2Mar2008

Spruce Hill Hike of Sunday, 2Mar2008, 3 hours, temperature 30-40, sunny

Purpose was to fine tune boundary markers and enjoy the warmer temps and sunshine. The forest floor leaf mat is quite a bit more compressed than earlier in the year, resulting from the weight of recent snowfalls. The wet mat is soft and squishy to walk on. As I sat in the woods near the isthmus to catch my breath, two turkey vultures swooped low overhead, eyeing me to see if I warranted further investigation. I kept moving.

As I marked more line, I was pleased to find that the huge basswood stump on the western edge is within the property lines of Spruce Hill, along with many more of the large, mature trees than I had thought. Another discovery was that most of the old logging road along this perimeter runs just inside the boundary line of Spruce Hill. Walking north along this edge and peering west, there is a beautiful view of Paint Creek as it veers directly towards Spruce Hill south of Bourneville and joins with the Upper Twin Creek waters. Anyone standing where I stood could easily see any river traffic coming towards the hill.

The pond has water all the way up past the buttonbush grove, with most of it frozen except for near the tree trunks and pond edge. I would estimate the water depth at four to six inches at the buttonbushes. There are two areas where the pond is being drained by field tiles, with many broken tiles at both drainage sites. With the quantity of water being tapped from the top of Spruce Hill by those continuously running 'faucets', I wonder how much deeper that pond would be had it not been tiled.

Wildlife sightings: American crow, northern cardinal, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, turkey vulture