Natural Novelties

The nice thing about plodding through the woods on snowshoes is that you have time to notice your surroundings. If I was skiing or doing something ridiculous like running in snowshoes, I'd miss the unique photo opportunities and oddities. They'd whiz right by.

So we saw a few interesting things on Saturday. For the record, Cindy is not an oddity in nature. I was going to take a photo of some leaning branches but the way they framed her on the path ahead of me made a much better image!

Did this tree come down with a case of the zebra mussels? Seriously, it kind of reminds me of the trees we saw after the lake was drained this summer.

After some research, I learned these are called "shelf fungi" or "shelf mushrooms." Make sense the way they are stacked up like shelves.

Some cultures also refer to them as "potato chip fungi" or "Lay's mushrooms."

And depending on the angle, some refer to them as the "snickerdoodle shrooms."

You could tell it was mild because we could now see water in the tributaries off Nepco Lake. A month earlier, we shoed right over them and probably couldn't tell we were on water. Thankfully, there is a little foot bridge we can use to cross.

Speaking of weird things in nature... I don't think this is what they mean when their label says "recyclable." Of course, we didn't take them down in case they are legitimately part of some experiment. I suspect littering but would hate to screw up some expensive research project.

While we did not see or hear Woody Woodpecker, we know he was around. And perhaps invited a few friends over. I did run into an acquaintance on our hike and he said this is the work of a "downey woodpecker." I will take his word for it.

Whether he was "down" or up, he was definitely hungry. That's for sure.

Here's an uprooted tree that takes on a new look once nature clears all the brush and sand and weeds off. 

Kind of creepy and cool at the same time. But creepy enough I am glad I wasn't on this trek alone.

Plus, it is always fun to have another set of eyes looking for the bizarre and the beautiful along the trail. Not that I want to extend winter, but there is still something unusual hanging in one of the trees that we have yet to see. It's sort of like our personal scavenger hunt so I hope we get another chance to find it.

Anything to help pass the time until we can search for eagles again while kayaking. Why does that seem like an UN-naturally long time away?