Woods Journal 1
I've done a few hikes in the Wright State Campus trails, but taking hikes led by someone who has some knowledge about the woods is so nice. It is more than just hiking and experiencing nature, but also learning more about its place history.
Dr. Jennings led our first hike and things that I noticed were a lot of spiderwebs that were perfectly round. Of course, we only noticed the ones that the sun revealed to us, who knows how many more we missed. When the sun hit them, they looked like silver compact discs just hanging in midair. After our hike, I researched what kind of spider might make these (even though I really hate spiders, I was curious) and found that these must be orb weavers, but I'm not sure which kind. Another thing we noticed many of were different types of fungus, of which I had to stop and take pictures of so I can identify later. We saw turkey tail, white polypore and some orange mycena. My favorite of these were the orange mycena, they were the most interesting looking and I liked how they were in a small cluster together. All of these fungi were found living on fallen trees on the forest floor, which is quite common. |
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Our second class hike we had a guest speaker, Dr. Rooney who now works for the Nature Conservancy in Ohio. Dr. Rooney, being a biology professor for many years, was great at pointing out plants to us. One in particular being the spice bush, which we were able to taste if we wanted to. Oddly enough, we all got varying senses of what the bush might be, ranging from cinnamon to ginger, but we were all close! He pointed out different tree species: Hackberry, Red Oak, White Oak, White Ash (which is on the verge of going extinct) and a strange plant called ‘dolls eyes’, which were these white looking berries, which I believe he said are poisonous.
A very interesting part of the hike was of the two cemeteries that we have on campus. The first being from the original Rockafield family homestead who actually lived on and farmed the land before it was bought and developed as Wright State University. The interesting thing he said was that once the cemetery was established there, it established a time in which the land changed from being wild to inhabited; man left his mark there. The second cemetery was established by the Wright State School of Medicine for the burial of those who donated their bodies to science through the anatomical gift program.
Two other notable things from the hike was during a time when Dr. Rooney was talking to us about the creek, he was interrupted by a loud knocking woodpecker. It was loud enough that he stopped talking and the conversation turned to woodpeckers. The other notable information was about the creek there, and that Dr. Rooney said it needs to have some intervention because since the land has not been managed properly, it floods and causes erosion which continues to widen the creek area. If nothing is done about it, it will continue to expand and erode away the direct on both sides of the creek.
I think we are fortunate to have the campus woods and trails for everyone to enjoy because it has many facets to it and is used by many.
I think we are fortunate to have the campus woods and trails for everyone to enjoy because it has many facets to it and is used by many.
Woods Journal 2
Prairie Hike
This hike was nothing short of amazing, ask anyone who was there that day, I think we all felt that it was special. The weather was perfect, and Dr. Jennings guided us along the trail that started out at the bird blind and we hiked all the way back to the prairie on the north edge of the woods. We crossed the creek (where Dr. Rooney told us about water management and erosion, and we saw the woodpecker last time) and continued until we came to a clearing. The prairie was overall a golden yellow, especially against the beautiful blue sky with puffy clouds. There were many kinds of wildflowers: goldenrod, purple coneflower, ironweed, teasels, knapweed, Canadian wild rye, carrotseed (Queen Anne's Lace), blue asters, alum root seeds, and thistles just to name a few. I think this stretch of prairie looks like a yellow stream flowing between two sections of forest. I wish we had more of these areas around, where native plants were allowed to grow freely. These areas are great habitats for many species and also a great source of foods and protective area for birds.
This hike was nothing short of amazing, ask anyone who was there that day, I think we all felt that it was special. The weather was perfect, and Dr. Jennings guided us along the trail that started out at the bird blind and we hiked all the way back to the prairie on the north edge of the woods. We crossed the creek (where Dr. Rooney told us about water management and erosion, and we saw the woodpecker last time) and continued until we came to a clearing. The prairie was overall a golden yellow, especially against the beautiful blue sky with puffy clouds. There were many kinds of wildflowers: goldenrod, purple coneflower, ironweed, teasels, knapweed, Canadian wild rye, carrotseed (Queen Anne's Lace), blue asters, alum root seeds, and thistles just to name a few. I think this stretch of prairie looks like a yellow stream flowing between two sections of forest. I wish we had more of these areas around, where native plants were allowed to grow freely. These areas are great habitats for many species and also a great source of foods and protective area for birds.
Also, on this hike, we found several different types of fungi: puffball, stubby brittle gill, blackfooted polypore and some oyster fungus. My favorite pic is this one of the stubby brittle gill, and I could have stayed around taking pictures of these all day long!
But that isn't the best part yet! Several times on this hike, Dr. Jennings had pointed out Pawpaw trees and talked about Pawpaw fruits, but so far, we'd not been successful in finding any. We were almost done with our hike when we came across a stand of Pawpaw trees and Dr. Jennings found one on the ground. I looked up to see a cluster of 4 of them in a tall tree. Josh was able to use my litter stick to help prompt them to fall down and we were able to gather them up. Someone was brave enough to try one right then and there and we all decided to pass them around and sample a bite of them. It was an amazing fruit! It has a very soft skin, which damages easily, which is why we decided to eat them then. One of them had broken open slightly when it hit the ground. They tasted very good, it was a smooth texture, much like a banana but it also had the flavor of a mango. I can't believe in all of my years on this earth (which is quite a few), I'd never seen or tasted a Paw Paw before - I didn't even know that they grew in our area. All I'd ever heard of them was in a song about a paw-paw patch.
