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The Keystone Trail parallels Papio Creek in Bellevue.
On Friday I took a short run on one of eastern Nebraska’s awesome running trails: The Keystone Trail. I used to run on this trail a LOT when we were living in Nebraska, and I’ve written previously about the great views it gave us of the Offutt Air Show in 2008. This is how I did my 10K and 1/2 marathon training when I lived in the area.
From where I’m staying in Bellevue for my reserve work right now, it was about a 1/2 mile run to a trailhead off Capehart Rd. It was so easy. So I set my Nike+ for a 5K run and ran out 1.5 miles or so on the trail. On the return trip, once my Nike+ told me I had run 5K, I stopped to enjoy the views. I could take some pictures too.
The markers are approximately every tenth of a mile. They are a bit misleading on this marker: the "K" is for "Keystone" and not "kilometer". The numbers posted are miles.
I used to have a wonderful time trying to photograph all the birds I would see on the trail. If I were at home I could probably dig up the pictures I had of red-winged blackbirds, red-tailed hawks, and American cliff swallows that would set up enormous nesting colonies under the overpasses along the trail.
Enjoy pictures I took of oxeye daisies, thistles and cow’s parsley-type Queen Anne’s lace (not quite the same as the Queen Anne’s lace from the northeast that I remember from my childhood, with the tiny red specks in the centers of the flower clusters reminiscent of Queen Anne pricking her finger with a needle while sewing lace.) All of these flower pictures have been post-processed with Instagram filters, and pardon some of the blurriness…it was very windy and difficult to keep the flowers still.
I love daisies! These are oxeye daisies, which aren't native to the United States. They don't grow so well in Florida, so I had to take a moment and savor these pretty ones along the trail.
I enjoyed playing with the Instagram filters to bring out the golden centers of these flowers.
Thistles are in bloom. The thistle, the national symbol of Scotland, is known for their appealing nectar and pretty purple flowers enveloped in thorns all through the stems and leaves. OW!
It was windy outside. So I had to somehow grasp one of those prickly stems to steady this flower for a close-up shot. It wasn't easy.
Finally, I saw Queen Anne's lace beginning to bloom along the roadside on Capehart Road. But upon closer inspection, this isn't the same as the Queen Anne's lace from the northeast. This type is also known as "cow parsley".
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