31Dec2007

Spruce Hill Walk of Monday, 31Dec2007 for 4 hours, with the temperature in the high 40's, sunny, 10-20 mph winds. What a difference a year makes! Last year, I hiked Hocking Hills on New Year's Eve. Who would have believed that in a year, such wondrous events would occur that would allow myself and many others to finally consider Spruce Hill saved and available to share its magic with the world?!

Since I had not walked the property since early November, I felt compelled to take one more hike on Spruce Hill before year's end, making this my twentieth documented trek. At the SE corner of the isthmus, it was painfully apparent that the 4W had been through recently when it was wet, so the path was quite muddy and chewed up especially along the SE edge of the field. The heaviest traffic is obviously running between the Moose Racing entry point and the SE corner of the isthmus. All the other paths around the fields have not been used in months, and the only traffic evident there is from ungulates and canines. What an improvement!!!

Down from the field's eastern edge, at the end of the 2400 foot boundary line, on a smooth knoll overlooking Black Run Creek, rest the remains of an old collapsed wooden frame barn/house with rusted tin roof. Beside it is the hull of an old pickup truck and also several metal debris piles. There also rests another old 1920's era pickup truck in the same SE corner of this tract along with a tall, wooden-slatted shed. This is a lovely, protected spot as the knoll rises about 20-30 feet above the creek bed, and one can easily view much of the creek and fields northeast through the trees and even see all the way to Black Run Road. It is quite understandable that this would be a choice homesite for someone to settle long ago. I just wonder how it was accessed with Black Run Creek running so close to it---perhaps by way of a path that originally connected to Spruce Hill Rd.?

By 2p, I had completed the trek down and back up the boundary line(quite a steep little climb), so I took off along the eastern edge of the field, immediately noticing the absence of 4w tracks. The only tracks I saw on that section were deer, coyote, fox and perhaps a member of the weasel family. The track was small and had five toe prints, which I am unfamiliar with. The 20 mph wind was really picking up as I crossed the open field, and it blew steadily as I walked with nothing but clear sky and strong winds above me.

My hike finished by way of the pond, where I stopped to check the water level. There has been enough rain and snow recently to create standing water almost all the way north to the buttonbush group. Though the pond is far from full, it is certainly holding more water now than it did during the drought of the summer. So despite the drought, this can still be considered a "perennial" pond---at least for the year of 2007.

Wildlife sightings: Gray squirrel, northern cardinal, red bellied woodpecker, chickadee