Anders Run Trail and Natural Area

My friends Bob & Jean from Florida came over today and we hiked the Anders Run Trail near Warren, PA. This is a beautiful wooded area with white pines and hemlocks that are 200 years old. The trail was a little tricky in places, but we took it slowly and didn't push too hard. We paused at one point to listen to the Wood Thrush singing in springlike rapture. It was a mushroomer's delight with at least 30 different mushrooms and fungi poking up through the duff. One area sported a bright golden coral fungus type, and we had numerous shelf fungi and varying sizes of cap mushrooms, some so tiny we almost needed a hand lens to see them.

It wasn't a long hike, just 1 1/2 leisurely hours and about 2 miles. But the vividly blue sky and filtered sunlight presented a mosaic of azure and amber amid the dark green of the pines. Several bridges cross the streams, and a few short but steep climbs challenge your stamina a bit.

Anders Run Natural Area is part of Cornplanter State Forest. It is 96 acres and was logged 200 years ago. The old growth trees are there now are the result of no further logging in the narrow Anders Run valley. Some of them are 200-225 years old. Wildflowers and other plants include trilliums, pink lady's slippers, several species of violets, Canada Mayflower, foamflower, partridgeberry, Mayapple, maidenhair ferns, many mushrooms and other plantlife. Big Trees of Pennsylvania lists a Nordmann fir found there as the largest of its kind in the state. It is 96 feet tall and 84 inches in circumference as of 2006. Click on the title of this article for a photo of this tree.

When you go to Anders Run, don't make the same mistake that I did by leaving the camera in the car. I am going to hike it again tomorrow, this time WITH the camera along, as well as the mushroom field guide.

Wildflowers Along the River

Although the primary purpose of our overnight canoe trip on the Allegheny River was to get into nature and camp, I quickly discovered that my personal primary purpose became botanizing. The summer wildflowers are in full glory now. And as the water slipped by quietly under my canoe, the changing scenery on shore frequently drew me for a closer look.

We put in Saturday at our house and set forth downstream. Of course the first wildflowers to catch my attention were in my own backyard. On the riverbank I found developing brown-eyed Susan, bedstraw, several varieties of wild sunflowers, lupine that I planted this spring, wild dodder and the horrid invasive, Lythrum--purple loosestrife. There are many others that I have yet to ID, but I'll get out there sometime soon with my Newcomb's guide and check on those.

As we moved down the river, we noticed many stands of smartweed. The white flower spikes tipping over at the tops, weaving in the wind, reminded me of a drunkard leaning wobbly against a light pole. Spots of black snakeroot dotted the banks. Water stargrass sent their leaves to the surface, floating and holding up the buds, soon to bloom. Monkey flower bloomed on the islands, their funny faces dancing on the breezes. And small groups of the ubiquitous purple loosestrife in various bays and inlets were insidiously weaving their roots into the quagmire. When I saw more wild dodder near some loosestrife, I began to wonder if the dodder would take a hold of Lythum and parasitize it, causing a decline in the robustness of this invasive. I'm going to experiment by placing some of my own dodder on my Lythrum and see what happens.

I was surprised to see goldenrods already in bloom, rather early this year--although they may have been a species that blooms earlier than the typical August and September varieties. Next time I will take my field guide along!

We also saw many birds on this trip, as is usual on the Allegheny River. Several eagles put in an appearance, many cedar waxwings danced out from the treetops chasing insects, red-tail hawks circling on the updrafts as were the turkey vultures, redwing blackbirds bringing life to the shoreweeds, common yellowthroats calling "witchity witchity withchity," great-horned and barred owls hooting at night. While investigating a rock formation on the riverside, Charlie saw two juvenile wood ducks who swam into a rock cave upon his approach. Although the photo is rather grainy because I had to push the speed to ISO 1600 to compensate for such darkness, we were able to get enough details to ID them using the Sibley Guide to Birds.

On Sunday as we moved on down the river, distant thunder quickly became an imminent threat. As we passed the Hunter's Station Golf Course, their horn blew, calling all golfers off the course. We headed to shore as the rain pelted us and took shelter under a deadfall tree. Unfortunately, the rain in our eyes blinded us to the stinging nettle we were rushing through. But, fortunately, there was an abundance of jewelweed under the deadfall and we were able to stanch the pain with the crushed stems of Mother Nature's first aid plant. It really does work!

The pelting rain put an end to my botanizing. I took out at the golf course and waited for Charlie to paddle the rest of the way to the car, parked in President, PA. He found me a couple of hours later, holding my saturated little dog and swatting biting flies in the parking lot (where were those cedar waxwings). Another good canoeing story to tell around a future campfire!

French Creek in the Summer

I simply cannot say enough to praise our wonderful French Creek. As a result of hard work by the French Creek Project and French Creek Conservancy, this treasure of a waterway is home to 27 different species of freshwater mussels and provides habitat for a myriad number of fish and wildlife.

We paddled a section of the creek again last Friday. A small group of us put in at Rt. 97 near Union City, PA, and paddled 9 1/2 miles to Rt. 6 near Mill Village. Along the way we caught a glimpse of a Northern Harrier, some deer and as usual, an eagle or two. I can never get enough of this creek, especially this particular section.

I first paddled a portion of this stretch back in the early 80s when my friend and canoe mentor, Jim Gardner, introduced me to it. With very few houses or cottages along the way, the creek meanders through woodlands and farm fields. The birdsong never fails to delight us, with warblers, cedar waxwings, various hawks and many redwings all contributing their various squeaks, squawks and trills. The cedar waxwing: what a great bird this is! They perch in the tops of the trees along the banks and flit out to chase down and grab a mouthful of insects, landing back in the trees to devour their catches. We usually see hundreds of them along the stream. Kingfishers often fly out and rattle their presence as they head along above the water, watching for a careless fish to swoop down upon. Merganser mamas swim along with their little broods trailing behind, trying their best to climb aboard mama's back to hitch a ride.

I'm going to cut this short...I suddenly have the urge to get out a canoe and go paddling!