A Late Winter Walk

Today I hiked to the oak savanna and fen at the Cannon River Wilderness Area. Curiously I've never visited this site in the winter when snow-covered. Now that it is March, the opportunity for winter walks will diminish quickly, especially with warmer weather in the immediate forecast.

While more of a swampwalker, in the spirit of David M. Carroll, I also have a long history of woods wandering, in the spirit of Walt McLaughlin. Best is when both occur on a single hike. Because of the remnant big woods, the floodplain forest, the small acreage of oak savanna and because of the spring fed seeps and fen, this hike has both and is one of my favorites.

The woods, as I started out, were snowy and quiet. The trail, neither slippery nor too deep to follow, was easy walking the whole way. It didn’t take long to reach the fen at the end of the trail. The water between tussocks of sedge was still frozen, making it easy to move around and explore. I walked out to the middle and stood among the red osier and willow shrub, bog birch and hazel thickets. The winter remains of last summer's Turtlehead blossoms caught my attention. A close look showed that the delicate white blooms had altered, leaving sepals and seed pods that resembled the open mouths of young robins held wide for food.

On the open slopes of the oak savanna above the fen I noticed large circles clear of snow. Each circle was positioned on the sunny side of standing Red Oaks. The leaf litter, on the sunny side of the trees—a deep, leather-brown color—must aid in melting the snow by capturing the radiant heat of the sun. Plus it’s this area that isn’t shadowed by the leaves remaining on the tree. It was comfortably warm inside these oak circles, while cool and crunchy snow remained outside them. Exploring one such circle, I found a small wolf spider on top of the leaves. Turning over a piece of wood I found a much larger spider, a Funnel Web Spider, surrounded by a loose web. This spider had long orange-and-black legs pulled in tightly to its body, the knee joints coming together above the cephalothorax in a ring, making it difficult to see the eyes of the spider. After being in the sun for a few minutes it loosened and scrambled off, disappearing into the surrounding leaf litter.

These seemingly spot-lit circles were charming and transported visitors slightly ahead in time, providing a premonition of spring. Two steps and I was back to winter and the long, enjoyable walk back to my car.

Posted on 05 de março de 2017, 04:59 AM by scottking