Fall Hike

Another thing that marks fall for me is that all the Bruce Trail properties get inspected.  Once a year the volunteer Land Stewards fill out a report, to ensure that any problems get noted and dealt with.  I'm a volunteer for two properties, so each year I get out there and not only walk the trail, but wander elsewhere.

This property is partly White Pine plantation, about 30 years old.  We had it thinned 5 years ago, and some of the remaining pine are now looking like fairly large trees.

And the plantation area is looking a lot more like a mixed forest than just pines, which was in fact the purpose of the thinning.

In the deciduous part of the forest there is as yet very little fall colour, just a few branches here and there.

Sadly, most of the enormous old American Beech are now succumbing to another invasive blight, and dying off.  This one is nearly 3 feet in diameter.

It was the fungi that were the highlight of this walk, with lots of mushrooms, bracket fungi and other interesting species to see.  I've tried to use the 'Field Guide to Mushroom' to identify them, but with 700 pictures to compare, it seems hopeless to me unless there's a really clear distinguishing feature.

But this one was easy to identify; there's only one like it, the Bear's Head Tooth fungus.  First time I've ever see one.

I stepped across the road when I finished to say hello to a herd of grazing cattle.  This one was curious.

So were a few others.

But I guess they didn't like what they saw, 'cause the whole bunch of them turned and high-tailed it out of there!

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Our first excursion with the new van, though short and simple, was a success.  We drove north 4 hours to a cottage west of Algonquin Park, and enjoyed a visit - but we slept in the new van.  The driving was comfortable, the electric systems, including the fridge, all worked well, and the sleeping was fine too.  We're slowly sorting out what will work best for longer trips.  Pix of the north woods in a few days.