Quick Trips on Busy Days

I don't always have all day to wander the woods to my heart's content.  But lucky for me, if I have but an hour or two to find a nature fix, two nearby state parks offer me very pleasant destinations, as well as easy walking. The Saratoga Spa State Park is right in my own town, and the Moreau Lake State Park is only a short drive north.  I visited both parks this past week, found much to delight me, and still got home in time to take a nap before fixing dinner.  Here are just a few highlights, from both destinations.

Saratoga Spa State Park, the Geyser Creek Trail

Our friends in our Thursday Naturalist group will be walking the Geyser Creek trail later this week, so I joined my friends Sue and Ruth late last week to scope out any points of interest we could share with our friends. 

This woodsy, watery trail follows the rushing creek that passes Spa Park's famous Island Spouter, seen in this photo spurting high up from its mound of mineral accretions, called a "tufa."  The creek is actually misnamed, since this mineral-water spouter is not a geyser at all.  Geysers obtain their energy from a build-up of underground heat, while all the mineral-water springs at Saratoga Spa Park are cold, obtaining their energy from built-up gases.  These gases give most of the spring waters in this park their sparkly carbonation.

Our trail moved past an even more enormous tufa, formed by mineral-rich waters that spill down the shale cliffs that line the path. The lime in these spring waters has also created a rich habitat for many fascinating plants.  Sue and Ruth are here examining some of the unusual mosses that thrive on these cliffs.

Many of the plants we found, such as this Maidenhair Fern, will only grow in just such lime-rich soil.

Another lime-lover is this Spikenard plant, its branches heavy now with abundant clusters of small berries.  I always like to nibble a few of these fruits, which have a rather interesting taste that reminds me of the smell of incense.

Here's one of the mosses that thrive on these banks, a species of "pocket moss" in the Fissedens genus.  The leaves of this  genus are folded in such a way that a pocket is formed in the leaf, hence the term "pocket moss."  I, of course, cannot detect this pocket with my poor eyesight, but Ruth has lent me her loupe on other occasions so that I could see it. The species is often hard to exactly discern for this genus, but I usually can recognize it as one of the Fissidens by the broad little "hands" of its leaves.

The trail ends where this culvert delivers the Geyser Creek to Spa Park, and it's at this point where we climbed a staircase up the cliff to walk back along a paved road.

Before leaving the creekside and climbing the stairs, I turned to look downstream and marvel at how the enormous tufa was shining in the sun.

After climbing the stairs, we approached a small stone structure that encloses Orenda Spring.  The word "Orenda" means a divine force believed by the Iroquois people to be the source of all positive human accomplishment.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the peoples of the world could be so transformed by drinking the waters of this spring?  One could only hope! This is one of my favorite springs in the park, and I always drink from its sparkly water for my own refreshment.

As we headed down this road toward our cars, we halted to admire this impressive patch of fungus. At first glance, I thought I was seeing a tree-trunk decorated by Turkey Tail Fungus, a shelf fungus known for its alternating zonal stripes of tan and orange. 

But the undersides of these mushrooms were definitely gilled, not like the smooth white surface consisting of tiny pores that is diagnostic for Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor).   This mushroom was instead Trametes betulina, which is known to closely resemble the Turkey Tail, except for possessing a gilled fertile surface. In fact, the vernacular name for this fungus is Gilled Polypore (an oxymoronic name if there ever was one!). Another odd thing, although the specific name betulina would indicate an association with birch trees, these mushrooms were growing on the felled trunk of an oak!  But this fungus is known to grow on other hardwoods as well as birches.

Aside from an interesting mix of birds flocking a birdfeeder, we saw very little wildlife on this creekside walk.  A fascinating exception was this cluster of Woolly Alder Aphids feeding on an alder twig.

Why would I consider finding a bunch of bugs so fascinating?  Well, these are some truly amazing insects, almost miraculous, from a human point of view.  For all of these little aphids, their bodies covered with an extruded white waxy "fur" to protect themselves from weather and predators, are the wingless female offspring not only of a single winged female aphid but also of each other, clones of the single wingless clone that the winged female first deposited on this alder twig. At the end of their feeding season and before dying and dropping away, these individual females will each produce a WINGED clone of herself, and some of these will be males! (How a female clones a male clone I have yet to comprehend!)  Then all these winged Woolly Alder Aphids will fly off to some Silver Maple trees to find mates and lay eggs on the maple bark. The cycle than begins again next spring.  A few of these small fuzzy bugs were dropping away already, so I'm guessing that this colony was reaching the end of its life.

I hope these cute little critters will still be here when our Thursday Naturalist friends arrive later this  week.

Moreau Lake State Park,  North Shore Path

One of my favorite spots for a brief walk at this park is this trail that that divides Moreau's main lake from its back bay.  While strolling a needle-softened path beneath tall White Pines and Pitch Pines, I can catch glimpses of both bodies of water, the lake often glittering with wavelets catching the sun, and the back bay often quiet enough to mirror the mountains that rise from its shore.

And this time of year, the Black Huckleberry shrubs that grow like a hedge between the tall trees and the lake's sandy shore put on a glorious scarlet show.

Even after most other deciduous trees have faded from autumn splendor,  the shiny leaves of these huckleberry shrubs are just reaching their pinnacle of brilliant red.

I love the contrast between the Pitch Pines' puffy green needle-tufts and the glossy scarlet leaves of the huckleberries. Both species thrive is such sandy, low-nutrient soil.

The Pitch Pine boughs hold cones from as many as three years (or more!) at a time.  While some of the older cones on this tree had opened their scales to shed their seeds some years ago, I believe this is a yearling cone, with scales still tightly closed (and offering a sun-warmed perch for this Ladybug).  The Pitch Pine is well adapted to survive forest fires, sometimes actually requiring fire to cause the cones to drop their seeds.

As I walked along the sandy lakeshore, I was stunned to a halt to enjoy the fire-colored leaves of this small Sassafras tree. Since Sassafras is a tree more habituated to southern climes, we are lucky to have this beautiful species this far north, where they often prefer riverbanks, swamps, lakeshores and other wetlands that temper our winters' frigid temps with humidity.

Dropping to my knees to examine a patch of damp sand, I was delighted to still find some tiny plants of Small-flowered Dwarf Flatsedge before they shrivel from hard frost.  Although this Endangered species is one of our states rarest plants, thousands of them thrive on Moreau's sandy and pebbly shores. (Chances are good, though, that you would never notice them from a standing height!)

I continued along the sunlit shore to a point where I could look back and enjoy this view of the mountains rising beyond the lake.

The shoreline along this stretch is quite pebbled, and the small colored stones that lie beneath the crystal-clear rippling water bore bands of rippling light. This beauty was so mesmerizing, I could have stayed there all day.

But because I had errands yet to run, I turned to leave.  As I hurried toward my car, I envied this couple and their dog, who appeared to have all the time in the world to linger on this beautiful shore.