Another Cedar River Watershed Education Center (CRWEC) tour, ‘Among the Ancients’ led by Clay Antiou to visit old growth forest stands in the watershed. What a fun and educational day. We left about 9am and did not get back until 4:30. It was worth it.
We drove by Chester Morse Lake on the way to our first stop, a second growth stand so we could see the difference between the newer and the older trees.
As we walked through the forest Clay continually pointed out interesting facts about trees, lichens, mosses, ferns – and fascinating little plants like these Indian Pipes:
The first old growth stand we visited was the Lost Creek stand:
We then drove east at about 4,000 feet (along a very rough road) to the Findlay Lake stand:
We got to this beautiful little sub-alpine lake via a nice little steepish hike of about a half mile. And at the trailhead was a challenging peak. Too bad this area is off limits, or I and a few other hikers I know would love to give this one a try:
As always, a great tour. I look forward to September and my next one, a reprise of last year’s ‘Adventures in Forest Ecology’.