The Return of The Buckthorn Man

Posted on September 3, 2014 by paulmozina

It was a bit reminiscent of The Return of Tarzan when The Buckthorn Man returned to his Shangri-La on the shores of Ottawa Lake.

Like the buckthorn thickets of the kettle moraine are ‘a bit’ like the jungles of Africa, The Buckthorn Man is only ‘a bit’ as noble and virtuous as the mighty Tarzan. Yes, yes, if only I could be as self-possessed as the king of the jungle, how liberating that would be.

Imitating the lord of the apes, I aspired to noble contemplation of ethics and aesthetics as I bent over the spotted knapweed on the sand prairie and listened to The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. Sweet freedom. Paradoxically, I do love my servitude to The Creator, which is my free choice to labor at The Springs, because it enables me to manifest my version of Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic, and satisfy my desire to make the world a more beautiful place.

I finally did read A Sand County Almanac, which includes Leopold’s thought provoking essay, “The Land Ethic”:

A land, ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land.

Much of what he said resonated with me, but, and I hope you won’t think that The Buckthorn Man simply must have a buckthorn spike stuck in his butt to quibble with Aldo, like other careful readers, I found myself disconcerted by some of the things he said, or, as the case may be, did not say. He fails to mention the highly evolved Seventh Generation Earth Ethics of the indigenous people, while hoping that “we”, homo sapiens (Latin: “wise man”), who violently and rapaciously “conquered” the land, have learned a lesson.

A nation spawned from empires built on the backs of slaves is not easily weaned from gluttonous exploitation. Lest you think my ranting hyperbolic, consider this example from Donald Culross Peattie’s fine work, A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America:

Until almost the turn of the present century (1900), pecans reached the market largely from wild trees. The harvesting methods in early times consisted in nothing less heroic and criminal than cutting down gigantic specimens — the bigger the better — and setting boys to gather the nuts from the branches of the fallen giants. It seemed to the pioneer then, as it did to every American, that the forests of this country were inexhaustible. Thus it came about that the wild Pecan tree had become rare before men began to realize how much was lost.

Before I proceed with the riveting story of what happened when The Buckthorn Man returned to Shangri-La, I must complain about another, subtle perhaps, line of Leopoldian thought. He espouses a moral relativism that positively rankles me: “An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct.”, and later: “The mechanism of operation is the same for any ethic: social approbation for right actions: social disapproval for wrong actions.” No Aldo, NO! There is an objective difference between right and wrong, independent of the whims of society, which Mark Passio eloquently and passionately explains in his Natural Law Seminar.

If you have any doubts, please check with Fredrick Douglas.

I arrived at the Ottawa Lake campground on Friday, August 22, excited to setup camp at the walk-in site #335, only to find that it had been let to another party an hour earlier. It reminded me of that scene where Jerry Seinfeld complained to the car rental company that knew how to take his reservation, but not how to hold it. Undecided about what to do, I took a walk downstream in the Scuppernong River to inspect the work that was recently done to improve the channel.

Here are some views of the stretch of the river just upstream from the gaging station bridge that still need some channel remediation.

While wandering the trails I met Eliot and his son Isaiah, and they graciously invited me to stay with them at site #388, which is a beautiful site on the bluff overlooking Ottawa Lake. Thanks again guys!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday were dedicated to digging and pulling spotted knapweed on the sand prairie. Most of the seed is still firmly attached and, since I did not mow the prairie this year, there is a ton of it.

I didn’t care if it rained.

It was hot, humid and buggy, but beautiful nevertheless.

The Hillside Springs.

The Indian Springs.

Ottawa Lake sunset.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I was determined to finish clearing the buckthorn along the trail that follows the east shore of Ottawa Lake between site #380 and #335. I was concerned about the bar oiling mechanism not working properly on my chainsaw and, sure enough, it was kaput. So, I carried a little pint bottle of bar oil in my chaps and stopped every couple minutes to manually apply some lubrication to the bar and chain. No problem!

Tuesday, before…

… and after.

The sights and sounds of The Springs:

Buckthorn seedlings along the cut-off trail.

The cut-off trail.

Giant thistles that I should have positively identified as friend or foe a few months ago.

The Hidden Spring.

The area of phragmites that I poisoned near the Emerald Spring deck is finally coming back to life.

The Emerald Spring.

The Scuppernong Spring.

