In deference to the special time with family during this holiday, we decided to forgo our usual Monday hike. Instead, I invited Kirstin, Jimmy, and my granddaughter, Lucy, to join us for a little walk. Lucy took the lead, such as a 19th month toddler can do bundled into a snow suit. When she bent over to pick up a stick, she practically did a somersault. It was a short walk from Al's house up Lead Mine Road and back again. Then, Lucy's favorite part of the day: Hot Chocolate. She is quite able to say a number of words: Chocolate, Peanut Butter- two essential food groups, and "more", "a bite", "please," and "eat," so food and drink figure prominently in Lucy's life at this time. It was enough adventure for her: a little walk, and hot cocoa.
Christmas day was full of family, from skyping with our two children serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cape Verde and Riverside, California, to opening presents and enjoying Christmas dinner. So, I only had a little time to get outside for a walk with Bailey. We headed down on the Murdough Hill Meander trail to the mill site. The water still flowed through the mill race way, but with the cold weather, ice was beginning to form interesting and beautiful patterns on the edges of the stream and from overhanging branches.
Today, I was blessed with a day off from work, so Al, my friend, Wendy Byrn, a new friend, Michael, and I decided to explore some more along Ellis Reservoir and Otter Brook. At least that was the plan. We drove to Sullivan to access the northern shore of Otter Brook via a class 6 road called Kendall Lane. We parked at the end of the road with every intention of walking down to Kendall Lane to see what we would find. Well, so much for that....
We had hardly stepped out of the car before we found ourselves looking down at a clear set of fisher tracks. Change of plans--off to backtrack the fisher. What fun to charge off into the woods to follow the tracks, to imagine the moves of the fisher, over fallen trees, rolling in leaves, and scent-marking. We tracked the fisher to the edge of a wetland, where we couldn't find any more tracks. More than likely, the fisher had crossed the wetland, but in such a way that we couldn't see the tracks anymore. We also crossed tracks of a snowshoe hare, deer tracks, moose scat and browse, squirrels, and small voles and mice. I missed the mink tracks that Al, Wendy, and Michael saw, in my haste to follow the fisher tracks (not like the tracks were going anywhere.).
After we came to the end of the fisher tracks, we conferred briefly and decided to follow a steep slope, with the belief that Otter Brook and Ellis Reservoir couldn't be far away. We found ourselves on the edge of a small open wetland, but it wasn't connected to Ellis Reservoir, at least not closely. But we did investigate the wetland and found cranberry plants, but few berries. Along its edge, we found more deer tracks, which appeared to be fairly new. We also found a convenient spot to stop for a snack after which we decided to follow the stream that flowed from the wetlands to the southeast, toward what was proving to be the elusive Otter Brook. At every turn, over every ridge, I expected to find myself looking down on the brook or the reservoir.
Truth be told, it never happened--we never found the reservoir. But along the way, we found some more interesting tracks of coyote, fisher and gray fox, a beautiful area of the stream with intriguing ice formations and basins of water flowing under boulders. We found bear clawed beech trees, a moose bed and very new moose browse, and, just before we returned to Kendall Lane probably a mile from the place where we had started, we found a monument marking the Sullivan/Stoddard town line. We may never have made it into Nelson at all on this adventure. And we were a long way from Ellis Reservoir, our desired destination. Oh, well...find joy in the journey, so the saying goes. To cap the day, we came upon a bear nest in a beech tree, just off the side of Kendall Lane. We had covered a lot of ground, seen many interesting features and discovered a beautiful place on which we had never before walked. All in all, another great day in the woods, not of Nelson, but of Sullivan and Stoddard, which we were happy to find at least as interesting and enjoyable as our hometown.
No comments:
Post a Comment