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I had originally scoffed at the thought that going home over break would be like going penologically back in time. When I got off the plane in DC however, it seemed that this was exactly what had happened. Most of the trees still have their leaves and many trees, like the silver linden trees lining my street are still green. These Norway maple trees at the entrance to a trailhead were especially vibrantly colored, a surprise after noticing that maples were among the first trees in Vermont to change color.

This morning I went on a hike with my mom and dog in Rock Creek Park and I was shocked by how much I was able to learn from this hike on trails that I have traversed countless times growing up. For instance, I realized that Rock Creek Park was likely a much older growth forest than what I had encountered in Vermont. Unlike the forests of Vermont, Rock Creek Park was never significantly deforested. When the city of DC was established as the capital in 1790, a very small section of the current 10 mile square city was actually developed. Where I live and where Rock Creek Park is now located was then considered to be a suburb. Therefore, the current park land was relatively unobstructed for several decades. During the Civil War, the development of forts surrounding the city led to some deforestation yet the destruction was insignificant compared to the forests of Vermont that were cleared for farming at about the same time. This is all evident in the tree composition and in the short hike I took, I came across many large oaks that were easily larger than 50 inches in diameter. After learning so much about the blight of American beech trees in Vermont, I was shocked to find so many mature beech trees in my home forest, easily comprising the majority of both the canopy and understory.

In 1890, Rock Creek Park became one of the first federally managed parks and today the National Park Service manages all 1700 acres of this park right in the center of the nation’s capital. From a wildlife biologist’s perspective, I am sure the park’s ecosystems would be considered very poor. Deer populations have spun out of control and are often the only wildlife to be found when hiking. The park land is extremely fragmented surrounding neighborhood developments and bisected by roads. Currently Beach Drive, a road running straight through the park is under a three year renovation making traffic nightmarish while also likely harming the wildlife. My hike went down Beach Drive this morning and while it seems as though the city is careful to reduce impact by lining the creek with sandbags, the construction will likely still cause harm.

From the perspective of the National Park Service however, Rock Creek Park is ideal. It is incredibly well used forested land right in the middle of a culturally diverse urban setting. Growing up several blocks from Rock Creek Park, trailheads nurtured my love of the natural world from a young age and I doubt I would be pursuing a career as an environmental scientist without it.

Rock Creek is tremendously different from my place on Lone Rock Point. The tree composition here is much less diverse, mainly composed of northern red oaks and American beech trees (outside of the park however there is huge diversity in tree species, with nearly each city street housing a different genus). Conifers dominate on Lone Rock Point yet here they are incredibly difficult to find. While the park is composed of small hills and ravines, Lone Rock Point is flat. The bedrock geology of the two places derives from different geographical histories and of course the bodies of water provide distinct ecosystem services entirely. 

Rock Creek and Lone Rock Point are entirely different ecological phenomenas yet they each manage to fulfill the needs of their surrounding communities appropriately.

(Original Photographs Copyright Colby Bosley-Smith, 2016)

A poem is never sufficient. 
Nothing written can ever truly capture 
The experience. 
It’s like a photo in that way. 
The lighting will never be
Quite perfect, 
The breadth of view will never be 
Quite wide enough.

A poem will never 
Truly capture 
The wind rustling 
through the trees, 
The waves beating
The rocky shore, 
The geese headed 
South for winter.
 
In a photo the 
Fall leaves will never be glowing 
Quite as brilliantly, 
As they do in real life. 
The colors and hues 
Muted and dull in comparison. 

Neither can video 
Grasp the joy and fatigue 
In walking four miles 
To the point.
Or the 
Stillness 
Of the final destination. 

A story cannot begin 
To describe the 
Wonder and 
Excitement 
In finding something new and changed. 
The sense of 
Peace and 
Restoration 
That lingers on the
Walk back. 

Words and photos are 
Nothing more than 
Letters, 
Blurred colors, 
A mere 
Representation. 

