Day 3.251: Wolf Creek

This morning we continued our occasional series of visits to the various preserves owned by the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy. Previously we had visited Bennett Hill and Phillipinkill, today it was the turn of Wolf Creek Falls Preserve.

As is the way with these properties, if you didn't know it was there you could drive right past it. In fact, even though we knew exactly where it was, we drove past the entrance to the small parking lot on Bozenkill Road in Altamont.  Fortunately, the road was sufficiently deserted for us to reverse enough to make the turn.

We did a circular walk taking in the length of the creek served by the trails. The creek itself was almost dry (much appreciated for fording it, less so for the impressiveness of the 'falls'), but the woodland was charming and full of interest.

Dry stone walls were evidence of the life of this land before the woodland reclaimed it -it was a sheep farm in the 19th century, providing wool to the felt mill at what is now the Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville.

There were lots of things to catch our eyes along the way - a few flowers still in bloom in these dying days of summer, along with plenty of berries.  There were fungi in many shapes and sizes and these three interesting animals.  The frog is a wood frog and was so well camouflaged I still don't know how Exile #3 spotted it as we walked along the trail.  The spider is a marbled orb weaver - who knew spiders could be so brightly coloured?  Finally, the eastern newt (a kind of salamander) is something we've seen before but never this close to home.

The pictures are in a set in Flickr if you want a closer look.