The Indian Spring.

A beautiful, unidentified flower near the Hotel Spring.

The valley of the headwaters.

Wednesday morning and I had a date with buckthorn.

Before…

… and after.

You can follow the lakeshore trail all the way from the beach to the north end of site #334 and enjoy wide open views of the lake and fen to the west the whole way. It’s lovely.

Thanks again to Carl Baumann, for splitting and restacking my stash of firewood!.

And thanks to Dave and Lindsay for coming out to visit; I really enjoyed it. I had a couple of uninhibited and inspired guitar jams by the fire and, despite all the rain, never had to setup my tarp at camp. It was excellent.

See you at The Springs!

I Am Not Buckthorn

Posted on April 21, 2014 by paulmozina

The Buckthorn Man has been doing a lot of soul-searching lately. Could his dis-ease be caused by excessive mind-identification? Is his preoccupation with past and future at the expense of the present moment dimming the radiant light of his Being?

In an effort to help him sort out his mess, I’ve recently been listening to The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”

“The past has no power over the present moment.”

Tolle has deep insight into what it means to be enlightened, but there is something missing it seems and I’m not sure The Buckthorn Man will be able to let go of his ego; his excessive need to be right, his belief that HE knows the truth. He might respond that we need to understand our past — the origins of the Powers That Be — to have any chance of responding intelligently to the events unfolding around us every day. The Truth — that which is, that which has actually occurred — does it matter?

The Buckthorn Man has never been one to “go along to get along”; he’s always been an activist speaking truth to power about the 9/11 cover-up, the nefarious origins and dealings of the CIA, the totally insane and misguided “War on Drugs”, the international banking cartel that pulls the levers of power etc… I fear pillow sitting and new age philosophy will never make The Buckthorn Man ignore what he knows.

Last week my mind was troubled and I tried in vain to be in the present moment. I returned to Ottawa Lake to continue cutting buckthorn on the bluff above the lake in the area around and below campsite #380. Here is how it looked when I got there.

The buckthorn were huge!

It was a cold day, hopefully the last for a while.

The views of the lake are outstanding!

I think that will be the last time I cut buckthorn all day until the Fall; I need to give my left shoulder a rest.

The USGS team came out to reset the water depth indicator in the river; someone had pulled it out.

The sights at The Springs.

Don Dane cut a lot of brush with the forestry mower on the south end of the nature preserve. Thanks Don!

I returned a couple days later still trying to adjust to the reality that I would not be going along with Pati to South Africa. I piled brush in an area just 100 yards or so down the main trail, towards signpost #1, that Dick Jenks and I cut last December while tending brush pile fires.

That was a tangled mess and it took me all morning to pile it up.

When I returned to my truck, I was greeted by Jim Davee and he willingly agreed to help me pull garlic mustard by the old hotel site.

I really enjoyed his company and we dug out 3 large bagfuls of the herb/weed and I burned them up with my torch. Ben and Karen Johnson joined us near the Indian Spring and we shared the late afternoon sun.

See you at The Springs!

The Mighty Oaks of Ottawa Lake

Posted on April 12, 2014 by paulmozina

“I got to liberate an oak tree! It felt great.” I was struck when Cameron Barker, a volunteer from the UW-Whitewater environmental group S.A.G.E., said that when introducing himself at the State Natural Areas workday at Little Kestol Prairie.

He was referring to the work he did at the Kettle Moraine Oak Opening back in February and it made me feel as John Nada, the protagonist from the science fiction classic They Live, might have when he encountered another person that could see.

I’ve had that liberating feeling as well these past two weeks cutting buckthorn on the steep hillsides between Ottawa Lake and the campground. Dick Jenks and I started in the area just below the handicap accessible cabin and worked our way south past site #388 to where the bluff gives way to the beach.

We continued this past Wednesday and Friday, working both south and north of the cabin. On the map below, the upper red line represents the area we cleared last year, and the lower line shows where we have cleared this year.

Alfred Korzybski said: “The map is not the territory”, but the bird’s eye view below will help bring it closer to life. Zoom in and note the contrast in water color near the shore. I thought the map was fuzzy there, but it is the surprising emerald color of the water that threw me off.

The views of the lake from the bluff, sans buckthorn, are simply beautiful. I wish I could show you the pictures I took on Wednesday, but I unconsciously deleted them somehow. Below are before and after videos and they do capture some of it.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day with a steady west wind pushing waves across the deep blue center of the lake into the emerald eastern shore.

