In Pursuit of Wonder

May 18, 2023

After spending the whole afternoon helping the DNR with a turtle project and having an amazing time, I wasn’t quite ready to go into the house just yet and decided to use the time off from afternoon/evening milking to go looking for mushrooms in the woods. Maybe I would find morels on the other side of the highway. Instead of turning off onto our farm road, I kept driving down the highway. I parked the car alongside the road, near our property line. Before I entered the woods, I saw a huge, beautiful dryad’s saddle mushroom on a cut stump. Unfortunately it was too tough to be edible. I took a photo and then ducked into the woods. I marveled at the thickness of wild ginger plants. They are so fascinating. The woods appeared more and more green every time I visited them. Most of the tree leaves were fully grown now. I was glad to see lots of maple saplings. A healthy forest has both old trees and young saplings. There were several plants I didn’t know, regrettably, but was excited to see ones I could identify. A few wild geraniums grew here and there, some with and some without blossoms. One of these purple blossoms had two bees collecting its pollen and nectar. I didn’t examine them too closely but I think they were either orchard or mason bees. Other geranium plants had dainty buds. I had walked across an old road bed, barely recognizable, completely covered in these plants. I love it for its history; it is made of stone. The right side is steep and drops into a deep ravine. Looking down into it is dizzying. 

I ambled up a steep bluff slope, out of breath. My feet slipped in the loose, exposed soil. Last year’s leaves carpet the ground. Tufts of grass grow close together but not thick like a lawn or prairie. Logs, fallen trees and branches lie here and there along the slope and on top of the bluff. The light appears green, this is a dull emerald world as the sun sinks lower in the sky. I pass along exposed rock as I climb upwards. Roots stick up out of the earth, having the appearance of steps. I look at every bit of gray or gold on the ground, hoping to spot a morel. The bluff to my left is expansive, and continues to climb upward. On my right, in places the slope drops away and is nearly vertical, a long fall down to the highway. 

The further westward I walk and climb, the more treacherous the slope to my right, and the steeper and more enclosed the trail becomes. Small, shrubby trees grow thickly and reach out to grab me. I duck under and brush aside branches as I proceed. My hair was pulled several times. I paused to enjoy a beautiful red orange columbine blossom. The deer trail is steep and goes along the bluff edge at this point, so I had to continue with caution. Around a bend the slope opens up, a valley on the bluff. Ostrich ferns speckle the forest floor. Their fronds lend a delicate touch to the landscape. I am far up the bluff and yet the top still towers above me. Since rounding the bend, my heading was northward. A deep and dangerous ravine sliced down the bluff in front of me. – Hello, old friend. We meet again. – I had come very close to falling into this ravine last time, while trying to come back down it on the other side. Probably the closest I have come to serious injury or death in my wanderings in the woods. I needed to be more careful this time. The ravine bottom is a series of exposed bedrock, not exactly stair stepping down the bluff, with lots of logs here and there. I slowly picked my way down into the ravine and across it. With aid from trees, I climbed with great difficulty, the nearly vertical side out. (I realized I forgot to tell my husband I was in the woods and where. I need to be more careful about letting people know where I am going; cell phone service in these woods is spotty.) 

I followed deer paths up and around the knoll of the bluff, checking out some of the trees. This place is pretty cool but challenging to get to. I also wasn’t quite sure of where the property line is in here. I paid close attention to where I was in relation to the ravine. Not because I was worried about getting lost but to keep track of landmarks. I had almost given up on finding morels when I spotted one. I looked more closely and saw several more. I picked the best ones. And searched the area thoroughly for more. I headed back, going further up, inward, on the bluff rather than close to the edge. Crossing the ravine again was scary. I tried a different spot to crawl down, holding on to trees. It went a bit better than last time. Getting up the other side wasn’t too bad, I slipped a couple of times but then adjusted my course to more stable ground. Again, I didn’t quite go back in the same way but further up and in on the bluff. I saw a patch of fur on the ground among pieces of bark. I drew near to investigate. A tiny raccoon was curled up sleeping. Not much bigger than a month old kitten. I wondered about it. Did its mother know where it was? Is it ok? It was clearly breathing as its body would inflate and then deflate. But will it survive here? I wanted so desperately to pick it up and put it in a tree, ideally in a hole in the tree. However, I knew that I could easily make the situation worse for the baby raccoon if I intervened. So, I left it be and hoped its mother would be along soon. I went up and over the bluff, cutting off quite a bit of time by traversing a less steep and more open part of the woods. I enjoyed the trees immensely and the other woodland plants I observed but couldn’t identify. I kept looking for morels but not slowing my pace too much. Before long, I returned to the car. 

I drove down the road a little further, I wanted to look in another part of the woods. The bluff here is very steep. I had to use trees to pull myself up. The only morels I found were old and spent, no longer delicious. My feet slipped in the leaf litter several times. I enjoy this kind of challenge but I was losing the light and growing very tired from a long day of walking and climbing. I decided to quit before I became more clumsy and tired. 

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