Quite often I get an irresistible urge to be in the woods and, since I’m lucky enough to be able to find woods in any direction I travel, getting there is no work at all. The thought hit me the other day that I hadn’t been to Goose Pond in Keene since last year, so that’s where I went last Sunday. I also wanted to see how deep the snow was in the woods and since this is a five hundred acre wilderness area I would certainly be able to see plenty of woods. As the above photo of the trail to the pond shows, there was no snow in this area. Odd since Goose Pond isn’t that far from Beaver Brook, where I saw plenty of snow in the woods just the day before.
The pond was still mostly frozen over. It’s interesting how ponds and lakes start melting at the shore and work toward the middle, and rivers start in the middle and work toward the shore.
Goose Pond was called Crystal Lake and / or Sylvan Lake in the early 1900s. The pond was artificially enlarged to 42 acres in 1865 so the town of Keene would have a water supply to fight fires with. Wooden pipe fed 48 hydrants by 1869 but the town stopped using the pond as a water supply in the 1930s, and in 1984 it was designated a wilderness area. The vast forest tract surrounding the pond has been left virtually untouched since the mid-1800s. The deciduous trees over on the left shoreline are red maples. You can just see some red in the branches from the opening flowers.
Even in the winter the trail darkens quickly due to all of the pines and hemlocks.
There are stone walls here and there along the trail around the pond. They tell the history of the place. It’s hard to believe that much of this land was cleared for sheep pasture by the early 1800s, but it was. These walls have most likely been here for over 200 years.
I’m reading the book The Hidden Life of Trees and in it author Peter Wohlleben speaks of how much strain a tree that is bent like the one in the above photo is under. As he explains it a curved trunk has trouble simply standing upright because “The enormous weight of the crown isn’t evenly divided over the diameter of the trunk but weighs more heavily on the wood on one side.” He also explains that “Evenly formed trees absorb the shock of buffeting forces, using their shape to direct and divide these forces evenly throughout their structure.” If you are interested at all in trees, this is the book for you.
I saw lots of trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens) along the trail. This creeping evergreen is also called Mayflower, though it often blooms earlier. It was one of my grandmother’s favorite flowers.
Some of the trailing arbutus plants were well budded. These small white flowers are extremely fragrant and were once collected nearly into oblivion for nosegays. It is one of those plants that has a close relationship with fungal hyphae in the soil and will not grow unless the fungus is present, so digging it up to transplant somewhere else is a waste of time. It’s also illegal in some areas.
There are many streams flowing down off the surrounding hills to the pond and in two spots there are bridges, but in many places you have to cross by hopping from stone to stone or simply walking through the water. I always wear good water proof hiking boots when I come here. On this day I saw some college age people going down the trail wearing bright white sneakers. I can guarantee that they weren’t white when they came out of the woods, and they probably weren’t dry either.
This bridge was chained to a nearby tree, not against theft but flooding. There has been severe flooding here in the past. It would be an awful lot of work hand carrying enough lumber to build a bridge all the way out here so I don’t blame them for not wanting to have it washed away and smashed on the rocks.
I could have sat here all day just listening to the chuckling and giggling of the stream and the joyous, excited birdsong but it wasn’t warm on this day and there was a stiff wind coming off that ice, so I had to move on after too short a time.
I saw the pine tree that was hit by lightning last year. The bolt blew the bark right off the trunk in strips, and pieces of the strips still lay by its roots. It also followed a large root right into the ground, leaving the same trace on it.
A birch polypore (Formitopsis betulina) was coated with ice. Someday I’m going to try drying one of these mushrooms and sharpening a knife with it because another name for it is the razor strop fungus. Even more useful than its ability to sharpen a knife though, is its antiseptic, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It contains betulinic acid, which is a compound that has shown to also promote the death of cancer cells. It has been used medicinally for thousands of years.
Soon the island will be surrounded by water again instead of ice. I’d love to be able to explore it to find out what kind of plants grow there. I’m guessing that they aren’t much different than those that grow here on shore, but you never know.
Great long ice crystals grew in the cold night and were melting now. That’s how this entire winter has been; cold enough to snow one day and then warm enough to melt it all over the next few days. Then comes another storm, but that cycle seems to have finally been broken now.
There are many side trails here and some are very easy to get onto without realizing it, but it would still be hard to get lost if you pay attention and stay on the trail that circles the pond. If the pond is on your right when you start it should be on your right all the way along the trail until it ends, because you have just walked in a circle. Maybe it took you a while to do it but it’s still just a big circle. Even so I have met people here that seemed to have no idea where they were or which way to go. It just goes to show that what seems simple to some of us might not be so simple to others. I’ve been lost in the woods before too, and it can be unsettling, to say the least.
