exploring the Marsh Woods...without getting all wet!
Thursday, April 05, 2007
6 PM
I wondered if there was a possibility of following the property line back to the hill.
It was iffy at best. I'd been trapped in the marsh woods before, surrounded by marsh and water, rotting tree trunks crisscrossing the puddles and dips of water. Trees grow from the dead trunks.
I stood and assessed the situation. There were balsam firs growing amongst the dead stuff and even some clumps of alders. The tall cedars were all dead. Tipi poles!
I thought, instead of walking straight through to get to the hill and then ending up heading home, I thought it would be great if I could just look around at where I was. So I did. I realized that the tall yellow grass was only growing out of dry ground. I wondered, would it be possible to find large areas of grass, where I could actually do something? Like where I could set up a tipi?
I stood and wandered around, turning in circles and accessing the area. Then I moved further ahead, always looking back and making sure I could still see the telephone pole that was our property line area.
I had to walk on stumps and reach between clumps of tall grass, but mostly I was okay. There was more dry area than I remembered there being before.
Finally, I was surrounded by water. Only a dead trunk lay across it. One end of the trunk lay on a…well, it wasn’t actually a stump. It was a pile made up only of roots and a tree. There was no dirt in between the roots. It was like a shell of a stump. Only the stump the tree had grown out of was no longer there.
I stood for a very long time trying to decide how to get across. Finally, holding one of many dead branches, I walked gingerly across, looking down into the two foot deep water.
It’d found the Upper Stream! It looked quite orderly, in it’s banks and everything. It wound around a bit. It wasn’t too wide, about six feet at the most, perhaps about five or four in others.
Once I'd crossed the stream, it was pretty dry! Unbelievable! It used to be very wet there all over. I think some of the ground was still frozen in there, shaded by the hill and the woods, perhaps.
I got to the end of the woods and looked around for the property line spike. I even found it! The neighbour had cut down all the big trees, so I walked all over and then back toward our side until I found the end of the cut trees. There was the pin! Bingo.
It was so good to see that the upper stream is more than a non descript stream. It was really orderly, until I got over to the main dam where it hits the hill. There it was
6 PM
I wondered if there was a possibility of following the property line back to the hill.
It was iffy at best. I'd been trapped in the marsh woods before, surrounded by marsh and water, rotting tree trunks crisscrossing the puddles and dips of water. Trees grow from the dead trunks.
I stood and assessed the situation. There were balsam firs growing amongst the dead stuff and even some clumps of alders. The tall cedars were all dead. Tipi poles!
I thought, instead of walking straight through to get to the hill and then ending up heading home, I thought it would be great if I could just look around at where I was. So I did. I realized that the tall yellow grass was only growing out of dry ground. I wondered, would it be possible to find large areas of grass, where I could actually do something? Like where I could set up a tipi?
I stood and wandered around, turning in circles and accessing the area. Then I moved further ahead, always looking back and making sure I could still see the telephone pole that was our property line area.
I had to walk on stumps and reach between clumps of tall grass, but mostly I was okay. There was more dry area than I remembered there being before.
Finally, I was surrounded by water. Only a dead trunk lay across it. One end of the trunk lay on a…well, it wasn’t actually a stump. It was a pile made up only of roots and a tree. There was no dirt in between the roots. It was like a shell of a stump. Only the stump the tree had grown out of was no longer there.
I stood for a very long time trying to decide how to get across. Finally, holding one of many dead branches, I walked gingerly across, looking down into the two foot deep water.
It’d found the Upper Stream! It looked quite orderly, in it’s banks and everything. It wound around a bit. It wasn’t too wide, about six feet at the most, perhaps about five or four in others.
Once I'd crossed the stream, it was pretty dry! Unbelievable! It used to be very wet there all over. I think some of the ground was still frozen in there, shaded by the hill and the woods, perhaps.
I got to the end of the woods and looked around for the property line spike. I even found it! The neighbour had cut down all the big trees, so I walked all over and then back toward our side until I found the end of the cut trees. There was the pin! Bingo.
It was so good to see that the upper stream is more than a non descript stream. It was really orderly, until I got over to the main dam where it hits the hill. There it was