Sprague Farm, Chepachet

May 18, 2008

The Rhode Island Wild Plant Society puts on many walks and lectures over the course of the year, and I have not had the opportunity to do any of them. Until today.

Today's walk and talk, on a beautiful piece of land just west of Chepachet center, deals with the transition between the Northern Hardwood and the Central Hardwood forest types. Typical of the Northern forest are trees like Striped maple and Atlantic White Cedar, otherwise unknown in Rhode Island. Leader Garry Plunkett's encyclopedic knowledge, energy, and enthusiasm made for a wonderfully interesting and informative walk.

Sprague Farm is an abandoned farm turned forest, managed by the Glocester Land Trust. Jedediah Sprague purchased the property in parts starting back in the Revolutionary War. Jedediah was a tavern owner and patriot. There are quite a few references to him on the internet. May have been a General. The foundation remains of his son's houses are still present. There is a well hole that still looks usable. I am told another foundation has a 175 year old tree growing out of it, showing how long ago this property was abandoned. We did not pass by it.

The paths are wide but mostly unmarked. ATV tracks, not allowed without special permission, are seen throughout. There is significant trail damage because of it. A couple times we had to trek off trail to avoid a large and deep puddle caused by the ATVs. On one such excursion I saw some unusual scat. Checking through my Scat and Tracks of the Northeast (Halfpenny, Bruchac) it appears to be Canada Lynx. I'm not saying it is, but that's what the scat looked like. I wish I took a photo. It also resembles the drawing for mountain lion. No, I simply do not want to go there.

Last summer I met a man who was convinced there were mountain lions in Rhode Island. In the greater Providence area, no less. I'm not a believer. This could have been ATV rider's scat for all I know. There was no fur evident.

My boy was quite through with the woods for the day after an hour and a half, so I paid Garry for the talk (five bucks a person for non-members, cheap!) and we headed out, not stopping to identify the wildflowers.

Take Steps for Crohn's & Colitis

May 17, 2008

Dean Brooks, my Brother-in-Law, suffers from Crohn's Disease. I know little about it, so here's the web page:
http://www.cctakesteps.org/Home.htm
Take Steps is a fundraising and awareness event put on by the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. The local event was held at Colt State Park in Bristol, not far from where he and my sister live. It involved a three mile walk around the park. I brought Peter, my 12 year old Boy Scout, and Colin, my 6 year old. We met up with my parents, my other sister, and my niece and nephew. We all pitched in some donation money at the start.

The walk itself is rather uneventful. Three miles, mostly over paved walkways. My feet hurt, I think because of the pavement. Peter disappeared to the front of the pack while I hung back with Colin, who wasn't entirely enjoying the experiencing.

What he DID enjoy was the inflated bouncy-thingie (what are those things properly called?) He also got a temporary tattoo, which was free of charge. (I got a Chinese pictogram for the word 'Clarity', but told my parents I got a tramp-stamp saying 'Juicy'.) Everything was free of charge except the raffle. We were offered sandwiches, bottled water, coffee, fruit, cookies, and other snacks after the walk, and we all got t-shirts and bandannas. I bought five raffle tickets with my remaining five bucks. I didn't win anything. We were talking about which raffle item we wanted but didn't get. PawSox and Trinity tickets were what I put in for. Dean said he was hoping for a cure, so I guess we all went home empty-handed. Except for the snacks and water and use of the bouncy-thingie and the t-shirts and the ... with all of the free give-aways, it appears like they gave away all the money they raised. In reality the stuff was all donated by companies like (reading back of T-shirt) Starbucks, Rite Aid pharmacy, and Citizens Bank.

This was a well run event and the weather was great. I feel like I got a lot of the little I donated. I will ink this on my calendar for next year, and next time bring a little more money to donate.

Durfee Hill

May 11, 2008

My wife went shopping with her mother and two sisters, so I took the boys to my parents to wish my Mom a Happy Mother's Day. I had originally wanted to get on the trail in the early afternoon, but you know how it is when visiting the 'rents. I head North on 146 looking for where it crosses route 44. Sometime around North Smithfield I finally come to the realization it DOESN'T cross. It does, but way back in Providence. The plan should have been to take 6 West to 295 North to 44. I make my way to Durfee Hill, number 27 of Ken Weber's Walks and Rambles, if a later than was strictly necessary.