I knew right off what the small black lumps all over this beech stump were.
Annulohypoxylon cohaerens fungus forms hard black lumps on beech bark. The fruiting bodies seen here are “cushion like round or flask shaped masses of fungal tissue with nipple or pustule shaped pores.” Each body is very small; less than half the diameter of a pea. They usually grow on fallen beech logs but these were on a standing stump. It originally took me three years to identify them.
The trail had ice on it here and there but this is mostly level ground so it wasn’t bad. Next winter I’ll have micro spikes, hoping all the while that I don’t need them.
I saw the unnatural stone that lives in the middle of the trail, toward the end if you go clockwise around the pond. Of course I can’t prove it isn’t natural but I’ve worked with a lot of stone and I’ve never seen such a perfect 90 degree angle and such smooth faces on a natural stone. I can’t imagine how it got way out here or why.
This is a special place for several reasons. First is because it’s the only place I know of where you can actually get a photo of the woods while you are in them. An old pine fell and opened a hole in the canopy and that lets in enough light for a shot of something I am rarely able to get on film. Taking a photo of a forest while you’re in it is a lot harder than you might think, because of all the trees. Another reason this spot is special is because the only example of a northern club spur orchid I know of grows here. I found it about 4 years ago and hope to see it bloom again in July. The final reason this place is special to me is because it’s so beautiful and peaceful here. If you feel the need to just sit and “soak” in the woods this is the place to do it. I hope you have a place like it.
It is very important to go out alone, to sit under a tree—not with a book, not with a companion, but by yourself—and observe the falling of a leaf, hear the lapping of the water, the fishermen’s song, watch the flight of a bird, and of your own thoughts as they chase each other across the space of your mind. If you are able to be alone and watch these things, then you will discover extraordinary riches which no government can tax, no human agency can corrupt, and which can never be destroyed. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
Thanks for stopping in.
Stumbled up on your blog yesterday while searching for plants in NH and can’t be asking for more. I was ecstatic seeing J Krishnamurti quoted here! Thanks for sharing the moments so beautifully.
You’re welcome Sofy. I’m glad you liked what you saw!
New to your blog posts. Wonderful stories, with a keen eye for the wonders of nature. And your photographs are splendid! I’ll be following. Happy trekking!
Thank you Jeff, and welcome! I’m glad you’re enjoying what you see.
I read a review written by the incomparable Barbara Kingsolver about a new novel — yes, a novel — called The Overstory. The author’s name is Richard Powers. Trees are the protagonists in this story.
Rather than give my lame synopsis here, I urge you to read the NYT book review by Ms. Kingsolver. I think you’ll have this book on your list post haste.
Thanks very much Lynne, I’ll do that. I’m always looking for good book ideas!
‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ is on my wish-list. I have read so many good reviews of this book from all sorts of different people! I also love the shot of the island – it looks magical!
I enjoyed this walk through the wood with you very much.
Thank you Clare. I think you’ll really enjoy the book. I’ve been learning quite a lot from it!
Today was warm enough for outdoor sketching, so I spent a couple of hours ambling around favorite pond-adjacent trails with my dog. I came upon a patch of arbutus where I had never noticed it before, and thought of you 🙂
Thank you Quinn. I hope you get to go back and smell it when it blooms!
To be honest, I’m not very partial to the aroma of arbutus! It would have been safe from me even when it was being pillaged for nosegays. But I do enjoy seeing it in the woods 🙂
I know what you mean. Some scents can be a bit overpowering. With me it’s paper white narcissus.
I loved seeing the photos from your walk around the pond, especially the image of the island with the thin ice in the foreground!
My first thought when I saw the chain on the bridge was also why would any one steal a bridge, but your explanation of the chain being there to prevent the bridge being washed away makes more sense. 🙂
You have a lot more patience than I, taking three years to identify the Annulohypoxylon coheres fungus. I don’t spend that much time attempting to ID birds that I see. A few days are all that I’m willing to devote to a photo of an unknown bird before I give up on it and hope for better photos in the future. I know that it isn’t the photo that takes up your time though, it’s finding the right source to make the ID from.
Speaking of that, the book that you mentioned sounds fascinating. There’s a library just down the street from me, and I should sign up again and spend more time reading like I used to, and less time on the computer.
Thanks Jerry! I hope all of that ice has melted by now!
I find pieces of bridge in the woods fairly often. Many get washed away during floods.
The three years it took for that identification was off and on and as you say, finding the right source was the hardest part. It’s hard to describe something like it because as far as I know there isn’t anything else like it in these woods. I didn’t even know that it was a fungus.
