A Year in the Forest

After completing the layout and clearing of the last trail segment this past weekend, I walked the complete main trail loop today.  The trail starts out on the top of the ridge in a nice open area.    This picture is pretty typical of the upland areas.  Just as I was starting to go down into the stream area I encountered the biggest two-color bolete I have ever seen.  It was about 4 1/2 inches across the top of the cap and a full 3/4 inch thick.  I, of course, harvested it and took it back to the house and cooked it for a pre-dinner snack.  But before I did that I continued on down into the stream bed.  Here is a picture of the stream bed.    You will notice how much darker the stream area is even during bright sun.  I have often gotten down there and began to wonder if night was falling.  The reason for the darkness is that the under story of paw paw trees is so thick here that little light gets down to ground level.  Continuing on down the stream I took a detour to snap a picture of some deer bones.  This deer died and was scavenged by the local animals, probably mainly fox and coyote.  The bones are spread over quite an area but here is the backbone, ribs and skull.    The deer carcass started out further up the hill and I have found hind quarters bones up there.  The main carcass was dragged down into the bottoms and leg and pelvic bones are spread out in the area.  The bones are spread out through rugged terrain for over 1500 feet.

On the way back to the house I picked up a couple dozen black walnuts and laid them on the driveway to dry in the sun.  In the past, I have never thought black walnuts were worth the trouble, but hope springs eternal.