Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Balmy Air, Icy Trails

Nearly 60 degrees today.  Bright blue sky.  Nice day for a hike, right?  Yeah, but only with Yaktrax or microspikes on your boots.  I thought a walk around Mud Pond at Moreau Lake State Park would be a nice easy way to get my hiking legs back, after a week away from my home woods and mountains.  But just a few steps from my car had me grabbing at tree trunks to keep myself upright.  So back I teetered to get myYaktrax out of the trunk.  Then, the walking was easy, even on the packed icy trail that circles the pond.  




 Mud Pond was still frozen, despite many days of warm temperatures, but a layer of water turned its surface into a mirror, reflecting the sun-warmed, tree-lined shore and a lovely, puffy-cloud azure sky.




These ruffly tree fungi reiterated the blue color-theme today.   With a minutely pored undersurface and alternating hairy and smooth multicolored stripes, this fungus resembles the bracket fungus called Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor), but I have never seen any Turkey Tail colored this blue.  Pretty!
 



Even the moon looked translucently blue today, as if that deep-blue sky were showing through.


8 comments:

  1. I don't know how I lived before my brother gave me a set of Yaktrax! Love the blue colors, especially the fungi. That is truly amazing.

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  2. Those are the prettiest Turkey Tail Fungi I've ever seen! Were they really that blue?

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  3. threecollie, I'm sure I'd have broken bones by now without my Yaktrax. Stay safe this icy winter.

    Hi Ellen, yes those Turkey Tails were REALLY blue! Id never seen any like them before. I was thinking of returning to the site to collect the stump, but I wonder if their color would fade in time. Anyway, can't take anything from state park property. My photos will have to suffice.

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  4. You've pictured the best of all possible worlds!

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  5. What gorgeous fungus! They look like skirts from the "gay 90s!" I also found stabilicers perfect for Thacher Park this week. We had packed snow and some ice.

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