The Lost Adventure (Part 3 of 3)

10/23/11

      Pretty abruptly the habitat and terrain changed yet again. Now the trail became hilly, being former dunes. This area became more oak (Quercus sp.) dominated and it also where I came across this odd ball…

This hash-brown of a plant actually stumped me from my discovering it until about a week from my writing this post. It is a non-photosynthetic parasite called Squaw or Cancer Root (Conopholis Americana). After finding the first one, I got a big head and thought I had found some rare late succession dune plant. I continued feeling high for about 50 yards when I saw this…

…maybe not so rare. But it was still really cool and new to me so I still felt high. It was also in this area, which is near the end of the trail, that I came across a raging stream. Even though it was just a creek, it was rushing very fast and the sound carried for some distance. Let me put this in perspective though. The day after this trip occurred it rained hard again. I returned to the area briefly during summer and discovered that the sturdy wood bridge which the trail crossed the creek with had been washed away. At this time it was nearly 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep, fast running, and impossible to see through. When I made my summer check back, it was a whopping one foot wide, two inches deep and the entire creek bed was visible.
Besides spending way too much time marveling at the water (I’ve got a thing for running water) the whole pocket created created by winding dunes, dense old growth trees, and the creek was absolutely serene. It was this location that inspired what was to be the original title, “A Slice of Paradise.”
      Honestly of all the trips I took this felt like the longest. But soon I made my way back to the train, classes, and society. I really had no idea this would be my last trip to the IN dunes to date but I think it was quite satisfactory, even fitting, as a finale to the first chapter of my adventures on the shores of Lake Michigan and this blog. While I will be returning (as frequently as I can) I intend to shift the focus of this blog northward. Illinois dunes in the northernmost suburbs of Chicago are very different in character from those to the south of Chi town in Indiana but no less interesting, exciting, and (for most of us) new. I hope you enjoyed reading and I look forward to bringing you the next wave of adventures.

See you in the field!

The Lost Adventure (Part 2 of 3)

10/23/11

      Early on I came to some curious clearings. For no clear reason, there was a sudden open sandy area with a single tree growing in the center with the outer rim host to a variety of ferns. What’s more, there were multiple! Even with my skill for making really good guesses at interpreting natural phenomena, I was stumped here. There is no readily apparent reason for these erratics within the forest. Certain areas throughout the trail were denser than others and as a result the trails and surrounding soil had a different character.

In one of the darker areas but with a healthy undergrowth I got a treat. I spotted two wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) skulking along. By the time I had spotted them, they spotted me and were already high tailing it away. I wasn’t able to act fast enough to pull out my camera. It may seem silly to get excited about seeing Turkeys but actual wild Turkeys are very different from domesticated ones. Most of the time you see them in flocks or on pastures. The true turkey though is solitary or with a partner roaming the forest floor. When you see them in this natural state of being, it truly is magical.

      Gradually the going got tougher as several sections of trail were either water logged and muddy or covered by running water forcing reroutes and log hopping. There were also some of the more spectacular areas with the interplay of dimmed light, mosaic canopies, and damp undergrowth of the last spring hold overs. Before long I reached areas where trails, being the low area, had become drainage canals for the hyper saturated soil which literally bled water. You can see that in action in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i9eln9YrdA

To Be Continued

The Lost Adventure (Part 1 of 3)

10/23/11
      This blog post is the tale of the last Indiana Dunes adventure I took before the 2010/2011 academic year ended and the summer of 2011 commenced. Due to a combination of looming finals, piled up school work, and year-end/summer preparations this trip’s account was never written, I hadn’t even taken the time to weed through the photos I took!

Taking place on May 26th, 2011, the original title was to be “A Slice of Paradise.” I’m not completely sure what possessed me now, several months later, to revisit this untold adventure. Like ancient texts which are usually found in fragments that tell partial stories, there isn’t much that I can use to reconstruct the things that I saw that day other than fond memories and a mess of pictures but the point of this blog is to share the beauties I’ve seen. So even if it’s fragmentary and incomplete, it’s still worth sharing.

      It is important to preface the whole thing with the information that it had been raining the past two days and the night of my arrival was the heaviest downpour. I don’t have any pictures or memories of my arrival the night before so it must have been pretty un-noteworthy as is often the case. So the day of exploration begins at the Dunewood campground which is the national park’s camp. At the end of the campground is a trail head that leads to the Lycokiwee trail which is what I would be traversing all the way to the Dune Park train station. The trail itself winds along the back edge of the Indiana dunes farthest from the lake. So while there’s still a sand foundation, the area is completely dominated by late succession woodlands. It also skirts the main high way through the national park but you very rarely see or hear its presence. The morning arrived without much event. The sound of birds was lacking mostly due to the great amount of moisture still filling the atmosphere. Even though sunrise was well past and it was effectively no

longer raining, the cloud cover still shrouded the woods in a perpetual, gentle darkness. Nearly every area was saturated or flooded to some degree. Low areas were constantly draining into lower areas in a gradual progression to near by creeks or marshes. The first segment of trail was fairly solid with multiple underpasses for water so hiking was easy.


To Be Continued