June 20, 2014
Along the Powerlines
And so the seasons went rolling on into summer,
as one rambles into higher and higher grass.
-HDT, Walden
The third and last day of my vacation, I planned to walk with Jackie
up to the Spring Overlook, which has become a sort of Solstice tradition.
The skies were full of gentle sunshine and small clouds, so
typical of a June day.
Before meeting her for our walk, I made a stop at the powerline easement at Mud
Pond, to check for Wood Lilies in bloom.
Two years ago-- before some major clearing and herbicide spraying occurred here -- we had
counted over 80 lilies in one short section. Last summer, we saw but a handful.
Today, I was hard-pressed to find ten rather small plants.
The effects of the spraying seem to last for more than a year ... must be pretty nasty stuff !
All were still in bud. They are
blooming later than usual, as are many other plants this year.
On the way back to the car, I almost stepped on this one – in full bloom.
Glaringly bright and beautiful…
yet I had walked right past it on the
way in!
So basically, my day was complete: I’d seen a Wood Lily on Mid-Summer Eve.
Anything else would be gravy.
There’s a section of easement on the way up to the Spring
Overlook too, which was part of our plan. That’s the first spot we had seen
these lilies, a few years ago.
We started up the Spring Overlook trail, and after a short
time walking through the woods, reached the easement crossing.
Lots of careful searching revealed oceans
of ferns,
lots of whorled loosestrife, and deer tongue grass -- but no lilies in bloom.
We did find one lily plant in bud, about 8 inches high,
tucked in among the ferns.
At that point, Jackie suggested a change of plan.
Well, we
had all day -- why not?
She knew of another section of easement, a mile or two to
the east, and it led up a ridge that had intrigued us for a long time. Jackie
had gone partway up this ridge, back in the fall.
Not only could we check for lilies there, she said, there would be fine views
of the river valley as well.
So we returned to our cars and drove back to the other easement.
View from the road
Only problem was, there was no trail. Whatsoever.
From a distance, it looked like easy walking, but soon we were waist-deep in
ferns and brambly brush. Uh… I muttered to myself … there’s not enough tick
repellent in the world to protect you in a place like that !
As we worked our way up, the walking would get easier, at openings in the
brush, then harder where the plants surged
taller again.
Shady woods bordered the
easement on both sides.
But the
plants we sought would be out in the open -- so through the ferns we went.
Then I heard a noise, like a large dragonfly a-buzzing.
It got louder and louder, and I looked down at
the river valley to see a little black helicopter, flying along the powerlines, just above the tops of the metal
pylons.
And it was heading our way !
“Hey, er …. let’s go into the woods till they pass by,” I
suggested, thinking of how we were, technically, trespassing.
“Nah,” said Jackie. “We’re
just looking at flowers.”
I started searching for an easy way over the woods, as the chopper noise got
louder.
There were piles of slash here and there, from previous clearing work.
“Oh !” she suggested.
“--maybe they are SPRAYING”
– at which point, I lept like an spastic deer, over to the edge of the woods.
There I stood under the trees, knees shaking.
The buzzing was a dull roar now. I could see Jackie standing in the
clearing, her bright pink shirt shining in the sun, giving a friendly little
wave at the sky.
It sounded as if the helicopter hovered in place for a moment --
(although I’m not
sure, since I was cowering in the woods, thinking of those Vietnam movies where
the platoon leader yells,
“Don’t look up !”)
Of course, the chopper did nothing;
it moved on, whirring its way up and over the
ridge on its maintenance mission.
Jackie did NOT collapse, clutching her
throat from herbicide exposure;
and I regained my composure enough to venture out into the open expanse again.
We walked some more, and stopped for lunch in the shade of the woods’ edge.
(That’s probably where we picked up all
the ticks- not in the brush. We found a bunch of them on
our clothes, back at the cars. Surprisingly,
they were wood ticks, not deer ticks.)
After lunch (during which the helicopter came back down the slope !) we resumed our upward walk, not going very far before looking up to see a decidedly steeper section.
It seemed best to call it a day.
I think Jackie would have gone for it, had she been on her own.
The view on the way down was fantastic – you could see all
the way upriver to the Dam.
It's that little blue line just under the horizon
Jackie added two new plants to her life list –
which is remarkable,
since her list is very long.
My life list gets added to almost every time we go a-botanizing together.
Desmodium rotundifolium
