January 19th, 2025
Today was my first time going back to Salmon Hole since 2024. My friend Marina and I made the trek through the cold to complete the first project of the second semester. The first thing that we noticed was that, since it was a lot colder this time, the river had mostly frozen. The ice was actually pretty thick at some parts!
When I arrived at my spot, it looked mostly the same except that all of the woody understory plants’ leaves were now brown. I didn’t see any green buckthorn leaves this time.
The only plants that were not shriveled were grassy/weedy understory plants and Asiatic bittersweet.
Marina and I also found plenty of animal tracks at and near my spot at Salmon Hole. We tried to identify them and found it pretty hard since the snow was old and the prints were therefore somewhat faded. Here are our best attempts:
Though there were plenty of animal tracks, there were no animals to be seen, consistent with my last visit. I still didn’t see any chipmunks, and the hollow tree where I had previously seen one seemed empty.
One change from my last post is that I don’t recall hearing birds singing this time. Overall, I think the bitter winter cold has driven most animals into their hiding places (apart from the occasional mammal), shriveled the remaining leaves of woody plants, and frozen the river more than I’ve seen before.
This was a fun and freezing visit to Salmon Hole! See you next time!