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Black-footed Polypore
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Lastly, speaking of things I hadn't experienced before, right around where we found the Pawpaws, Christian had spotted a snake just hanging out in a tree! I'd just said (to my kids) the day before that I am always seeing people post about seeing snakes and I'd blissfully never seen one. Well, it's no wonder because even when they told me where this snake was at, it took me forever to actually 'see' it. I believe it is an Eastern Garter snake, and I actually think it is very cute. Luckily for us, we don't have very many poisonous snakes around here, so it wasn't anything to be concerned about. It was really interesting that it was about 3' off of the ground, curled up on some branches - I didn't know that they would just sit in trees. All in all, this was a great hike and I felt like there was a lot of camaraderie amongst our whole class. Everyone is generally excited to find and share new things and I think it's brought us closer as a class. I think this one could be our class mascot.
Woods Journal 3
Meditation Hike
This was a really special hike for me as we were led by Dr. Marie Thompson on a guided meditation hike. She spoke to us about learning to listen to our bodies more, especially our 'gut instinct', more than our brains. This is something that we have gotten away from as a people, listening to our instincts. She talked to us before hiking about being quiet and listening, observing the woods around us: sights, sounds, smells.
We took a short walk in silence, to a clearing where two paths intersected. Shortly before we got there, we started two white-tailed deer; they bounded off with their tails bouncing as they went. I was kind of surprised at how long (tall) their tails were because they seemed very high in the air. I think we got closer to them than we usually would have as a group, because we were not talking.
Once we reached the clearing, she asked us to spread out and find a comfortable place to do a 10-15 minute meditation. There were logs lining the paths in all 3 directions, so we had plenty of places to sit down. It had rained overnight, so she offered plastic bags if we wanted to sit on that to help keep ourselves dry. Here Dr. Thompson guided us on a meditation of relaxation and awareness. I closed my eyes and found a comfortable position with my arms resting gently on my knees and my palms were open and facing up. As we meditated, I became aware of the coolness in the air which felt good on my skin. It had been very warm the day before and I was hot in the office all day, so I welcomed this cool down.
Feeling the wind on my arms was very nice and comforting. I felt completely safe there and kept my eyes closed for the most part. One time, I started hearing something hitting leaves and I thought it was starting to rain, so I opened my eyes to see. It wasn't rain after all, but the gentle breeze was bringing down leaves. As they were hitting the ground, they sounded like raindrops. I was also curious, since we were so quiet if the deer might come back (or others might pass through), but they did not.
Once our meditation was over, she had us go around and mention something we had felt, seen, heard or observed during the meditation. Things mentioned were:
This experience was very nice and even though I hike a lot, and I also meditate, I had never done a meditation in the woods. I want to change that and make this something I do more often. It gave me the feeling of being one with nature, not separate from it.
We took a short walk in silence, to a clearing where two paths intersected. Shortly before we got there, we started two white-tailed deer; they bounded off with their tails bouncing as they went. I was kind of surprised at how long (tall) their tails were because they seemed very high in the air. I think we got closer to them than we usually would have as a group, because we were not talking.
Once we reached the clearing, she asked us to spread out and find a comfortable place to do a 10-15 minute meditation. There were logs lining the paths in all 3 directions, so we had plenty of places to sit down. It had rained overnight, so she offered plastic bags if we wanted to sit on that to help keep ourselves dry. Here Dr. Thompson guided us on a meditation of relaxation and awareness. I closed my eyes and found a comfortable position with my arms resting gently on my knees and my palms were open and facing up. As we meditated, I became aware of the coolness in the air which felt good on my skin. It had been very warm the day before and I was hot in the office all day, so I welcomed this cool down.
Feeling the wind on my arms was very nice and comforting. I felt completely safe there and kept my eyes closed for the most part. One time, I started hearing something hitting leaves and I thought it was starting to rain, so I opened my eyes to see. It wasn't rain after all, but the gentle breeze was bringing down leaves. As they were hitting the ground, they sounded like raindrops. I was also curious, since we were so quiet if the deer might come back (or others might pass through), but they did not.
Once our meditation was over, she had us go around and mention something we had felt, seen, heard or observed during the meditation. Things mentioned were:
- wind/breezes
- leaves falling
- sounds of bugs trilling/humming
- smell of leaves/rotting vegetation
- the feel of our clothes, sometimes as a restriction
- sound of traffic (airplanes and cars) but some didn't notice these at all (as with the bug noises)
This experience was very nice and even though I hike a lot, and I also meditate, I had never done a meditation in the woods. I want to change that and make this something I do more often. It gave me the feeling of being one with nature, not separate from it.
