The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
Most of my wandering in nature is along beaches or out on the water, where paths are irrelevant. In the woods or cross-country however, paths - aka trails - are essential or I'll get lost unless I want to explore. Bushwacking can be fun or hair-raising, depending on the situation, but getting somewhere isn't generally the main point. Usually I'm on my way to a site, or walking to see what's along the way, and that means using a path. They come in all kinds.
All of us nature-lovers use paths specific to the kind of countryside we want to trek through. Some of us even construct paths (kudos, PHScott!). I think it would be fun to share the paths we know. I'll kick it off with some in my neighborhood, and some out on the Olympic peninsula, where I'm headed tomorrow for a few days.
Paths can be super civilized, like this boardwalk down to the Turn Pt lighthouse in the San Juan Islands. Even has a railing. Lots of traffic here, a historical site in a dramatic setting.
At the other end of the spectrum, paths can be barely passable, but still used because the alternative is worse (in this case dense rainforest). This is part of the path out to a beach on the Olympic peninsula. In winter especially you better wear boots, although I've seen folks go barefoot to avoid ruining hiking boots or tenny runners.
A few more, in between...
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge)
In open meadows, paths form as people find the easiest route across the irregular land:
In the woods, a path takes on a more definite route. Here, brush that can get head-high is regularly trimmed back:
Some paths are downsized old roads:
In a less frequented part of the site above, the trees and shrubs have formed a tunnel through the woods:
Out on the Olympic peninsula the drenching rainfall creates lush forests that are constantly changing. Trees lean and fall over paths. One name for such unstable trees is widow-maker.
That path has been graded with gravel to some extent at least. Many others are at the mercy of the deluges of rainfall and become streambeds instead. This section of path has been getting deeper and deeper over the years:
In the olden days, getting down the 100' cliff to the beach at this site required scrambling straight down and up through ferns, salal and devil's club. These days, there's a suggestion of switchbacks, and even a rope to hold. Tree roots are notorious for tripping you up, but they also make handy steps sometimes:
To avoid mud and washouts, some paths have constructions to ease the way. The switchbacks down this hillside are lined with boxes of gravel. There are even gaps to direct runoff. I can't even imagine the labor it must have taken to bring all the gravel miles into the woods.
Boardwalks come in many forms. This one is split cedar. Western Redcedar is native to these woods and resists rotting extremely well:
The stump along this path is an old Redcedar, logged in the frenzy of clearcutting during the last century. I suspect the path was planned to pass by this giant stump. Hard not to be impressed and think about what the forests must have been like back when. Paths are not just to get somewhere. The walk itself reveals worlds of nature, history, and much more.
One last photo. This is a path newly formed across the flank of Mt. St. Helens about 15 years after a pyroclastic flow wiped every living thing from that side of the mountain. This scene is a bit of nostalgia for me: I was carrying a backpack with a week's worth of supplies for a hike all the way around the mountain above the tree line. I'm no longer able to carry heavy things or sleep on the ground, so I'm very happy I did that when I could. Someone else will have to report back how much more the vegetation has recovered on that slope these days, 20 years later.
Don't forget, when you come to a fork in the path....
What paths and trails have you known in your travels in nature?
And of course, the Bucket is open as always for your observations of nature in your part of the world.
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