There are some mighty oaks indeed along the shore and bluff below site #388 and I couldn’t wait to get back there yesterday to finish liberating this regal specimen, which, until Wednesday, had been completely encircled on the north side as well.

The buckthorn look puny compared to the massive oak, but they were huge for their kind.

It’s hard to capture a big tree in a single photo. I’m going to have to learn how to stitch multiple shots together into a panoramic view to do justice.

I then moved to the hillside below campsite #382 to continue the clearing we began in front of the cabin.

There were some massive buckthorns at the base of the hill.

Yes, “I got to liberate an oak tree. It felt great!”

The view from the deck in front of the cabin is glorious; and what a great place to watch birds from! I accidentally deleted the incredibly classic “sun setting over Ottawa Lake” pics I took on Wednesday, so I’ll leave you with the return of garlic mustard instead.

I’m not spraying any poison on the garlic mustard, so I’m hoping you will come out and help pull it.

See you at The Springs!

The Ruby Spring

Posted on April 7, 2014 by paulmozina

Melanie’s brow furrowed focusing energy from her third eye as she studied the weather beaten old sign she found in a closet at the DNR maintenance shop. It was done in the style of the signs at the Scuppernong Springs that she replaced last year with her volunteer trail crew and it read: The Ruby Spring. “Hmmmm…” she thought, “I’ll bet The Buckthorn Man knows where The Ruby Spring is.”

There are stories behind each of the springs you’ll find along the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail and I invite you to share yours on our new Facebook Page. You may have grown up with The Springs like Pete Nielsen or Steve Brasch, or you’ve been coming for a long time, like John and Sue, or Dick and Shirley, or Terry and Lisa. Share your favorite memories and pictures of The Springs on our Facebook timeline.

“Ruby Spring”, “Ruby Spring”, I thought “…is this in the Land of OZ?” Melanie and I made a date to meet with Ron Kurowski, at the Kettle Moraine Natural History Association‘s annual meeting, to learn the story of this spring. The amphitheater at Forest Headquarters was alive with many excited faces and voices when I arrived.

Ben Johnson and Zach Kastern.

Ron Kurowski, retired DNR naturalist, and Chris Mann, owner of Kettle Moraine Land Stewards LLC.

My spiritual father, Mike Fort.

Don Reed, Chief Biologist with the SEWRPC, making opening remarks.

Ron Kurowski and Paul Sandgren, Superintendent of the Kettle Moraine State Forest — Southern Unit drawing lucky numbers.

Matt Zine, a conservation biologist and longtime leader of the State Natural Areas crew in southern Wisconsin, took us for a walk down memory lane, or rather, through an oak savannah landscape, as he explained what God and Man have wrought to put us in the state we are today, and why it is important to understand and take action. Thanks for the great presentation Matt!

It was a pleasure to meet Dan Carter, a member of SEWRC’s environmental planning staff after Matt’s presentation. Ben Johnson joined us and that led to the parking lot, where Dan identified the seed/spore heads of a fern that Ben and Karen found in the wet prairie just west of the Indian Spring. Just then, DNR trail boss, Don Dane, arrived to take me into the inner sanctum of the maintenance facilities to pick up two huge seed bags: one with a dry mesic prairie mix, and the other with a wet prairie mix. Thanks again to Don Dane and Amanda Prange for organizing and leading the seed gathering volunteer workdays!

After Don left, Ben and I wondered if we needed to wet the seed or mix it with anything prior to sowing. I couldn’t reach Don, who was already engaged on a project with the Ice Age Trail Alliance, so we headed back to the amphitheater to get some expert advice. I invited Melanie to join us and we found Ron busy in a back office. He explained that we could just sow the seed as is, and we talked about lightly raking afterwards, and then Ron shared the secret of The Ruby Spring.

After THE PONDS OF THE SCUPPERNONG were drained in the early nineties, the DNR began the slow process of rehabilitating the Scuppernong River stream bed, which had been submerged under 3-5 feet of water for over 100 years and was thus thoroughly silted in with marl. It was quickly apparent that they needed to name the springs to facilitate planning, meeting and, bringing them to life in the mind’s eye.

