Update on the River

Last night I took the dog and the camera down to the river. WOW! I've never seen the water so high.

At the Pump House:

All but the top four steps were underwater, and that rock just above the railing in the photo - that rock is taller than I! Only a foot to a foot-and-a-half remained above the water. The blue pipe is from the pump house - usually 4-5' above the water; last night the water was lapping the bottom of the pipe.

Amazing!

Looking upstream, the river was incredibly wide. Remember the rapids I photographed last month (see here)? There is so much water now that they are silent - completely submerged beneath the flow of the river.

Late evening light against storm clouds.

This morning I returned to the river en route to work. I wanted to see if the river had come up or gone down over night. First stop, the pump house.


Back at the Pump House:

The water has gone down a couple inches, based on the blue pipe and the rock.

This goshawk was just sitting on the side of the road this AM. I drove by, did a double take, braked, and reversed. Two more cars passed by, and the bird stayed put. I backed up some more to get a closer shot, and the bird finally decided that was too much; it flew off. I suspect it was warming itself up in this patch of sunlight. It was in the mid-30s this AM - brrr.

Up the Campsite Road:

To the left, behind these trees, is more water. Must be a wetland back there - or at least there is a wetland there now! I've never seen water back in there before, but now it is rather extensive.

This was a jumble of boulders earlier in the week.

Those banks on the sides were 4-5' high the last time I was here.

Down at the Route 28N Bridge:

Half the island is gone.

Last night, the water was not as high as the shrubbery on the left. I was so unimpressed last night that I didn't take any photos. Wow - it really came up here in the last 12 hours!

Here's another view of the outfitter's. Ruth told me that she has seen the water up past that little green shed, but only once.

So there you have it. The Hudson River Headwaters, all swollen from our last storm. Mighty impressive.

On the Road to Tahawus

Yesterday my conscience got the better of me - I really HAD to finish up my invasive plant routes for APIPP. So, having the day off, I tackled the road up to Tahawus and the Upper Works. You can read more about this Iron/Titanium Mine here.

It was an off and on cloudy day, with the wind blowing rather robustly. I was glad I wore a couple layers, just in case.

It's about a ten-mile drive from the Blue Ridge Road up to the Upper Works, and at about 8 miles an hour, it took a long while to do the route. Two and a half hours, in fact.

The first thing that caught my eye was this dogwood with its lovely pink berries (only one had turned blue - can you find it?).


I was looking for invasives, but the only one I saw (that was on my list) was knapweed. But I'm not 100% sure if it is spotted or brown. Spotted has paler flowers than the brown, but much of the ID has to do with the color of the bracts. Are these brown or black tipped? I'm not sure. I'm hoping Jackie will chime in with her expertise.


I found two stalks of silverrod, too. This is a native flower, in the goldenrod clan. The difference? Well, the obvious difference is that the flowers are white, not yellow. Hence the name.


The extensive erosion along this waterway caught my eye.

What has caused the soil to slump so drastically here? It's sandy soil, which automatically suggests it doesn't have a lot of grip, and there is little vegetation in evidence to provide any sort of structure to hold the soil in place. Is it just gravity, or did that stream (could it be the Hudson?) rise dramatically with some of our heavy rain storms and tear away the soil as it rushed past?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love wetlands.


I believe this is part of Sanford Lake. What do you see along the shoreline? It's a rather large beaver lodge. Here is a perfect example that not all beavers build dams. Sometimes the water is deep enough for your food and all you have to do is build a home. A good shoreline is a fine place to set up housekeeping.


Looking northward toward the High Peaks.


This is the only building from the small town of Tahawus that is in any kind of condition worth saving. The rest are in various stages of utter decay (see link above to my piece about Tahawus).


These little rock cairns are ALL OVER THE PLACE these days. Someone (or someones) has been busy building them all along the roads, especially between Minerva and North Creek. Our golf course in Newcomb also has quite a few, some of which are over three feet tall!


As you can see, the autumn colors are really getting going now. If things go continue as they are now, the color should be good this year. Here we are once more along the Hudson (I think). I love that old stone ruin off to the right side of the river (click on photo to enlarge). Probably part of a bridge once-upon-a-time.

I'm happy to report that the evidence for invasives was pretty Spartan. With all the traffic Tahawus sees, though, I'm sure that in a few years there will be more than knapweed to worry about along this stretch of road. In the meantime, it is a lovely drive with some great views.