No, the true 
Experience 
Comes from sitting 
There. 
Looking out over the 
Lake, 
Breathing in the 
Ever-changing scents, 
Listening to 
Everything and 
Nothing 
At the same time. 

The true experience 
Comes from 
Presence. 
This poem is 
Only 
An interpretation. 

It is Halloween on Lone Rock Point! On my walk down the signs of this holiday were everywhere. The bus I took downtown was all decked out with back ravens and spooky noises and front lawns were littered with carved pumpkins.

Down on the point, the signs of the holiday were much less evident and it was just any other chilly fall day. Given as only a week had passed since I was here last, I expected to have trouble observing many changes. Change however was much more evident than expected. When I first entered the forest, I thought the leaf colors had changed tremendously. I remembered being welcomed by a bright orange color the week before but what I was looking at now seemed much more brown and faded.

This Week

Last Week

The lack of vibrancy of the colors may have merely been a result of the cloudy day after a weekend of incessant rain. What I realized on the walk back however was that the tree composition was layered. The layers of forest  are clearly mapped out in the diagram below from Burlington Geographic. My hike in involves entering the point from the beach (tip of the purple section on the south end of the map) and walking though the turquoise section labeled as White Pine – Transition Northern Hardwood Forest. Next I walk on the edge of the yellow Old Field section emerging into the dark blue Mesic Oak – Hickory – Northern Hardwood Forest. The final destination is the light purple Lake Bluff Cedar – Pine Forest.  My observations of the phenological changes of these layers are below.

Natural Communities of Lone Rock Point (Burlington Geographic)

When you first enter the trail from Lone Rock Point, the dominant tree species are oaks. At this point the oaks were beginning to turn brownish red colors.

Further in, the yellow colors of Norway maples were the most prominent and the eastern white pines were losing some needles, caught in the branches of the other trees. The sugar maples in this area were past peak, littering the ground.

There is a very drastic shift in the composition towards the edge of the point as conifers become dominant, particularly northern white cedars. This area looks mostly the same week to week, staying green through the winter. The northern white cedars had shed some of their old needles the week earlier and were now mostly green.

Perhaps the most obvious change was in the water. There was a white strip of foam in the lake that stretched about 100 yards. This may be the product of pollution but it is odd that the foam is all concentrated in a strip.

When I arrived at my spot, I was feeling very impatient and was frustrated when I saw no wildlife. After sitting and observing for a while however I heard a lone goose honking over the lake and spotted a bluejay and a bunch of chickadees were flying around in the canopy of the taller eastern white pines. Several mallard ducks were paddling around in the lake and a squirrel scurried around in the underbrush. Like the week before, there was a flock of gulls hanging around North Beach on my walk back. It is amazing how signs of wildlife appear when they are least expected and not sought out.

(Original Photographs Copyright Colby Bosley-Smith, 2016)

I bundled up for the cool blustery 40°F weather before journeying down to my place after my Monday morning chemistry lecture. This time I experimented with taking the bus which saved a lot of time but was not nearly as fun as walking. Along the way, I thought a lot about the diversity of habitats that the larger area surrounding my place provides. For instance, walking along North Beach I was struck by the number of squirrels that were diligently collecting acorns from the oaks along the beach. At the edge of the beach there was a flock of gulls looking out towards the Adirondacks across the lake. A small group of ducks floated by further out in the water.

A squirrel sits at the base of a white oak.

Gulls wade in the edge of the lake.

The trail leading to the end of Lone Rock Point meanders past a meadow in which I heard and later saw many small birds. With help from bird identification guides I suspect that I saw a house sparrow, blue jay, black-capped chickadee and alder flycatcher while walking by.

Lone Rock Point is also characterized by both deciduous and coniferous forests. When I first entered the trail I was immediately surprised by how yellow everything was. On my earlier visit, the leaves were just beginning to change color and the forest was patterned with reds, yellows oranges and greens. Now however, the leaves we past peak, actively yellowing and falling off. As I walked the decomposing leaves were deep enough that they kicked up around my feet.

