The Land Between

Since our latest exploration on Monday last, I have had very little time to write an account, but I will do my best now to get it together.  We chose a very small area to explore on this day: a triangular piece of land bordered by Center Pond Road, Henderson Road, the Nelson Road, with the apex of the triangle the Nelson Common.   We parked by the access road to Center Pond and headed into the woods just east of Buzz Laughlin's house.  Almost immediately, we found tracks of an otter.  We also found mink tracks, turkey, bobcat, coyote, and probably dog. We followed the bobcat tracks up to the fence at the edge of the field bordering the French's field.   Along the way, we found some very large sugar maple snags, i.e., standing dead trees.  In their prime these trees must have been impressive.  One snag was completely hollow, but the only way we could have gotten into it was from the top of the remaining trunk, which was about 15 up.  

A little further on, we found another large hollow snag, this time with an opening which I squeezed through to stand inside the once magnificent tree.  The inside was a mosiac of black crumbling matter, where the tree's inner layers were in the process of being consumed by fungus and insects.  I could break off pieces of this substance and crumble it in my hands.   I tore off one piece and discovered a bright red beetle.   I carefully took it out to show Al and we were able to get some fine photos of this interesting creature.  

With some effort and very little grace, I was able to extricate myself from the maple snag and we were back

on the trail of the bobcat.  We found ourselves behind Carol Heath's house next and decided to head down the hill to some wetland areas we had observed from the road.   We found an impressive otter slide which we followed down to the stream that flows along the Nelson Road.  At the stream the otter tracks were joined by mink tracks, more bobcat tracks, as well as occasional squirrel, porcupine, and raccoon tracks.   

We followed the stream and the tracks down the hill behind the Battenelli house and to a beaver lodge and dam.  It didn't look particularly active at the time, but we believe that the beavers had been there at least at the beginning of the winter.  There was a large stash of branches in the water in front of the lodge and we could find evidence of freshly chewed trees.  

Finding a dry patch of land on the downstream side of the dam, we decided to take our customary snack break.  It was the usual fare: cookies, clementines, baked potato, and cheese.  Always satisfying, so why change what works?  After a short rest during which we lamented the lack of sunshine to warm our faces, we decided to get moving again.   

Next route to the southwest toward Henderson Road, mostly because we were a little confused about which road was which and we wanted to confirm what we thought was Henderson Road.   We were right: we came out just below the driveway to the house which the Joneses, then Allison Aldrich owned for a time.  

I had hoped that we wouldn't run into our own snowshoe tracks on the way back toward the car, but on a small parcel of land, it is hard to do.  Eventually, we crossed our previous tracks and headed up "Henway Brook" which is the  outlet for Center Pond.  

This day we also counted tree species and again found about 13 species.  We were still missing hop horn beam, spruce, and perhaps more, but Al helped me identify many shrubs and I was grateful for the way he tests me.   Even though we hadn't gone far, we had found many tracks and other interesting flora as well as evidence of the passing of myriad forest dwellers.  It was a good hike and we were amazed at how abundant and varied the tracks were on this day.  

Inside the sugar maple snag

French's farm from the north fence.

Great place for hide and seek.  

Little red beetle

Red beetle top 

Red beetle underside

Successfully out of the tree.

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Dead car behind Battinelli's house

Otter slide

Otter roll spot

Ice pendant

Mink scat, I think.

Symmetry of hobblebush

Henway Falls

Hoop skirt cascade.    

Hearing Spring Arrive on the River

This week's adventure took place in a very small area between Granite Lake Road and Route 9 below Priscilla Walter's house.  This is a spot that has been of interest to both Al and me, but neither of us has explored it until now.  But today was the day--beautiful, sunny and fresh tracks from the moment we got out of the car.   Fresh mink tracks led us to the river, the river with ice breaking  loose and flowing down into spring.

The river flowing from convergent streams out of  Granite Lake, the beaver pond off Log Cabin Road, Center Pond, and  White Pond. 

We followed the tracks until we couldn't see them anymore, and strayed along the river, breaking off ice shelves and helping spring along.  We spent time along the bank, throwing snowballs across the water,  and trying to break the delicate ice.  When we were successful, the ice fell with the sound of broken glass.

The ice was so delicate and intricate.   Like crystal.

So many different forms of ice.  A castle around this  old stump.....

...A window through which the sun shines with a diffused light.  

 Along the way, we found abandoned birds' nests.  We could look at the make up of the nests, without the cover of leaves to hide them from view.  This nest was comprised of grasses, moss, lichen, mud, leaves, twigs and a strand of plastic.

 Again and again, we stopped to look at the ice formations, some delicate and some so thick that it would take some time to melt.  I loved the ripples and waves in one piece of ice, as well as the fine lines where minuscule air bubbles had formed.

Along the river, we also saw four ducks, a hooded merganser pair and another pair that we couldn't get close enough to positively identify, but Al thought that they might have been ring necked ducks, though he thought it was too early for them to be here.  I have seen hooded mergansers throughout the winter in Nelson, wherever there is open water, so I wasn't surprised to see them.

We moved away from the river into the woods to follow new tracks--coyote and fox at first, then we found bobcat.  We discovered the bobcat tracks when I found this mass of fine roots that fit perfectly in one of the tracks.  How it got there, I have no idea, but it was an interesting find.

Oops, out of order, but these are close-ups of the chunk of ice with the cool ripples and lines of air bubbles. 