I apologize for the quality of the photos. I forgot the Sony camera back home and used the old LG cell phone camera. They get the point across, I suppose.

When I come to the hunter checking station I realize I've been here before. Many years ago I tried this hike. I had parked and and searched for the trail behind the station. There is a large circled P on the map where you are to park, but for some reason I expected the start to be the "X" at the bottom of the map. I couldn't find the trail, and headed back to the car discovering that we were covered in ticks.

Today I make the same mistake, but I am less impatient. I actually read the text describing the trail and discover my error. You must go back out to the main road, cross, and follow it for two tenths of a mile. Then you enter the woods. We find it just fine.

The text describes a rock wall where people climb and repel down, and sure enough, we find four people doing just that. My boys make a bee-line for them. I'm not keen on intruding on their private moments, but they don't seem to mind. We head back on our way and I soon notice I have guests. There are two ticks crawling on my pants. We check ourselves out and remove a total of five on the four of us. Colin, my youngest, is the only one without any. I go back to the climbers to warn them.

There are hemlocks here, which I knew, but I was surprised to see that they are free of the Wolly Aldegid, an insect wiping out hemlocks throughout the East. I scan many small hemlock saplings throughout the hike, and never see a single bug.

We continue to a marsh that is said to be home of many songbirds, but we hear none. We continue on until we find the unpaved road (actually paved, but crumbling) and the grist mill. The mill is privately owned and the owners were quite friendly and invited us to look inside the old mill.

We don't linger too long and double back where we came. The text describes a fork in the trail where you head back towards route 94 just South where we entered the woods. I think we take the right path, but the trail we see does not match the description. We pass a wet part not described in the book. We make it back to the main road but it's not where we are supposed to be. There is a side road that is much further South. We turn around and go back where we came. The boys are excited to see a family riding minibikes. I rush my boys off the trail to give the riders a wide birth, but am relieved that these are courteous people and slow down for us.

We follow the path back past the marsh and I hope to cross to the correct trail just before we get to the rock wall. Without knowing it, we do leave the original trail. We hike for a short while and end up ... back at route 94 south of where we are supposed to be. Not happy. Instead of hunting for the trail again I have the boys follow 94 North until we find utility pole 35, the proper exit point. Here we cross the road to finish the last leg.

Right off the road we find the first item of interest: Uncle Owen?

Aunt Beru? Deer, actually. Notice that the head is missing. The trail then passes an old graveyard. We don't go in.

Here the text starts to scare me: "Beyond the graveyard, the going gets a little tricky, with several side paths that can be confusing." There isn't a single blaze in these woods and apparently there are way more side paths here then there were a decade ago when the book was published. It refers to a clearing and we find it with no problem. Then it says to reenter the forest at the left edge. There are many side trails everywhere except at the left edge. One side note about this clearing that Ken didn't write about: apparently the DEM uses it to dump deer roadkill. It is literally littered with bones and fur plus several articulated skeletons. It reeks of death. I don't know if it is clear but the second photo here shows a pit full of fur. My oldest was majorly creeped out by it. Can't say I blame him. He says he saw a bear print in the sand but we couldn't it again.

The boys are impatient. I turn around away from what I presume to be the path to the direction I believe the main road is only to find the pond we are to circumnavigate. We can see the car. I try to get they boys to continue around the pond, but the younger two are out of patience. There's a beaver dam visible on the other side and I wanted to see it close up, but they are finished hiking. We head back through a path Ken said "tends to be wet" and I say "is flooded and impassible". The boys go on ahead anyhow and we all end up soaking our sneakers.

We get back to the car and remove our shoes and socks. I found a couple more ticks on the way but was surprised to find no more at this point. My oldest finds one on him during the ride back and my youngest says he sees one on the middle child but I am unsure if he is serious or not. Back home during a tick check we find a huge tick attached to him. All the boys are scooted into the shower with instructions to lather up very well. When I first sit down to start this entry, I find another tick on my arm. Attached. Only the one on Evan was a dog tick. All the rest, I believe, were deer ticks.