After learning about them in lecture, I was on the lookout for evidence of a red pileated woodpecker. I came across many trees that had deep woodpecker holes and on my walk back through the North Beach campground I found one!

Down at the edge of Lone Rock Point I returned to where I had sat last time and considered what had changed. The bright orange leaves on the northern white cedar that I observed on my last visit now had dulled in vibrancy and fallen off. The common buckthorn tree growing close by had also lost many of it’s leaves and was transitioning towards dormancy for the winter months.               

Before I left, I ventured down to the thrust fault. Once there, I sat mesmerized for a few minutes by the waves lapping up against the rocks. The blueish colored shale pebbles and rock outcropping stood out as a predominant feature of the rocky beach.

Once again, I would have loved to explore more of the niches of Lone Rock Point but homework pressured me back to campus. I am eager to return in a few weeks however and see what has changed!

(Original Photographs Copyright Colby Bosley-Smith, 2016)

I took a walk down to visit my place on Lone Rock Point on October 8th, 2016. It was a brisk cool day for a walk and the fall leaves were spectacular.
  
Getting there was a bit more difficult than I was expecting as construction on the Burlington Bike Path meant I had to take the detour down North Avenue. I enjoyed the extra long walk however as it meant I could spend more time outside exercising on such a pretty day.

View of the lake from North Ave.

Once there, I had no regrets that I had picked a place so far away. I was initially compelled to choose Lone Rock Point as it gave me a chance to get off campus and was the perfect combination of forest and lake. I had visited the week before and absolutely fell in love with the rugged cedar bluffs that characterize this location. The views of the Adirondacks across the lake and the changing leaf colors made it very picturesque. This spot combined everything I love, mountains, water and forest so I knew I would be eager to return every few weeks.

View of Lone Rock Point from North Beach.

This area has very sparse plant vegetation. Everything that grows here has to be able to survive with very limited soil depths. Cedars and buckthorn therefore are dominant, growing right out of the rock.

A scraggly young cedar tree grows on a rock outcropping.

Away from the cliffs, another cedar grows directly on top of a rock, its roots stretching for soil.

In some areas, moss covers the rocks and patches of short grass also persist. Away from the rocks, the surficial soil is crumbly, composed of decaying plant matter. Directly below this layer is a very compact layer of fine soil covering the bedrock.

Photo of the soil found in this area.

A cedar grows on a rock covered in moss.

According to the University of Vermont’s department of geology, the rock outcropping at Lone Rock Point is part of the Champlain Thrust, where rocks of the Cambrian Period were pushed up into rocks of the Ordovician Period more than 400 million years ago. The dusty golden brown rocks visible today are shales from these two time periods.

As previously mentioned, this area is a cedar bluff. I found two types of cedar growing here, Eastern Red Cedar and Northern White Cedar. Intermingled within the cedars were many invasive buckthorn trees. These were the only types of vegetation found growing directly from the rock with very little soil support.

Northern White Cedar displaying brilliant shades of fall orange color.

Common Buckthorn

Eastern Red Cedar

Many of the cedars had visible, sprawling roots and they were very intricate in their shape. Here are a few of the living trees that I found most fascinating:

I did not come across much animal life on this trip. In the lake there were a few ducks and geese but I was unable to get close enough to tell what species they were. One dead tree had evidence of termite occupation:

People were also scarce and I only came across a few hikers. Fire pits as well as litter along the rocks however, were signs that human visitors are not uncommon.

I could have spent the entire day in this place looking out over the lake, taking pictures of autumn leaf colors and just simply relaxing. It is amazing how refreshing going out into a place in nature, secluded from other people can be. I was relinquished from my stresses and was able to walk back with a clear mind.

(Original Photographs Copyright Colby Bosley-Smith, 2016)