We began to follow the bobcat tracks and came upon an exciting find--a bone, right along the tracks.  We marked the spot so that we could come back and check it out after the snow is gone to see what else is there.  I decided to follow the bobcat tracks one way, and Al went another direction.  I found a number of spots, where the bobcat had stopped to sit, where it had turned to follow another animal's tracks and looped up and down the hill.  It was warm and I had unzipped my inner layer shirt to cool off.  The spruce woods were thick and small twigs kept breaking off and falling down my shirt.  I was pulling them out for the rest of the day.  

Notice the bite marks on this piece of bone. 

We found this big pile of porcupine scat at the entrance to a  hollow log.  No porcupine  in the log though.   Porcupines are messy housekeepers.   

Al called to let me know that he had found something interesting by hooting like a barred owl.  This is the way we communicate when we get separated, but we have to come up with a way to say, "Where are you?" as opposed to "I have something you want to see", because most of the time, I don't know if Al has something to show me or if he is wondering where I am.  So when he called, I just stayed put and called back with my much inferior barred owl call.   I wanted to show him what I had found-a spot where the bobcat had dug into a tunnel around a boulder, after a squirrel or some other small mammal.  Don't know if the bobcat was successful, because we couldn't find any evidence of a kill.

Back to what Al had found:  as usual, he doesn't tell me what he found, but waits for me to discover it myself.  The first find was three piles of black fur; we couldn't decide whether it was scat or pieces of some animal's hide.  The mysterious thing was that we found what looked like a part of a feather in the fur.  I decided to wrap the mystery in a plastic bag and take it home to disect when it had thawed.  Haven't checked it out yet, so the mystery remains.

One pile of black fur (Mink?), with a feather coming out of it at the lower right of the photo.

 The second find was a number of bones in the snow, large enough to be deer.  But it appeared that more bones were under the snow.  So we marked all three spots of interest and we'll come back in a month or two to check them out further when the snow is gone.

The bones with my glove for scale.

What did the bobcat find here?   Or did it find anything?  

 We moved out of the woods and took a break by the river.  While we ate our snacks, we threw our orange peels in the river and watched them as they floated out of sight.  They bobbed in the fast water, submerged and popped up again further down the stream.  A flash of orange and they were gone, one by one, around the bend.

Al suggested that we go to the bridge.  Well, sometimes it helps to be a little more specific.  I thought he meant the bridge near where we started and he actually meant a bridge downstream, so for a minute or so, I was going the opposite direction.  Quick course correction, and we headed down the river.  We found an old road and an abandoned trailer.  Inside we found one volume of this encyclopedia, lots of porcupine scat, chewed batting, a chair and a bed that hadn't been slept in, by humans anyway, for a long time.

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The back window was draped with pine needles and looked like a  uni-brow.  

 In the front window of the trailer we found an amazing thing.  The previous occupant had etched pictures in the glass.

A cartoon fox

Chip and Dale sledding down a hill--one of the chipmunks is saying,  "Oh,  #@*%!"

The symbol for Cancer--the crab

And a sketch of a lion's face.  You never know what treasures you find even in an abandoned  trailer. 

What did this monument mark?  An old road between Nelson and Sullivan?   

The view from the old road

A very large and straight white pine.  We couldn't  come close to  putting our arms around it.  The monument  was at the base of this tree.  

 Further down the road we found an abandoned house and chicken coop/shed.  The turkeys were frequent visitors to this house lot, as well as snowshoe hare.   Al went inside and found that there was still food in the refrigerator, but I had no interest in checking that out for myself.   Pretty scary to imagine, since this house must have been abandoned for a very long time.

Turkey tracks galore.  

Found this old skate under the outer wall of the  much collapsed  chicken coop.  

Up Parascope!   What do you think that this is?  The spout for a gas can?   Nope,  it's the handle  of a child's  tricycle.  

We made our way down to the river again, crossed the bridge and followed the opposite shore back upstream.  More interesting ice formations greeted us along the way as well as otter tracks.  

Al gets up close and personal with the ice and the river.

Don't lose your hat, Friend.  

Otter tracks on the right, Kathy and Al tracks on the left.  

Ice stalagmites inside a hole next to the river.  

We could hear the river roaring inside this hole.

The strata of ice along the river.

We got to a point where the land between the river and the road  was too steep and  narrow to safely traverse, so we  scrambled back unto the road for the last leg of our adventure. At the turn-around between Sullivan and Nelson, a small car was parked.   I was about to say hello to the man who stepped out, when we observed him crumble up a brown paper bag in his hands.  He saw us and quickly got back into his car. We assumed that our sudden appearance had thwarted his plans to throw that bag into the snow --never thought we were the litter patrol, but we do our part when we can!  

As we walked along the road, we observed that the land across from the river sloped steeply.   I asked Al if we could climb the slope, just to say that we had done it.  As usual, he was game.  We stowed our outer  layers and our packs on the river side of the guard rail and scrambled up.  I started up directly behind Al, but as twigs and branches rained down from his passage, I quickly moved to the right.  Just in the nick of time, because Al lost his footing and slid right down to where I had been.  It was a lovely challenge to finish the day, sidestepping, grabbing small trees, checking our footing, crawling on hands and feet and reaching the top to look down and the road and river far below.   Legs thoroughly worked, we made our way down a slightly gentler slope back to the car.  But we couldn't leave yet--the keys were in Al's pack.  Just a short jaunt down the road to pick up our gear and we were on our way back to my house for our customary cups of cocoa.    A perfect end to a beautiful river walk to welcome spring.  

Of course, we got another foot of snow today, so winter is still hanging on, even as spring asserts her will.