In the middle of the valley left when the upper pond was drained, they found the largest complex of springs on the property. A red algae made its home there giving the waters a distinct ruby color, hence the name: The Ruby Spring. As the restoration work progressed and the environment changed, the red algae disappeared and the bubbling spring pools located at the end of the observation deck took on an emerald hue, and were rechristened The Emerald Springs. The names evoke ruby slippers and emerald cities for me.

Ben and I headed straight for the sand prairie, aka, the Indian Campground, and began sowing the dry mesic prairie seed at the intersection of the main trail with the spur trail that leads down to the Indian Spring. This is an area where we dug out a lot of spotted knapweed last year and the soil is bare.

The plant below has heretofore escaped my identification skills. I suspected it was an invasive plant, but which one? Ben suggested we send a picture to Dan Carter.

Dan responded quickly that it was motherwort and advised us not to worry too much about it because it will give way to native plants as we introduce them or they re-emerge. It’s not fair to characterize this plant as a weed, which, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson, is: “A plant whose virtues have never been discovered”, given its long history of use as an herb.

We had enough seed to cover a huge area of the sand prairie and it will be exciting to watch the results develop.

Upland/Dry seeds:
Prairie dropseed
Sand dropseed
Rough Blazingstar
Wild rose
Boneset
Prairie smoke

Wet/Prairie mix:
Prairie blazingstar
Brown-eyed susans
Bottle gentian
Blue valarian
Swamp sunflower
Cord grass
Little bluestem
Big bluestem
Compass plant
Prairie dock
Indian plantain

After our labors were done, we went for a walk intending to explore the trail south along the marl pit. Along the way we met Jill Bedford, who works with the Tall Pines Conservancy, and switched gears to give her the grand tour of The Springs. Jill is involved in writing grants to conserve and restore land and it was exciting to hear of all the developments in her world. We got up to the sand prairie just in time to watch the sunset.

My weekend at The Springs was only half over and I returned on Sunday to sow the wet prairie seeds in the many, many burn rings left from our work in the Buckthorn Alley and the Cut-off Trail.

After the last seeds were sown, I returned to the cabin at Ottawa Lake, where Dick Jenks and I cut buckthorn last week, to “mop up” with my brush cutter.

I tried using a little sponge to daub poison on the little buckthorn stubs and it worked pretty well; a lot less waste than if I would have used a sprayer. The view from the deck is really nice.

See you at The Springs!

Adventure in South Africa

Posted on April 3, 2014 by paulmozina

When The Buckthorn Man retired early from the Quiet Company back in February 2012, he made a deal with his mate that he would help her with her business. Pati always dreamed about taking her work as a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® and Anat Baniel Method™ for Children practitioner on the road, and she recently accepted an invitation to work with special needs children in South Africa. I’m going to put my chainsaw down for the month of May and help Pati on her big adventure. We’ll be staying at the beautiful Umtamvuna River Lodge, just upstream from the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of South Africa. We plan on doing a week of touring after 3 weeks of Pati’s intensive work with the children. I can’t wait!

Is it just a coincidence that I was listening to Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs when Pati first heard about the opportunity in South Africa and decided to pursue it? And was it just a coincidence that I listened to Mark Twain’s classic time travel novel, A Connecticut Yankee In King Aurthur’s Court, just prior to embarking on my own trip through time? Think twice before you pick out your next book!

Well, I’m going to get my licks in on the buckthorn that is crowding the hillside on the east shore of Ottawa Lake before I go. Anne Korman, Assistant Superintendent of the Kettle Moraine State Forest–Southern Unit, asked us to focus on the area below the handicap accessible cabin at the Ottawa Lake campground.

I’m trying to learn how to use my Canon G15 camera and accidentally left it on a weird setting, so all of my “before” shots are hopelessly blurry. But, Dick Jenks can back me up when I say there was a lot of nasty buckthorn there.

It was a gorgeous day; perfect for cutting buckthorn! Ben Johnson and I are planning on returning this Saturday with a brush cutter to clear the little stuff and do some piling. The “after” pictures below are of the area around and below the cabin panning from north to south.

I was glad to have Dick Jenks and his dog Zeus there to help!

I had scheduled a week camping at My Shangri-La in April and May, but with the trip to South Africa, I’ll have to wait until August for my next reservation. I’m looking forward to seeing the stars, skies, sunrises and sunsets from the perspective of the southern hemisphere; I’ve never been south of the equator.

