We call this part of the trail Bear Trail,
because we've seen black bears, as well as their tracks and scat, along
this section of trail. When the bears come out of their 
dens in late March, there's not much for
them to eat.
If they're lucky, they'll find and scavenge the carcass of a
winter-killed animal,
covered up by snow. If this
doesn't happen, they'll probably raid the garbage cans, compost piles
and suet feeders along Springfield Road. Bears bushwhack when there's
an opportunity to find food, but to get from point A to point B, like
us, they use the trails. Also like people, bears are adaptable
creatures. Just as our gastro-intestinal system and our teeth evolved
to give us the anatomy of a "frugivore" (fruit and seed eaters), so
does the bear's anatomy spell "carnivore". However, opportunity often
trumps design, so just as varying our diet allowed people to inhabit
climates and lands which did not always provide the foods our bodies
evolved to ingest and process, so is 90% of what a bear eats
vegetation. Incidentally, black bears in the Adirondacks are very shy,
and every bear we've encountered has run away. If a bear doesn't leave,
or if it stands on it's hind legs, it's trying to get a better
visual-olfactory picture, trying to figure out what you are. Never run
away, as your flight will make the bear curious. You may gently toss a
hat, or something else which carries your scent, in their general
direction, so that they can smell it, and determine that flight is their best
option. Trillium makes its first appearance on the trail about here in
early May, and can be found throughout the refuge in red or white
variations.
girth, meaning that they are about the same
age. This is because many years ago, the owners of the property,
prepared the land for timber harvest, by planting the fastest growing
lumber tree in the northeast. About 20 acres of the Refuge comprise
this "Pine Plantation". White Pine needles, left, grow in clusters of
five. Remember, w-h-i-t-e, five letters, five needles. The needles of
red pines grow in pairs. Cedars are fairly common, and red cedars
produce the most
wonderfully aromatic wood. I believe this cedar is a "red Cedar".
Striped Maples, often called "Moosewood" and
"Snakebark Maple", are shade-tolerant, understory trees which prefer
cool, moist forests. Far left and 2nd from left are immature and mature
striped maple trunks. Red maples seedlings, 3rd from left, are common
along the trail. Often called swamp maple, red maples grow up to 80
feet, and new growth leaves are red-tinged The hawthorne is a deciduous
shrub-tree from the Mediterranean, and has hybridized into so many
different forms that botanists don't even try to tell the species
apart. "Hawthorne" is Old English for "thorny hedge", and indeed
landowners in England used long rows of densely planted hawthorne to
keep their neighbors out. You'll notice an old, overgrown logging
road heading south from the trail here, and you'll find "sensitive
fern" at trailside, so-named because the first frost kills the fronds.
These are wetland and bog ferns.
A Successional Old
Field is where former grassland or agricultural land
is taken over by shrubs and trees. In the case of the meadow, the Pine
Plantation is the main culprit, as the meadow is completely bounded now
by young white pines in varying stages of growth. There are also some
yellow birch, wild blueberry and raspberry, and some jack pine (left),
mislabeled as scotch pine. The
meadow is heaven for hares,
mice, moles and voles, while the meadow-pine forest fringe draws
white-tailed deer, pheasant and ruffed grouse. Natually this habitat
attracts predators like fox,
coyote, bobcat, pine marten, ermine, hawk and owl, and the especially
secretive fisher. Around the meadow and surrounding pine forest, you'll
hear hermit and wood thrushes. The meadow seems a
likely spot to catch the dizzying aerial antics of a woodcock, but
alas, I've yet to witness it.You'll notice when you get up near the
third slough, there is old collapsed barb wire at the top of the slough
bank, and a coming apart
wall made of small rounded, water-worn stones., perhaps pointing to a
history of farming and livestock?
Hophornbeam and Ironwood, also called
Musclewood, are two understory members of the Birch family whose
thick, tough wood, is so sturdy, they are fashioned into tool handles.
Fruit of these trees are eaten by grouse, wild turkeys, pheasant &
squirrels. mature hophornbeam features gray, shreddy bark, while
musclewood trunk and limbs looks just that, sinewy like muscles. Almost
counterintuitively, their woods break down quickly when on the forest
floor.
hemlock
line up individually along the stalk, like
parking spaces at the mall. On spruce trees, the needles are
squarish in cross-section and easy to roll between your fingers.
The needles grow parallel to each
other all around
the stalk, so that the stalk resembles a skinny bottle brush. On fir
trees, the needles are flatter, and grow opposite each other on the
stalk, forming two more or less flattened ranks, more in principle like
two hair combs lying back to back on a table. Spruce cones hang from
the branches, while fir cones ride on top of the branches, pointing
skyward. Hemlock needle arrangements resemble fir needle arrangements,
but the cones are tiny, and hang down from the tips of the branches.
Members of the cypress family, Arborvitae
feature scale-like, soft-to-the-touch, patterned needles, and are an
important source of winter nourishment for deer and other mammals. The
"tree of life" can grow up to 30 feet tall and 10 feet wide,
thrives in cooler climates, in moist, alkaline soils, as stand-alone
trees, or in dense, hedge-like formations, often providing year-round
warmth and cover to both mammals and birds. 
If you've come this
far, and follow the bridge across the stream, you'll run into the
raptor cages, and the wolf pen., where "Cree", the refuge mascot lives.
The raptors in these enclosures are educational birds, that is, raptors
who are generally healthy, but suffer from some handicap, like partial
blindness or limited flight capability, which would prevent them from
being competent to hunt for themselves, or escape predators. Typically,
we'll have a red-tailed hawk, as well as Great-Horned, Barred and
Screech owls. Please don't touch the enclosures, or otherwise do
anything to startle the raptors. Remember that owls are nocturnal, so
these birds will typically be sleeping during the day. If you bear left
up the driveway, away from ther river, you'll reach your car in the
parking lot in about 100 yards.|
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Mountain View Loj |
Deep
Woods Cabin |
Pine
Hill Cabin |
Brook- side Cottage |
Ausable Loj |
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ADK Real Estate |
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