a rolling stone...

supposedly gathers no moss. al strickland took a few of us out saturday for a hike around the bicknell brook loop over in enfield and showed us a bunch of it--moss that is! armed with field magnifying loupes, an atomizer for hydrating the moss, and al's passion for the miniature non-vascular plants, six of us set off into the woods. the first thing i noticed was that the black flies were out! not in force or biting--yet--but definitely more than a few. black flies 'hatch' in moving water and it being fairly dry so far this spring, i had hopes that this wouldn't be such a bad season. we shall see.

the dry was in evidence on our first couple of stops and al gave the examples a good spritzing as we started examining our first species. at one point, not too long after the start, we took off into the woods headed toward some pink flagging tape. it got swampier and swampier, with blow downs crisscrossing everywhere as we pulled up to a large birch (i think) covered in moss all around. there were two main species that i actually remember and pam took photos of: shingle and frizzy hook. at another off trail spot we saw a third, easier to identify larger species covering a boulder: stair step.

stair step moss

shingle moss

frizzy hook moss

the four-tooth moss is another common moss often found on tree stumps. without a fair amount of practice, mosses in general are not easy to distinguish without magnification. but a few of the species have characteristics that make them apparent even to the naked eye. (i love that expression...!) all mosses grow in wetter areas. some, like the peat mosses, grow in really wet areas. we saw one, spikey peat, in a constant wet spot next to a stream. surprisingly, there is a common moss that grows right in the stream: keeled water moss, sometimes refered to as greater water moss, maybe because it grows up to 15cm long. moss is usually much shorter as it has to get, and retain, nearly all its water through the leaves. right next to the bicknell brook, we found the last two species that i thought were easy to remember, palm tree and wavy starburst.

various moss species, a fern frond, some dead leaves, the bicknell brook...

it is worth noting that we also looked at three or four species of liverworts and the same amount of lichen. one 'leafy' liverwort, bazzania, looks very much like a moss. it has a very distinctive y-branching pattern to its stalks. i showed the group the two common lichen Genera that grow high up in dying or dead fir trees: Usnea and Evernia. the first is the one with an elastic thread of fungus covered by the algae. it is highly sensitive to air pollution carried on blowing winds. the second is a flatter, maybe thicker version, with a fungus that breaks easily and leaves fuzzy ends rather than the thread of Usnea. Evernia is fairly tolerant of air pollution.

we got back to the cars around five-ish with enough moss info swirling around our brains to keep us busy for a while. i will have to pick up the common mosses guide that al's moss mentor helped author with her father and two others. being out in the woods was a great cap stone atop the mornings' work at the ces garden/outdoor classroom. being out-side is always preferable to in-, especially with good people.

speaking of good people, the MOC moonrise sunset hike was taken in by six of us, and one dog, on thursday evening. we left the parking lot around 6:30 realizing that the usual crowd were away at a track meet and waiting around wouldn't grow our group any bigger. the hiking trail was nearly ice free with nothing that couldn't be safely navigated with just shoes or boots. it was cool enough to make hiking along at a fairly quick, youthful rate comfortable. nobody was sweating--too much. just as we topped out and dropped our packs we spotted the moon starting to peak above the eastern haze.

on the western front, the cloud bank was much bigger and i snapped the picture with our band silhouetted against the sun sandwiched between two layers just before it disappeared.

just three other hikers besides MOC were up enjoying the views. we started down when the sun dropped behind the lowest cloud line. it was a very pleasant descent with enough light from the moon that only one headlamp came out, and then only for one particularly 'shaded' gully. a lone car--the other three people on top--remained as we motored off satisfied with april's moon-sun 'ablution'.

a ton and a half more cars greeted pam and i today when we pulled into the parking lot this morning. it was sunday, not too cool, with plenty of blue sky, so i imagined the people with those cars--from all across new england, including new york state--were looking for an outdoor church experience.

folks were fairly spread out along the various trails. we took a few of the ski trail loops to keep that feeling. up at the connector over to hurricane gap and the amc alexandria lodge side there were a few icy spots that were really sketchy. i stepped to the side to let a woman go by and schwoop she skidded off her feet onto her butt. her mother came running up all worried and schwoop, followed her daughter down. i stepped away but remembered that spot for the way down. we made one other stop to take a picture of three younger hikers perched above 'turn around rock' and then made it to the top. i saw an old student--graduated in '97--and got his son to read the anemometer i keep in my pack: 15-20mph.

we ate a snack bar and headed down. just below the waterfall zone, we ran across a hiker that had passed us on the way up and then started the descent before we did. he was clearly concerned and stopped us to report, "we lost an engagement ring somewhere on the trail..." i didn't hold out too much hope for finding it, but i hiked back up a ways and then down again with my eyes glued to the ground. (another eye expression that paints a great image.) no luck, but i left an email address just in case i ran across it later. i ran off to try and catch pam who had kept hiking and caught her on the last ski trail section. long story short, we got home, ate a bit of lunch, and sat down to an email from the couple--"WE FOUND THE RING!!!" that was amazing and made another great end to a fine day.

life is good...!