From Ottawa Lake I headed over to The Springs to rake out ash rings from all the brush piles we burned. DNR trail boss, Don Dane, is going to give us some seed to sow on the barren soil. He also has seed for the sand prairie that we will be sowing. Is there anything more fun than sowing seed?

I took a nice, meditative, walk after my labors were done.

See you at The Springs!

Geoengineering the Scuppernong

Posted on November 15, 2013 by paulmozina

I love to look at the sky. Big Sky Visions, that’s what draws me out to the Scuppernong River Habitat Area.

Recently I noticed that my vision was blocked, even dimmed, by what I speculated where chemtrails.

Are chemtrails real? My big sky visions were obstructed again the past view days I spent piling brush at Ottawa Lake, to the point where I had to document what I was seeing and try to dissipate the cognitive dissonance clouding my mind. I even called the Waukesha Sheriff’s dispatch asking them to take a look.

When I arrived at the Ottawa Lake entrance on November 13th I noticed some jet contrails in the sky to the south and east, and when I got to the walk-in campsite 335 looking out over the lake to the west and north, I saw the sky full of contrails.

I tried to focus on the task at hand…

… but the contrails fanning out into huge clouds, that significantly blocked the sun’s rays for hours as they drifted south, stirred my response-able-ness and I called the Sheriff. Deputy Spak insisted on coming out to talk with me and arrived a few minutes later with two other sheriff’s deputies in two vehicles. We had a reasonable discussion about it and they provided me with contact information for a DNR Conservation Warden, who I am following up with. They suggested the clouds were “normal” exhaust vapors crystallizing in cold air and I begged to differ as we all conceded that none of us were expert enough to speak with authority on the matter.

I strive to be a reasonable person and the research I have done into this issue over the last few days has helped me understand what I think is the core issue at hand: global dimming. The pollutants we release into the atmosphere are blocking the sun’s rays and, whether the three types of contrails:

) Short-lived, non-persistent contrail (SLNPC),

2) Persistent contrail, non-spreading (PCNS) ,

3) Persistent contrail, spreading (PCS)

discussed here are the result of “normal” jet exhaust vapors or intentional geoengineering, the end result is global dimming. There is robust debate ongoing as to whether or not the contrails we see are normal or, the result of more aggressive solar radiation management techniques, which include dispersing toxic aluminum, barium and strontium into the atmosphere.

I wondered about this as the sun went down over Ottawa Lake.

I love the big sky and returned to Ottawa Lake yesterday to pile more brush. I hadn’t noticed the contrails yet…

… but when I got down to the wetland I saw them again. I wanted to focus on one in particular and see how it evolved.

The winds were blowing strong out of the southwest and the contrail from this jet billowed out into a thick ribbon as it passed over my head.

The long cloud at the top of the picture below is the contrail from the jet shown in the video above.

I pondered the question all day while piling brush until my back started to give out and I was reminded of my old shoulder injury.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence that I received the SHADE motion picture dvd anonymously in the mail a few weeks ago. It looks at geoengineering from a geopolitical perspective.

It would take a miracle for me to prove that the contrails I saw the past few days over the Scuppernong River valley were “normal” or something more sinister. In either case, they did significantly block the sun and I think this impact is unacceptable.

I tried to ignore the contrails in the sunset…

See you at The Springs!

The Calls of the Kettle Moraine Coyotes

Posted on November 4, 2013 by paulmozina

I spent the past week (Oct 27 – Nov 3) at My Shangri-La working at The Springs and enjoying living out-of-doors. There isn’t any real wilderness in these parts but the calls of the local coyotes do evoke wild feelings. Almost every night they made outbursts of yelps, whines, howls and cries; a vocabulary that put the domesticated dogs at the nearby Skydance Kennels to shame (ruff, ruff… ruff, ruff, ruff… ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff etc…). It’s hard to describe the sounds coyotes make, calling them is an art form, and I listened with fascination imagining what they might be communicating to each other.

Pati helped me setup camp on Sunday, staying for wine and dinner as we listened to the Packer game on the radio by the fire. It doesn’t get much better than that! Men playing with balls; the circus that compliments our bread.

Monday morning I got after it cutting all the buckthorn and thinning ironwood and basswood in the area between camp sites 335 and 334 and in the area between site 334 and the pond and wetlands (please substitute Tamarack when I say Larch Pine).

