Back to "My" Woods

I decided that today was the day I would take a nice walk in the woods behind my house.  You may remember that I hadn't been able to get back there all during the late Spring, Summer and Fall because the woods is full of poison ivy.  And, I was afraid to go back there during hunting season, in case my idiot neighbor across the street, or someone else was back there, posted or not, hunting.

So, I started out, in deep, fluffy snow that was easy to walk through.  At the top of the trail, I could see the Bay below.

I headed down the trail.  The woods were quiet and peaceful.

I could see that there had been others in the woods before me.  For a good deal of my walk today, I followed this cross-country ski trail that some folks had made.  They were good, and stayed on the trails, so I stayed out of their tracks.

There was a big old coyote who wasn't so kind however, and walked right in the track for part of the way before heading off into the woods.  The picture doesn't show the track too well, but the print was maybe two-thirds the length of my treking pole handle.

Part of the woods behind my house belongs to the County Parks System.  They're not going to develop it and the only way for most people to get there is by water.  I saw that, since the last time I had been back there they had been doing some surveying and posting.  At least, I think that's what this mark on the tree means.

They also had these signs all around the perimeter of their property.  I did wonder about this sign.  It's quite high up, and the only way to get it tacked up was for a fairly tall person to lean against the tree.  But, you see that hairy vine going up the tree, under the sign?  That's poison ivy.  That person must have leaned right against it.  Hope he or she didn't get a case of the itchies.

I had a little bit of a disappointment when I started down a trail that lead pretty directly to a small cove off of the bay.  A huge tree had either fallen or been cut so it fell across the trail and I couldn't go any farther.  So near that I can see the Bay, but I just can't get there this way.

So, I went back and started down the trail that lead to the foundation of the old homesteader's/squatter's house.  On the way I got a good view of the largest cove off of the Bay.  It is beautiful and still.  I did see some deer run across it, but they were pretty far away and I didn't get a shot of them.

Surprisingly, someone has built a big modern house right at the entrance of the cove.  It's even more surprising because this has to be a three-season home.  The only way to get to it is by boat.  Can you imagine the cost to haul in all of the building materials by boat to build this thing?  I had seen it last Spring, but couldn't get a good shot of it through the trees then.

 The dock for the big house.

Somehow, I find the remnants of the old house much more interesting.

I was able to follow a path that, in the warmer parts of the year is too swampy to walk on, right out almost to the Bay itself.  In the warmer seasons, this area is covered by ferns.  You can see, in this picture, what I think is one of the two generations of the fern in this picture.  Fern reproduction kind of puzzles me, but, I see these things grow from the ferns in my garden, also.  They look almost like those brown sugar crystal sticks that you see in the specialty stores.

And, there it was, the Bay, and one of the small islands with it's mandatory summer house.  It looks like it's pretty frozen.

OK, I had made it.  I had wanted to get to the Bay and I did.  Of course, I had to go a much longer route to get there, most of it downhill.  Now, I had to get back home, all up hill.  It took me a while, and a lot of rest stops, but, soon I was on the main trail which lead back to my house.  I was surprised to see that, in the time I had been in the woods, some deer had crossed my path after I had gone by.  See how the deer's footprint is right on top of mine?

I found a couple of bright bits of color.  This green spot that is a mixture of lichen and moss.

And, that beautiful invader, Asian Bittersweet.

And, worst of all, I didn't notice until I was on my way home that the scrub woods beside my house, right along the logging trail that had been cut into it, was full of the heinous invader, Swallowwort.  These are its seedpods, long opened, with the seeds blown helter skelter.  I wonder if it will crowd out the poison ivy?

This was intended to be a short walk in the woods.  But, it was two and a half hours.  I had a wonderful time, and just kept being pulled on and on and on.  But, I think I'm going to be a bit on the sore side tomorrow.