Today we finished another trail gap between road walks that we did when the snow was deep. We hiked on bare trail where a week ago Bob was in snow over his knees.
The feature that I was most interested in seeing on this section was possible changes to O'Brian Pond which is a flooded place in Warner Creek, compliments of the beavers.
When Marie and I hiked here in 2010, it was difficult to get across. The beavers were constantly flooding the trail. Puncheon was failing, etc. But for several years now, I've been hearing the story from my friend, Jerry Allen, about a "beaver deceiver" that the chapter has installed here to keep the beavers from building their dam ever higher than the trail.
Here it is! There are pipes below the surface which let water through the dam, but they are placed so that there is no sound of moving water. It has been learned that what prompts beavers to add to their dams is the noise of flowing water. No noise... they are happy, hikers are happy.
As I understand it, the volunteers have had to reinstall it a couple of times to get the desired effect. But the trail is now dry, with some bits of nice boardwalk in a few places.
Our plan was to start early and beat the heat. The first 4 miles were really hilly, but we were fresh and it was still only about 70 degrees. The plan worked well. By the time the temperature soared, we were on flatter trail. There was less shade than we expected, but the terrain was much better for how we felt by then. One thermometer said 90 degrees.
Most of the way was in open woods, but some places had strips of winding bare trail across grassy sections. I just liked the way this looked.
No pictures, but I saw the first dragonflies of the year. We also saw the first of the trout lilies to open.
We spotted antlion holes. Antlions are the larvae of a lacewing insect that digs a pit in sandy soil and then waits just below the surface for a meal to wander by. As you can guess from the name, that meal is often an ant. I MAY have seen one of the larvae crossing the trail. It was about the right shape, but when I looked again, I couldn't find it.
It was a nice Saturday, so we saw quite a few hikers. In particular, the JV45 Chapter which maintains this section was having a group hike. We interacted with a number of them, and several of us went out to eat after we finished hiking.
One of them took a new pic of Bill and me.
Remember my little book of Bible verses? I have to confess that I haven't remembered to read one every day, but I did remember today. It was great! Yesterday felt so awful. The heat was killing me; my knees and hips hurt. It wasn't fun. This morning I read, "When I said, 'My foot is slipping,' your unfailing love, Lord, supported me." Psalm 94:18. And today, despite the higher temperature, I felt better, and my various body parts hurt less.
Miles today: 11.3. Total miles so far: 4536.3
We think we can get a few miles in tomorrow morning before the thunderstorms start.
 | See 45 Degrees, 83 Degrees |
2 comments:
Quite interesting about the beaver deceiver. I've never heard of such a thing.
Ann- they're relatively new I think
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