Wilderness in the City: Spring Tour: Mark Herwig

 

Wilderness in the City: Spring Writing Tour with Mark Herwig

With the long anticipated respite from spring rains, the trail was a tad soggy with a few mudslides, but manageable.

Mark Herwig, editor of Pheasants Forever and his Spring Spaniel Hunter led the way. Through the Bottomland Forest and Big Woods we hiked up to the top of the Minnesota River Bluff  with its breathtaking view of the Minnesota River Valley.

On the way Mark spotted Wild Turkey tracks in the forest understory and dozens of plants: Jack-in-the-Pulpit,  Wild Ginger, Ferns, Cup Plants, Bloodroot,  Wild Grape and some huge Shelf Fungi and more…

 

Shelf Fungi can often be found on fallen logs in damp forests. These particular specimens were quite large and one had an interesting circular pattern, sea-shell-like. The other looked like an oyster. These spores had been displaced and relocated on a fallen tree trunk.

Loads of families and dog owners hiking the trails at the Richard T. Anderson Conservation Area this Memorial Day week-end. 

We took some interesting video which you can find on our YouTube channel with Mark talking about Woodpeckers, the value of fallen trees and the fresh spring water at the RTA.

 

There were blossomg plants everywhere, from the one pictured on the right, the yellow Hoary Puccoon to the reddish purple Prairie Smoke plant. Some of the most spectacular views were the valley and the Big Woods. Get your hiking boots out because this trail is not for faint-of-foot. 

Join us July 27th for our next tour of the Richard T. Anderson and Elizabeth Fries Ellet Interpretive Trail Wilderness in the City: Springing Writing Tour with the Director of Writers Rising Up.

 

Next Up: Wilderness in the City: Summer Writing Tour: Ellet’s Ramblings & Thoreau’s Notes

What Ellet wrote in 1852, Thoreau in 1861, and what we write in Summer 2013