On the Trails

This post is a copy of Ralph's April 11 post at 

http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/on-the-trails/ 

April 11, 2012 — Ralph Berglund
I spent about an hour last Sunday morning on the trails along Sharp’s Run at Medford Leas, enjoying seeing the awakening of plants and trees.  It’s nice to see the feathery foliage emerging on the trees but our lack of rain shows in the shallow Sharp’s Run.

Here’s a Redbud.  It wasn’t on the trails; it’s along the walk in front of the Estaugh Building but it was too pretty against a cloud pattern of branches to be left out.

Back on the Red Trail here’s a crab apple that I photographed last week and, below, the same branch last Sunday.  This is the trail where I watch a local walk her several exhuberant Jack Russell terriers and her collie most mornings.  Last month one morning I watched five deer move smartly down this trail, and last week a Red Fox crossed my grass and headed for the trail.

The red trail crabapple (see above) a week later

There are lots of wildflowers happy to be here along the Yellow Trail.  Here are two for whose names I’m in debt to Maggie Heineman.

Spring Beauty

Spring Cress  - Cardamine Bulbosa

Ducks in the Driveway

If the entire campus is an Arboretum, then this counts.

Test Drive - Cathedral Trail

I'ts a long story; this is the short version, followed by photos. 

Sally, who uses an electric wheelchair, asked for a Nature Walk for people like herself, one where scooters and wheelchairs could be used. Okay.  So o I scouted the route on  Wednesday, March 28.  My planned route would avoid the  two trees that were so close together that a scooter cannot  pass.    I took  photos, some of them are shown below.

 Having planned a workable route,  I was confident that today's test drive would go well.   It did start well.  Up the macadam path, past the sculptures and the bat house.  The cherry trees were no longer in full bloom but the tea crab apples were.   Cathedral Trail was great.  But then, somehow, we were at  the two trees too close together.  Oh oh!, I did something wrong! Okay, we'll just cut across the grass toward the road.  Everything was going well -- until -- I had the bright idea of taking a photo of Sally up close to the beehives.   Very bad idea.   No problem getting there, but... after the photo shoot  the wheelchair was stuck. Really stuck.  It had sunk down into the pine needles and the wheels would spin like a car stuck on snow.   After about 10 minutes of struggle -- trying to lift, trying to put sticks under the wheels to get traction,  Sally was ready to call for help.  But not me.   Sally patiently waited while I continued to try one thing and then another (here's where the story could very get long).  Finally reason prevailed -- at least one of us was reasonable.  Sally phoned the desk, explained our situation and location, and within  a few minutes Wolosin and his sidekick were there.  Jim picked up the extremely heavy wheelchair; he moved it around and we were free!  I should have taken pictures of that .   It was HEAVY!    


Fearlessly (or foolishly),  I intend to revisit the route.  Plan it again and have another test drive, this time with a resident driving a scooter. Sally thinks I should also bring along a strong man who can lift. 

March 28, Macadam path to Rushmore

April 2, beehives at the edge of the lawn and brilliant tea crabapple in full bloom, far right 

March 28, same crab apples trees, just starting 

March 28 - statue in front of cherry trees

 =

March 28, cherry trees in full bloom,  April 2 they were past bloom

The bat house, March 28

Three Graces, March 28, 2012

Original color - 2002

Interesting Carved log

March 28 -- near the eastern entrance to Cathedral Trail

April 2, Sally driving on Cathedral Trail 

March 28, Cathedral Trail 

April 2, Trees too close - We're in the wrong place

Sally up close to the hives -- after that she was stuck and there was no more picture taking. 

A SPRING MORNING ALONG A TRAIL AT MEDFORD LEAS

This morning Ralph sent four new photos.    They aren't from his photo journal, so there's no text.

March 26 - After the Burn

Liz K and Barbara H and I went for an "After the Burn" walk to the RR bank and to the meadow.   The big surprise -- actually the big shock was seeing what looked to me like mugwort.   I'm not possitive, but I'm afraid that's what this is.   

The bench is in the foreground so you know where to look

Here's a closeup

There's a lot of it 

We also discovered that it's somewhat dangerous to walk through the meadow.  

