As a little girl, it was always a special moment when my mother found a Lady’s Slipper. They are a very rare find, though I had been told there were many patches of them behind our cabin. Eventually I found a few places where they could be found, and every year I would check on them. Sometimes they would bloom, sometimes not, but I always made sure they were alive.
Last year, when we took a hike we hadn’t taken in a long time, we found several glorious patches of Lady’s Slippers. I felt as if I had hit the lottery. I had never seen such a profuse number of them in the same place, and in such a dry year, I was amazed they were still living.
This year, we were unable to go on the same hike, but our friends told us they saw the same patch, perhaps even larger because it had rained so much. We were delighted to hear they survived a tougher winter.
Today, July 2, we went on a delightful hike to Cave Creek. It had been a long, long time since we had been there, and I did not remember much of the hike at all. And suddenly we came upon several Lady’s Slippers. Surprise! And then, we came upon some more . . . and then some more . . . and then some more . . . I have never seen so many!
As we were looking at them, our friend, Peter, found some red-striped Coralroot, another fairly rare orchid. I had seen them on occasion, but I had no idea what they were.
And as it turns out, the numerous Lady’s Slippers on the trail appear to be a “hidden secret” in our area. Several groups who we passed were on a quest to find the flowers . . . and in all my years, I had never heard of them being there. So besides renewing my familiarity with the trail, we had two new discoveries! It was a good day.
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