on Substack or reply to this email with your book writing or Texas hiking/Big Thicket region hiking question! I would love to answer them in a future newsletter!
Misti writes regularly at Oceanic Wilderness and In the Weeds. She hosts one podcast, Orange Blaze: A Florida Trail Podcast, and recently retired The Garden Path Podcast.
Once upon a time I typed a book for my uncle that he'd written (not this one but another one of his https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Adirondack-Trails-Northern-Preserve/dp/0935272631?ref_=ast_author_dp) and although I loved hiking I never got the chance to hike any of places he'd written about. But it was satisfying to read it. Hiking guides are good reading. I'm glad you're doing one from Texas and I look forward to reading it. I do NaNoWriMo, have done for more than a decade now. It can be a great way to get out of analysis paralysis and just write! We'd love to have you in our BAWL writers group if you're looking for such a community.
Keep up the good work!
And NO we don't need any more dollar stores!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t live in Texas, but I think this is all so very cool, except for the gas stations.