It's been burned and mowed but there are short stiff sticks throughout the meadow

that are hard to see and easy to trip on.   

The next two photos show greenbrier growing on  trees in front of two large beautiful oaks --  This is alongside Trail 16.   Bob Wells pointed this out on an earlier walk -- that the vines are obstructing the view of the oaks. 

The next photo shows vines covering the ground -- in a few weeks they will be covering the small trees nearby.   These trees are in the meadow close to trail 16.   My guess is that both the vines and the trees should be removed.

The bank above the RR trail has many burned branches and trees.    Barbara H says she saw the men with the flame throwers working along this bank.  So apparently the fire did not jump Trail 16, the burn of the RR Trail bank was deliberate.   I'm no expert, but it seems to me that there's no need to remove any of the burned trees or limbs.        I did not photograph the singed trees in the meadow.  They are so obvious, there's no need to point them out.   Some of them might require pruning.  Here's a shot of the RR bank.

Spring on the Medford Campus

Today Ralph Berglund posted a number of beautiful photographs of the Medford Campus on his photo journal. 
http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/springs-blouse-slips-alluringly-off-of-her-shoulder/


These photos and the text have been copied from the post linked above.   The title of Ralph's post is
Spring's blouse slips alluringly off of her shoulder. 

"Of course I’m writing about spring flowers gradually appearing.   Whatever were you thinking? 
As I raised the blinds yesterday morning this  tree called to me in the slight fog.  Where did all of those white blossoms come from so suddenly?

Then, on the adjacent trail I came across this night’s work showing the effects of the fog.  It looks as though all that work yielded only a few bits of wet chaff.   

Elsewhere on the campus there are lots of splashes of naturalized Narcissi which please the eye and anchor other pleasant woodland scenes. 

Not much farther afield was this lovely tree, its blossoms so pretty and so short-lived.  I’ve always known these as Tulip trees but our arboretum sign calls them Magnolias.  Indeed, they’re closer to Magnolias than to the Lily (tulips) family.

A few days earlier I interrupted these two taking in a morning on the south branch of the Rancocas. 



Yes, clearly spring is movin’ in and isn’t that a nice thing to know each morning? 

March 17 - Wildflower Walk

Maggie substituted for Jane who couldn't make it due to a death in the family.   Nancy, Barbara, Millie, and Shigeko came for the walk.

We started by studying the dead nettles by the Nature Center and then had no trouble identifying this invasive throughout the rest of the walk -- lots and lots of it.  The flowers are pretty, and it's okay if you want it for a ground cover.   The photo shows a plant between two fingers of my glove.  That's how small the lovely blooms are.

We then went down the fire road to see the Herb Robert.   There is quite of lot of it in bloom.

Again, this is a very attractive invasive.  which can thrive in forested communities as the dominant ground cover, replacing native and beneficial plants.    We saw a lot of it and it's quite lovely.    There's more about it on this "noxious weeds"  site.

We walked across to meditation garden where the whatever was in bloom then down toward the dock where we saw Bloodroot in bloom - at last a wildflower that isn't considered a pest.   Lesser Celendine was in bloom and plentiful.  Another beautiful invasive. Millie has it in her lawn and it the lawn still thrives.  But in general it's a big problem - an "ecological threat."

Orange Trail

There were seven of us and the weather was perfect – sunny skies and a comfortable temperature.  We measured some big trees – two oak, two beech, and the “Rancocas Tree” – the tree that Hurricane Irene took down last summer.   “Big Trees” and “Rancocas Tree” are ongoing topics, discussed in the links provided.  We checked on the beaver damage at Yellow Trail 7 – another ongoing topic which will be photographed over time.   Ralph Berglund walked on past the end of Trail 7 in order to take these two lovely photographs across the Rancocas.  Earlier in the walk he had taken pictures of the walkers and of herb and Maggie measuring a 34-inch beech.

Two geese stand at the point where Sandy Run enters Rancocas Creek

The reflected trees are at Camp Dark Waters

l to r:  Maggie (hidden), John, Judy, Herb, Barbara, Vince

Maggie and Herb measure a big beech

Sunrise on Bridlington Woods