Foraging and Educating
There were some rainy days last week, which reduced usage on our hiking trails a bit. On the bright side, the wet weather in June has been good for mushrooms and berries. I have found quite a few yellow chanterelle mushrooms, wild strawberries, and some red raspberries. I have also been harvesting cattail spikes, the immature male flowers of cattails, which taste like little corn cobs when boiled for a few minutes and served with butter and salt. We had a nice dinner last night of sautéed chanterelles, onions, peppers and garlic with fresh asparagus and pork chops cooked in a milk gravy accompanied by boiled cattail spikes.
The 7 Lakes Education and Outreach Team spent two days at Camp Tracy and used our new floating classroom to get about 100 campers, counselors, and staff from Camp Tracy out on McGrath Pond to learn about lakes and conduct some hands-on lake science. Additionally, there were some land-based programs about aquatic plants and invertebrates. Check out the picture below of campers looking over Lake Scientist Matt Farragher’s shoulder to see a projection of the microscope magnifying the zooplankton the kids had just collected in a plankton net. You can see the excitement in their faces. For more information and pictures from this highly successful event, check out the 7 Lakes website.
I did get out hiking at Mt. Phillip for a bit and met Whitney and Charlie Wheeler hiking with their dog Gunner. They are from the Keene, NH area but have a camp at Crystal Springs, where they spend the summer. Charlie is reading Stranger in the Woods about the North Pond Hermit. His mom says he was practicing walking the trail by stepping from rock to rock like the Hermit did to avoid leaving footprints. South Carolina with his family, including their grandsons, Sean (12) and Ben (18). Grandma Sue organized a family hike up French Mountain.
This area offers some great outdoor recreation, whether you like to hike, bike, birdwatch, fish, sail, or paddle a canoe or kayak. I encourage all parents and grandparents to take advantage of opportunities to get your kids and grandkids (or even parents and grandparents) out on the lake for fishing or swimming or up in the hills for some hiking.
Pick up a copy of the latest edition of 7 Lakes map at Day’s Store or the 7LA building. Individual trail maps can be downloaded from the 7 Lakes website. Also, please check the site for details on upcoming interesting events and watch the sign out front as events are added. And make sure you take a kid along on your next outdoor adventure.
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