That Valley Trail

  I'm taking you back to one part of Tuesday's hike at the State Park that I want to tell you more about. I thought I had pictures that showed how this has changed, and I do!

When we headed back toward Lost Lake we cut across a valley on what is now part of the Lighthouse Trail. But long ago, this was called the Beechwood Trail. That was before 1998. That year, there was a large, straight-line wind event called a derecho. To have that designation, there have to be sustained winds of more than 58 mph. The result was that almost all the trees in that valley were flattened. In 2010, you could still see the effects of that with tree trunks littering the ground in a linear way. The trees felled were mostly maple and beech.

The trail was closed for years. But the park redesigned the trail system, and in 2010, this was the valley, now with a set of stairs leading down to the floor, where you can see some regrowth of white pine lining the edges of the trail. This is now a portion of the Lighthouse Trail

Well, I took a picture at pretty much the same location on Tuesday. Look at the valley now! You can't even tell it had been bare. Nature is amazing.

In other news: Another hot, hot day. I did finish mowing the lawn before sundown last night, and tried to do some outside tasks this morning, but things didn't go right, so not much was accomplished. I did one load of laundry. After that I tried hard to make it a book day. I managed to write a whole chapter, and worked hard on the cover. Stay tuned. This evening, I attended another of the Reading Regatta Zoom events.

See Two Lighthouses and a Trail See Straight Line Wind