On Saturday the 25th of February, we (Deirdre, I and a temp.park employee, Ami) went for hike up the west valley of Indian river. I wasn't sure when we started up the trail that our destination was going to be in that direction, I had considered the falls, but the off trail experience seemed more compelling. We did not get off to an early start. On sunny Saturday mornings, I'm pretty interested in sipping my coffee while staring out the window at the bird feeder, so we hit the trail close to noon.
I decided to be bold and head up through the muskeg, then cross the river and to the big tree. This was bold because I hadn't gone that way when I was leading, but thought that it would be pretty easy to find my way. Fortunately, I was right.
The muskeg was snow covered, but it wasn't deep and the surface was quite firm. No post holing for us. There were lots of deer tracks in the muskeg and later in the forest. Didn't notice any other tracks though. Where we stopped for lunch was particularly thick with tracks and browsed Vacciniu
m.The forest in the valley (like the forest along the lower trail) showed impact from the fall and winter wind storms. There were a number of both snapped trees and tipped trees in the forest, maybe more tipped trees, but I didn't keep careful count. Did notice that both types showed some nice growth of mycelium and/or wood that was chunky and orange-brown presumably due to the action of cellulose degrading fungi.
One of the casualties of the storm was the big tree. I found it in the typical way (for me)
by thinking I had missed it, then seeing the distinctive large lower branches in the distance. Once we got closer, we could see that there was much tree debris on the ground nearby . It turned out to be the top of the tree. I must admit, I was a bit dismayed, okay bummed. It wasn't a surprise that it was damaged, after all there was a cavity in the center of the tree large enough for two people to stand in, but still, I didn't like to see this sentimental landmark change.I'm not sure when the top blew out. I haven't found anyone that has been up in that part of the forest recently to help me pinpoint the timing. Haven't given up yet though.
On the way back down the west side of the river, we passed many more downed trees, most of which tipped over. Maybe there will be more Schistostega up there in the future? I wish that I had counted or even better mapped the tipped versus snapped trees as I'm curious which occurs more often in that valley. Guess now I have an excuse to return once again.
