I headed over to the trail this morning to see what damage might have resulted from last Friday's storm event. Thanks to our great trail volunteers - they were cutting trees that had fallen across the trail - and most of the trail is easily passable. However, I hiked on the east side of Reids Creeks so that the morning sun would be at my back, and this side of the creek is off-trail. At least four trees were down blocking this side of the creek. After negotiating around the first two trees, the third one was impassable. I had already hiked around the first two trees in chest high vegetation that was full of thorns and ticks, and deep holes from previous nursery trees were overgrown and difficult to see without stepping into them. Negotiating around the third tree was more than I wanted to attempt, so I found waist high vegetation by the small pond and made my way to route 627. I hiked down to the second wooden bridge to see if I could come back a ways on the east side of the creek, but saw a fourth tree down about 100 feet in, and I abandoned the idea, crossed the bridge, and headed back on the west side. I ended up with 24 species in about 2 hours.

Eastern Meadowlark