Not Quite a Bear Story on the West Shore of Lily Pond; part three

 I'm as surprised as anyone that this topic has evolved into three parts. I maintain hope however, that this will be the final part. I promised my readers a bear scare adventure of sorts on the western shore of Lily pond and I intend to deliver! 

Its not the law, but I always wear blaze orange while in the woods, hunting season or not. It can be quite easy to get turned around or separated from your partner when there aren't clearly marked trails; and with my blaze orange, Wayne has no excuse for leaving me out there. 

The Skibinowski tract on the west shore of Lily pond isn't exactly wilderness, there are plenty of signs of human activity in the area.

There are also plenty of signs that these woods are uncharacteristically dry this year. 

This tree has a story to tell, I only wish that I spoke "tree."

There are old roads and trails in this area. Some are maintained; but like this one they head into posted land. We had to hike adjacent to this road as it lies just over the state land boundary. Since beginning this project, I have been told of stories of old foundations and a stage coach stop. 

I thought this streambed more resembled a drainage ditch than a natural stream. 

Goldthread

Have you ever wondered what the floor of a swamp might look like?

Some mysteries aren't intended to be solved.

There is a slight incline as you approach the north west corner of the tract.

This boulder and its little friends seems out of place.

More flagged barbed wire.

There is good reason to allow dead trees to stand. Allowing mature and dead trees to stand supports biodiversity. But there is more to supporting biodiversity than only conserving a steady state / dominant tree stand.  Look past the dead wood to the background of this picture. This former agricultural and subsequently logged tract of land, from the edge of the western shore of Lily pond to it's corner markers, is a lesson in forest succession.  

The swamps may be dry; but mold, moss and fungi remind us that these are wetlands

Goldthread fills a small basin where I expected to find open water instead.

Mylar balloons never completely biodegrade.

Another road heading into the hills.

The only vine that I came across during our hike had been growing for some time.

I believe that it would be well worth the foot soaking to visit these falls in the spring.

Our third boundary marker of the hike

A burl indicates that the tree has been stressed.

This road has recently been traveled

A cairn with a stick with a flag. Someone is looking out for clumsy travelers like me.

I don't know why I expected four corners with four markers, perhaps it's because I live on a rectangle.

I'm not exactly certain when in the hike I began to imagine possibilities. Oh sure, I often see contorted faces peering at us from tree trunks and rocks; but didn't the entire state of New Hampshire create a tourist stop with such fanciful dreamings? I can only imagine that it happened for me around the same location as it did for this surveyor. Why were they so determined that hikers from all directions find this particular point? Was there something on the other side that we should be wary of?

 

The feel of the woods began to change

It felt as if there was something just beyond view and I was anxious to get there!

But a corner stake posted between me and my hunch held me back. 

Wayne consulted with his OnX app and informed me that there was a pond. "Is it Lily pond?" I asked. Wayne said that it wasn't. "How can it be possible that there might be another Lily pond in Vernon and I've never heard about it?" If I could just sneak over to those rocks...

Could this be the lost sixty acres of Lily pond? Wayne being the better rule follower of our team, hung back listening to me carry on an excited conversation with myself.

Wouldn't I be in hot water just the same if I were 20 feet trespassing as 40?

I returned back to where I left Wayne only to learn that the blazes headed in the same general direction I had gone.

Pondering what it was that I had just viewed, I became oblivious to my surroundings, until that is I awoke to Wayne firmly warning, "Norma is that a bear tree?!" Startled to my senses, I began calling "hey bear! Hey Bear! HEY BEAR!" 

After all, nobody in their right mind wants to surprise a bear napping in a tree.

There was one major problem with this scenario however. It took my pulse a minute or two to calm down enough and several more "hey bear" calls before I began to understand what I was seeing.

The mound at the base of the tree wasn't bear scat.

It was porcupine scat!

We found a second porcupine tree not far away from the first.

And just beyond that we found Lily pond.

Which after all is pretty darn good habitat for bear.

Even if

We didn't actually

get to see a bear on the west shore of Lily pond. -Norma Manning

Link: Part one

Link: Part two 

Further Reading:

Succession: A Closer Look, The Nature Education Knowledge Project