Narragansett, near Bonnet Shores, again

My plan was to hike Durfee Hill last Sunday, but the weather wasn't shaping up. Today I decide to walk out to where I saw the animal jaw and recover it. I brought a grocery bag with me. I didn't have much time, so I made a bee-line to where I saw it. Before I got there I was startled yet again by a ribbon snake. Of all the hikes I've been on I've never seen so many snakes! This one I got a close look at. A little over a foot in length. Cool.

I got to where I saw the jaw bone and I was unsurprised to find it missing. I spent a few minutes scanning there are, but to no avail. I head back to work. Just before I get to the office I realize my identification badge is missing. The holder was empty. I make a plan to retrace my steps right after work.

At work's end I drive to the old church. I walk back out to where I was before and on my return I find the jawbone. It had travelled several yards. I no longer had the bag, but I happened to find a paper towel in my pocket. I was pretty sure this was is a deer jaw. I had checked the internet earlier. I wonder what took it down? I saw coyote scat on the trail. Deer are all through this area. Deer tick central. Back in March I decided to follow a critter trail for a bit and back at the office I discovered an adult deer tick crawling on my pants. Not very comforting.

Back at my car I put the bone into the back seat. Still without my ID, I decide to walk a small piece back to the office. Halfway back I find my badge. Apparently I discovered it missing not 100 yards from where I dropped it. Go figure.

Narragansett, lunchtime walk

May 1, 2008

I walk in the woods at lunchtime once or twice a week, but only some are worth writing about. These woods are not spectacular. They are nice, but far from the better walks in Rhode Island. Today I start in the woods behind the old church near the scene of the crime (read my first blog entry about that).

The weather is a bit too chilly and breezy to walk comfortably in a T-shirt, but that's what I do. The cemetery is unoccupied today, as expected, and the walk to South Ferry Road is uneventful. I cross and start on the dirt access road in order to distance myself from the URI construction noise. What I discover is that the wind whips unhindered down the wide path, so I turn into the woods at the first trail. This is a good decision. The wind is lower and the scenery is better. The Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) has spread quite a bit and is even invading the footpath. I notice that the green carpet disappears deeper in the woods. I guess the ground away from the paths gets less light. Mayflower goes where it's wanted. Flower buds are starting to appear.

I stop to take a closer look at some of the other plants putting out foliage. The leaves of a shrub are opposite, that is they appear on both sides of each stem at regular intervals, rather than alternating left, right, left, like most plants. There is a handy term "madcap horse" to remember the plants with opposite leaves. MAD is an acronym for Maple, Ash, Dogwood. Cap refers to the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. Horse refers to the wonderful tree Horse-chestnut. Viburnums were once considered part of the Caprifoliaceae family but have recently moved to the Adoxaceae family. All that aside, Madcap Horse works well if you assume CAP refers to both honeysuckle and viburnums. I see two distinct shrubs with opposite leaves. One with smooth edged leaves and one with serrated leaves. I'm guessing they both are viburnums. The path cycles back onto the access road. I cross the paved road like last time and continue in the direction of Bonnet Shores.

I notice a bone fragment at the along the path. It's about a third of a lower jaw. It's old enough to have been defleshed. It's too large to be rodent or cat. The teeth are very distinctive and certainly not canine. In the absence of actual knowledge, I am guessing deer. Not keen to put body parts into my pocket, I leave it trailside. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow with a bag. I know people who know about such things.

Not twenty steps from the bone I am startled when a snake crosses the path. I try to get a close look but quickly it's in the underbrush. Was it two feet long? Three? I can't be sure. It's dark brown with light brown stripes. I assume it's a garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) but the DEM web page has a good document about native snakes. A closer match is the related Eastern Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis sauritus sauritus). See http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/fishwild/pdf/risnakes.pdf for a great description of Rhode Island snakes.

I continue further than I had last time but I run short of time and turn around. Past where I found the bone I notice a circle of stones just off the path. Stone walls cross the area quite a bit, giving evidence of it's pastoral and agricultural past. It warrants closer inspection but there is no easy access to it. I'll investigate this later. I continue to the dirt access road, across South Ferry Road, past the old church, past the now infamous cemetery, back to work.