On Tuesday I returned to the area just north of the old barn site to cut buckthorn along the trail to show off the mighty oaks and open the views into the cranberry bog.

Here are before and after videos and pics.

Back at camp hundreds, maybe thousands, of migrating birds filled the air with songs.

Rain was forecast ahead and I wondered when I’d see the sun again.

The clouds rolled in on Wednesday and I got in a full day of brush piling on the northeast side of the trail between signposts #2 and #1 and back further towards the parking lot.

Thursday the rain came and I sharpened my chains under a picnic shelter by Ottawa Lake. Later I delivered the rest of the oak, cherry and hickory I cut to open the views west from the sand prairie to a friend here in Milwaukee, who has a wood burning stove. I’ve certainly wasted a lot of potential firewood in the hundreds of brush piles we’ve burned, but I didn’t want to see this high quality wood go to waste (I’m using it in my campfires as well).

Friday I was back at it again cutting buckthorn on the northeast side of the trail from signpost #2 to #1 and beyond towards the parking lot. I got this view of the finished work on Sunday morning Nov. 3.

I still had some ya yas to get out and on Saturday I went back to the area just north of the old barn site shown on the map above to continue clearing the understory beneath some righteous oaks. Here are some views from north to south along the trail before I got started.

I got this video showing the results of Saturday’s labors on Sunday morning.

Pati came out to enjoy the day and help me pack up. Here are some parting shots of the great fall scenery at The Springs.

The morning view from campsite 334.

Marl pit bridge perspective.

On the cut-off trail.

The edge of the cranberry bog, where I worked on Tuesday and Saturday.

The beautiful Emerald Spring.

The hotel spring area.

The south end of the trail.

The sand prairie.

Scuppernong River views.

I was amazed to see these two railroad ties near signpost #2 that I had reported missing a while back. Did the thieves return them? Have they been laying here all this time without me noticing? Now all we need to do is lift them back into place.

There is an unmaintained trail along the east shore of Ottawa Lake that leads to the north end of the property where springs north of Hwy 67 flow into a little pond and eventually into the lake. Here are some views of where this stream merges into the wetlands. You can see campsites 334 and 335 in the second shot.

Late afternoon Tamaracks, which I thought were Larch Pines, as seen from site 334.

Ottawa Lake sunset.

See you at The Springs!

My Shangri-La

Posted on October 9, 2013 by paulmozina

The walls were closing in on me when I left Milwaukee on September 19th and I hoped a little camping adventure at Ottawa Lake would provide some breathing space. The serendipitous discovery of a little Shangri-La at the Ottawa Lake Campground walk-in sites #335-334 will bring me joy for years to come.

I had been camping at Whitewater Lake for the first 3 nights of the trip and met Pati there on Sunday morning. We visited the Whitewater Prairie

and took a hike on the Ice Age Trail

and then she offered to help me setup camp at Ottawa Lake. Lindsay and Connie joined us shortly after with a bottle of wine to compliment Pati’s and we got the dinner and the fire started.

Lindsay and I squinted through the wall of buckthorn blocking the view to Ottawa Lake and I was determined to cut a corridor through it the very next day. “Cut it all!” Lindsay exclaimed. Pati called it my Shangri-La, and with The Springs right across Hwy ZZ it definitely qualifies as a mystical, harmonious, earthly paradise; I could definitely be permanently happy there!

Here is the view from site #335 as I was just getting started.

And after…

I harvested a downed red oak for firewood

and enjoyed many nights playing guitar by the fire as the music passed through me like the wind.

When I wasn’t cutting buckthorn or sharpening my chains I did a little sight seeing of a couple of nearby sand prairies and got in a few yoga asanas at the marl pit bridge. I hit a stretch of phenomenal weather; warm, sunny days and dark, starry nights.

I don’t know what this plane was spraying; that is not a normal contrail.

I returned to site #335 for 5 more nights the following week and was fortunate that no one was camping at site #334, the other walk-in site, so I had the opportunity to cut the buckthorn blocking the views of this site too. Here is how it looked before I got started.

and after.

I followed the trail that runs along the east side of Ottawa Lake north past site #334 and found this crystal clear stream flowing from the spring that is on the North/East side of Hwy 67, across from the Sky Dance dog kennels. This is yet another spring source ultimately feeding the Scuppernong River.