October 1, 2009

Thursday 6:30 PM – 7:10 PM

I knew had a limited time to check out the woods because I saw the sun setting.   It was 50 degrees out and I had my head lamp just in case I wanted to stay a little later.  I was finally getting a better idea of how to mentally organize the plants I saw and I realized when I recognized a couple of plants at my site for the first time.  I spotted some winged-euonymus and multiflora rose growing in several places.  I also see a leaf in the shape of a pointed oval with serrated edges and a sandpapery roughness on top (I know I’ll have to take a sample to figure out what it is later).

In the midst of all of this, I see a brown moth, about 1 inch long.  I can’t identify it for certain, but I think I should return another time at night to see what else lurks when the sun is down.

October 2, 2009

Friday 3:29 PM – 4:33 PM

I arrived late this time, having to wake myself from a deep afternoon siesta.  Staying alert was difficult since a light rain had just fallen and sky was nothing but grey.  A few, inch high, brown mushrooms appear to perk up where I had previously seen none, but the moisture does not have the same effect on me.  I wonder, is the rain I smell really a smell, or is it really a lack of scent, all pollens and aromas to the ground in the precipitation?

Either way, I knew the mosquitoes could certainly smell me.  Be it my exhaled carbon dioxide or simply my movements, they knew I was nearby.  A large one landed on my jeans and I see it stands no chance of penetrating my denim.  It pauses beneath my left pocket, probing the small ripples in the fabric.  After about 7 seconds it seems to give up, but then moves down about 5 inches, and tries again.  Once again, it moves its proboscis to reach a gap with her supplemental iron.  I watch her systematically reach the bottom of my pant leg, hit my shoe, and begin coming up my leg 6 inches to the right, checking for gaps every 6-7 inches eventually reaching my shirt, following the same down, over, up, over… pattern again and again.  Unfortunately for this mosquito, its persistence ends with an interest in my face.   The same determination that suited her before, lands her on a soft spot atop my right cheek.  I swung my right hand onto my cheek, slapping myself and the mosquito, in the first of several injuries today.

The next occurred when I spiked my right hand on one the shrubby trees I saw in the interior.  It was one of a series of young black locust trees whose trunk spikes stick straight out about half an inch.  They also appear that they are growing very quickly; a small black locust has already begun to incorporate fallen branch into its bark.

The third injury came from one of the many multiflora roses who dot the interior of Stetson after which I literally tripped upon further evidence of past human activity.  Evidently, five of the small trees in the center of the lot stem from a single stump.  Following the branches out of the stump, I see a number of large leaves that resemble an ash, (I’ll return later and check out more).  Looking at the relatively (four or five years perhaps?) young growth of these trunk trees and the growth in the core of the site it seems as if people tried very hard to eradicate the growth in the middle of the Stetson.  I again wonder if this land once used for camping.

I think the site must have been ideal.  Wild garlic mustard dots the ground, and the scent reminds me of just the spices in its name.  A single solitary black birch marks a place next to the large (2-3 feet wide) rocks in a messy pile that sit on the southern side.  I can almost imagine a campfire in the low flat area in the center of the woods with hotdogs and birch beer.  You could sleep in the Northwestern quadrant on soft ground interrupted only be a few shistos rocks.  If no one had camped here before, then I would like to be the first.