First day on the Great Meadow by Canoe

So we finally got out on the meadow for a canoe trip for the first time this year.  After last year's monthly visits and canoeing every time, it had been a long time since we enjoyed the wonderful place by water. Our friend, Russ Thomas joined us again and we picked cranberries, visited the blow down, and Al taught Russ about hemlock sticks.  We relaxed a lot on the meadow, resting on the sphagnum moss and tussock sedges in between picking cranberries and eating a leisurely lunch.  We didn't find much of great interest, but we could see the beginnings of spring in sprouting spatterdock and buds on the alders and other wetland shrubs. We found beaver scat in the water, and lots of beaver activity in expanded lodges and dams, and newly chewed trees.  We also scared up ducks repeated, wood ducks and mallards.  

It was a lovely day, warm and sunny.  Sunny enough that I got my first sunburn of the season.  Even when nothing spectacular happens on a hike or canoe trip, I feel contented and fortified for the coming week for the time spent in the beautiful place we thankfully call home.

Looking across the Meadow

These orange fungi seemed unique to black cherry trees and populated this downed tree  in the blowdown area.  

Porcupine chew.

Some beaver sticks make great Morris sticks.  

But make the canoe a little heavier...

Russ checks out the view from the beaver lodge.  

We found this nest full of swamp milkweed pod fibers.  

Sweet gale buds.

Still ice on the water in spots.  

winter green berries galore.

A cache of wintergreen berries we found under a log.   What animal left them there?

First redback salamander of the season.   

Looking east of the portage toward Harrisville Pond.