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April 4 2004
Signs of Spring, Water, Tracking
(Photos and report by Walter
Muma)
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| Eight people turned out for a day exploring the woods for
signs of spring, doing some tracking, and discussions of water (finding
it and purifying it). First off, a double gold star for tracking to
TOM! (no, not Tom Brown Jr)
Tom decided at the last minute to come to today's meeting. We had no
idea he was coming. He got off to a late start in the morning, so he
arrived at our meeting spot at 10:20am, by which time of course we were
long gone.
Not a quitter, Tom set out to find us. First of all, we had driven
several miles along back roads to where we began our walk. Tom decided
to circle the area we usually went into, hoping to spot my vehicle. This
is a very large area, with many informal entrances, and his plan of
action could've entailed many miles of driving. He persevered until he somehow found our
vehicles beyond the end of a mile-long dead-end back road (he had never been there
before).
His next task was to find us. We had headed off-trail fairly early on
in our ramblings. Nevertheless, he managed to track us down almost 1/2
mile from our vehicles.
Bravo, Tom! We were very impressed. A nice combination of the use of
inner vision with physical tracking skills! |
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| Although one of our themes for the day was "signs of
spring", the day was anything but spring-like!! The temperature was -3C
with a strong cold north wind blowing. Snow squalls were in the
forecast, but fortunately we did not get any. |
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One of our themes for the day was water: how to locate it, how to
purify it, and so on. Here we are at a small pond, discussing
whether we would drink it, and why or why not, and what we could do
to purify it. There will be info about water on the
Wildwood Survival
website soon - Wilderness Survival - Water section. |
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The wild leeks were just starting to come up. We snacked
on them from time to time during the day.
We regretted not having brought a camping stove and pot to boil some up! |
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One of two porcupine dens we found. The scat at the entrance is that
of porcupine. |
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The group trying out some wild edibles.
It felt colder out than it really was!
For more info on Wild edible plants, please visit the
Wildwood Survival website
- Wilderness Survival - Edible Plants section. |
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Trout Lilly tubers. Very tasty!! After lunch we went down to a new
beaver pond (made last fall) and watched the beavers watching us for
awhile. We noted that the beavers have very strong teeth as they
were able to chew into blue beech trees apparently without
difficulty (blue beech wood is VERY hard). |
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We then made our way upstream, finding beaver sign all the way, as
well as numerous deer and beaver tracks. We found a nice "island"
in the middle of a marsh and sat or lay in the sun for awhile, out
of the cold wind. A beautiful and peaceful spot!! |
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Some lichens on a nearby rock. Some of the cups were filled with a
glistening drop of water. We also found some Scarlet Cup fungus
elsewhere. After we left the "island", we followed an animal trail
for some distance. We found it to be used by deer and coyotes.
A good page on the Internet explaining the difference between
canine and feline tracks is here:
http://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html
A cottontail rabbit scat found here led to a discussion of
Coprophagy - animals that reingest their scat to aid in
digestion. A discussion of Coprophagy is on the
Wildwood Tracking website
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Later in the day we met up with "Jabba the Hut" (or "Jabba
the Rock").
:) :) |
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Some other highlights of the day:
- We did some very detailed tracking with deer, raccoon, and coyote tracks.
- We found many dried specimens of a "mystery plant" in the marshes.
Research afterwards found it to be purple loosestrife (unfortunately).
- The mystery singing bird we heard was likely a Brown Creeper
(according to later research).
- We found several beaver "scent mounds."
- Canada geese and Mallard ducks in the marsh.
- Turkey Vultures circling overhead
- Walking ferns on top of limestone boulders
- Fossils in the rocks
- ...and much more!
We had an awesome and full day in the early spring fresh air and
sunshine. We made lots of interesting discoveries, and we all learned a
lot.
Thank you to everyone who came out and made it a very successful
day!! |
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