At the far end, I caught up with Alan who was on his way to meet up with Ziggy to do a couple tasks, so I hitched a ride. One of our stops was a tree that came "that close" to destroying a bridge on the Edge Trail. The tree is a metaphor for the recent financial system failure. Everything looked good on the outside, meanwhile it was rotting on the inside, until it finally came crashing down.
After bidding Ziggy goodbye, we explored some of the secrets of the woods. Based upon a report from Cherrie, we did some exploring on the Edge trail and found what appeared to be an old road and a large hole deep in the woods. As you might expect the bottom of the hole was used to dump some garbage a long time ago. The rusting containers and glass bottles were buried under years of leaf litter.
Wandering through the woods I was drawn to pine needles floating on the surface of a vernal pool. With the sky reflecting in the surface it feels like you are looking up, not down. Nearby I liked the patterns of fungi growing on a downed tree.
We explored one of the lesser used trails trying to determine if it was for people or animals. Ending at a swampy area, we noticed skunk cabbage starting to push through the ground. I remember reading in Thoreau's journals that he mentioned skunk cabbage growing in the late fall / early winter.
After Alan had to leave, I spent some more time wandering through the woods collecting "photos" of patterns and textures that I can use for Photoshop processing in the future. Its fascinating to see the infinite variations in nature.
I was still in the woods as over 200 geese returned to the impoundment. Before landing they circled overhead a couple times. Even through the tree top canopy it was an impressive sight.
Returning to the impoundments, the mature Bald Eagle went flying overhead. A birder noticed that there was some fishing line stuck on one of its legs. I couldn't confirm that until I got home and uploaded the photos. You can just see it if you look closely.After a couple of passes over the impoundment, it didn't see anythign of interest and flew off to the west.
