January 16 2014 Ramble Report

This post was written by Don Hunter. I selected a few of his photographs from his Flickr sets to accompany his narrative; you can find them here.

Twenty Ramblers, including several very welcome new folks, gathered at the Visitor Center parking lot on the afternoon of January 16 for a Ramble on what turned out to be a beautiful and surprisingly comfortable afternoon.  Both the Sun and everyone’s spirits

Cold? No -- just a little chilly

were high and bright as the group headed off from the parking lot for today’s Ramble, organized by Don, Dale and Emily.  The main areas of concentration today were lichens, fungi and liverworts.  We left the parking lot and headed down the path towards the International Bridge, then on to the Purple Trail.  At the river, we headed left on the Orange Trail and followed it around the Beaver Pond to the foot bridge across the creek, where, after a short walk past the bridge, we viewed liverworts in the stream and a budding Round Lobed Hepatica.  We then returned to the bridge and headed up the trail to the Flower Garden and on back to the Visitor Center.  The following narrative is a detailed description of the various interesting things viewed on the Ramble.  Also included are several things not viewed on the Ramble but were observed earlier on the same route in preparation for the Ramble and are worth sharing.