That book is fascinating and I think you’d like it. I don’t know if I’ll ever look at a tree or a forest the same way again!
Thank you for sharing your trips to the woods. I have learned so much by following your blog. You have a gift for noticing and honoring the smallest details in our natural world. You’ve pointed out a whole new world to your readers. Sent from my iPad
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You’re welcome, and thank you. It makes me happy to hear that. Getting people interested by pointing out what they’ve been missing is what this blog is all about. I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
All very interesting stuff! The pond is really pretty!
Thanks Montucky! Goose Pond is pretty, and it and the 500 acre forest that surrounds it are less than 3 miles from downtown Keene.
I loved reading ‘The Hidden Life of Trees,’ it’s one of my favorites.
The Kristnamurti quote speaks to me. 🙂
Thank you Eliza, I second that on both counts!
I have enjoyed every aspect of this post. The more I study each photo, the more I discover. Your descriptions inform and entertain at every turn. The stone wall is perfectly captured along with the odd tree. I am wildly curious about the triangular stone in the path. Can you see where a person has shaped it to be that way or does it appear to be natural?
We were hit hard by the traveling blizzard yesterday and I was out when it hit out of the blue. Driving in a whiteout is nerve wracking, even in my big Dodge truck. Luckily, it ended by late in the day, and has nearly melted today. Fire season is getting close so glad to have the moisture, as they refer to it here.
I do hope the storm is passing by you.
Thank you Penny. The triangular rock is actually a square post about three feet long, half buried in the ground. It doesn’t look natural to me at all. I think someone cut it sometime in the past but what the reason was is beyond me. It might have been a fence post. Stone fence posts were common here in years past and this was all farmland at one time. It was probably much longer than it is now.
I know what you mean about driving in a whiteout. I had to do it 2 or 3 times this past winter, and it is nerve wracking!
We haven’t seen any stormy weather today but we might see some tomorrow they say, and then rain on Monday, which sounds like an April shower kind of day.
I hope you won’t have any fires during this year’s season.
I am very taken by the idea of chaining your bridges up. That had never occurred to me as being something that would be necessary.
Yes, for the past decade or so we’ve seen serious flooding almost every year, and bridges like that one have gotten washed away and never seen again. They usually get smashed into trees or rocks and that’s the end of them. The chains help but even they sometimes break.
Hidden Life of Trees is informative and entertaining. I enjoyed it immensely.
I haven’t finished it yet but I know what you mean. It’s an excellent book!
“…ponds and lakes start melting at the shore and work toward the middle, and rivers start in the middle and work toward the shore.” I never thought of the difference, but of course it’s true. Thanks for the walk by the ponds, stone walls and in the woods. I miss all that from my former property, so thanks for the virtual gift!
You’re welcome Cynthia. You can take the girl out of the woods but you can’t take the woods out of the girl, so I’m not surprised you remember it all so well!
That island picture is fabulous, one to enlarge and frame. So true about the difference between the way ice melts on a pond and on a river. Love the description of the giggling and chuckling stream. Such an enchanting sound.
Thank you Laurie. There is only one place to get that shot of the island and usually the light is terrible; often coming right at the camera, but on this day it wasn’t too bad and I got a usable shot. I’m glad you like it.
Since I was just a boy small streams have always sounded like they were giggling as they made their way along. It’s always a happy, comforting sound to me and it always makes me smile. That’s probably why I spend so much time near water of one sort or another.
That shot is more than usable. 😉 It’s outstanding.
Thanks! Maybe I’ll try to print it and see what it looks like.
Thanks for the book recommendation – it pleased me that I had to get on a wait list for a digital copy at my local library. Hope I’m not too far down the list.
The bridge chained to the tree made me smile. I would still be scratching my head wondering why someone was worried about their bridge being stolen!
You’re welcome Judy. I’m guessing you might have to wait a while for the book but it’ll be worth it. It’s very good and I learned quite a few things from it.
I know of several bridges like that one that have been washed away by flooding, so the chain is a good idea. It would take many very strong people to even move it!
Life in all its bold and imaginative manifold vatiaties.
Yes, and there are many!
🙂
Your mention of Peter Wohllebens book goaded me to take it from the shelf eventually where it has been sitting for some time. Simply fascinating. The edition I have here contains also wonderful pictures as well.Thank you for reminding me — and of course for letting us accompany on your stroll along the pond.
You’re welcome Zyriacus, and thank you. I didn’t know there was an edition with pictures. I’ll have to look for it.
Even without them though, it’s a great book,
Loved the quote, it made me feel good just reading it.
Thank you Susan, I like that one too. It’s very true!