Trail Time – Waning Summer on the Gunflint Trail
It feels like we’ve started just turning the corner from summer to fall. The blustery breezes are carrying a coolness with them, but the sun is still so warm that hikers will be shedding clothing layers before they’ve walked very far. The short term forecast calls for continued sunny weather. It’s a glorious time to be on the Trail, though the wind is certainly going to make canoeing on the bigger lakes challenging. I heard from a friend who was in the Boundary Waters this week who barely avoided a big pine that blew down in their campsite in the middle of the night last week. The wind keeps the bugs away, but it brings its own dangers.
As I’ve been hiking around closer to home, I recognize all the familiar flowers of late summer: goldenrod (which is absolutely swarming with pollinators right now), dainty pearly everlasting, perfectly purple asters. A few days ago in another neck of the woods, I spotted a fruiting trillium. The creamy white three-part flower was long gone and in its place hung a beautiful, big rose-red berry. I also found a late-blooming striped coral root orchid. In the cool, wet forest, mosses, ferns and fungi are having a bumper crop this year. There are so many mushrooms and so many different kinds, that once I started looking for them, like, REALLY looking, it eventually felt like I couldn’t move my feet without stomping on them. The tiny bright red ones (Scarlet Waxycap, I think) are my current favorite, that is, if there aren’t any chanterelles around. At this time of year, with the leaves of the birch trees turning yellow and falling onto the forest floor, it gets harder to spot the chanterelles — the birch leaves and mushrooms are nearly the same color. Recently, we spotted the bizarre lumpy shape of an orange lobster mushroom growing in a part of the woods where we’ve never seen one before. They are really the least beautiful fungus, in my opinion, although dead man’s finger and some slime molds are pretty ugly too. The slime molds are very important, of course, or they wouldn’t be here. Beauty, after all, isn’t everything. Knowledge is power, though, so arm thyself with it and only eat mushrooms that have been definitely identified by an expert.
Speaking of mushroom experts, Teresa Marrone gave a presentation on “The Secret Life of Mushrooms” recently at Chik Wauk Nature Center on the Gunflint Trail. If you missed it, you can watch it online. The link for the YouTube video can be found at
https://gunflinthistory.org/recent-presentations/
There are links to a number of informative presentations on the web site. If you’re longing for the Gunflint Trail, you can spend some virtual time there.
As the seasons change, I wish I could just hold on to certain perfect days. In the winter, I try to recall the sounds and smells and feel of a summer day. Photos help recall it to mind, but I tried something recently that captures a day in a different way. I created a sound map. They’re very simple to make and a great way to slow down and tune in to the natural sounds around us. To make the map, I took a piece of cardboard that I cut out of an old box and put some markers in my pocket (cardboard is good for this project because of its rigidity). I then went outside, stood still and listened. Starting in the center of the cardboard, I marked the spot where I stood with a little drawing of me and my dog, Ursa, but you can use a star or an x or whatever you like to mark the center. I then took a marker and wrote the sounds I heard around me, then jotted down what was creating the sound. For example, I wrote “WHooooosh!” for the sound of the wind and then wrote “birch & fir” by it. I heard “Skee-dunk, skee-dunk,” wrote that down, and marked Blue Jay; “Cruuuck” for a frog; “Konk! Konk!” for a raven, “Slippity-slap,” for the sound of the waves against the lakeshore. I kept this up as I roamed about from meadow to forest to lakeside, listening and jotting. Spelling the sound crickets made was certainly an exercise in creative spelling. I tried “Shzszszseee-Shzszszseee-Shzszszseee” and “Crrrriiiiiickkkkk” for a couple of cricket sounds. You can draw the sounds with shapes or use colors instead of words; use whatever will call it best back to your mind when you look at it next winter. There are many different types of maps besides topographical. You could make any kind of map you like. A sound map is a fun activity to do with kids of any age. It was a unique way to pay attention, slow down and tune in to the natural world.
~ Marcia Roepke