Saturday Morning on the Hudson

As I lay there in bed Saturday, with the sunlight streaming through the window and a gentle, cool breeze blowing, I told myself that this was the day I would actually get my canoe out on the water.

I've been wanting to explore the Hudson River downstream from the pump house, so I called a friend and she was eager to drop her laundry and come paddling with me.

Once we launched our boats, we paddled upstream. I've been wondering just how far one can go in this direction. Every spring I can hear the roar of the rapids, but I had no idea how far away they were.


My guess would be that they are less than a quarter mile away. Lots of rocks and a bit of water still flowing through them.


The flow was just enough that Monica got pinned against a couple rocks as she tried to cut across.


So, we headed back downstream.

Unlike my paddling adventures with Jackie, we didn't do any botanizing. About the only things I could see blooming along the shores were goldenrod and asters.

Mostly we were there for the scenery.

I was excited to see these tracks, though. The inner banks of the river's curves were often exposed expanses of mud - perfect for taking tracks. Based on the size and shape, I was pretty sure these were beaver tracks.


And just down the shore a bit further, we found this channel leading to the river. A beaver trail going toward a food source?


How beautiful the Hudson is up here. Folks from down below are amazed at our little river. I know that I find it equally amazing when I've seen it at its other end. At least our end still has a bit of its wildness in tact.



We never did get as far as the rapids, which means I'll have to come back another day! But the clouds were really rolling in and the sky was getting very dark. The wind had whipped up mightily, and I knew Monica was probably getting chilled, thanks to her unintended dip in the river. So we headed back upstream. With the wind pushing us and our determined paddling to get back before it rained, we were at the pump house in about a third of the time it took us to paddle downstream.

For others interested in paddling this part of the Hudson, I say give it a go! When the water is high, you might have a bit of a challenge paddling back up to the put-in point, but those who want to brave some pretty intense rapids and a carry or two can continue on down to the bridge on 28N.

Poking Around near Glens Falls - Part II - The Hudson River

Our second destination on Monday was the Hudson River right near down town Glens Falls. Because my car was in the shop, we took Jackie's tandem canoe.

Our target plant this time was Fen Grass of Parnassus, Parnassia glauca. This plant is listed as exploitivly vulnerable in NY, and Jackie's friend Sue found it growing along the shore of the river. I was dying to see it - it's been on my "must see list" for some time.

So, we headed upstream, and before long I spotted it, peeking out from behind a small boulder at the water's edge. We parked the boat, clambered out, and starting taking photos.




Since Jackie had been here the day before, she wandered upstream a bit to see what other treasures she might find.

Celery grass was growing in profusion in the water. Nifty water plant. The coils hold the female flower just at the water's surface, spreading out or contracting as needed with the water's level. When the flower is pollinated, the coils retract and the plant shoves the fertilized flower into the ground at the river's bed. Amazing biology.


We continued paddling upstream and found another clump of the grass of Parnassus. The flowers are a lot larger than I had expected.

Some were growing singly in the cliff face, while others...


were growing in huge colonies! We must've seen hundreds of these plants, all clinging to the rock wall. It was a wondrous sight!

The back of these flowers is just as lovely as the green-striped front.

Between the two of us, we must've taken over a hundred photographs.


This wonderful orange lichen was also decorating the rock wall. I know I've seen it in my massive lichen book, but that's at work and I'm "on vacation" again this week, so give me a few days to ID it.

Update: This is, in fact, neither moss nor lichen, but an alga! My other brilliant botanical buddy, Evelyn, contacted Jackie to tell her that it is Trentepholia aurea. I don't think either of us expected this! I did a quick search on-line about this, and for a good site, visit here.


For the geologists in the crowd, check out this terrific rock formation. It was almost as if bricks had been layed (laid?) in the cliff face.


We followed the progression of this layer until the vegetation covered it. As you can see, it started by the water's edge (above) and continued to rise - an incline (below).


Spikenard (Aralia racemosa) fruits were ripening along the cliff, too. This isn't a plant I've seen before, but it's one I've wanted to add to my gardens - great native plant, often suggested as a substitute for some of those invasives people like to put in their gardens.

As we headed back downriver, we saw this enormous stream of water shooting out from the trees on the opposite shore. What could it be? After some fun speculations, we decided to see what it was.


Our least-exciting theory proved true: it was the local fire department practicing using their hoses up on their extension ladder. Fun, but not as much fun as a giant peeing from the trees.


We continued to a little cove; Jackie wanted to see if we could find any turtles.


We watched a great blue heron for a while. Have you ever tried sneaking up on a GBH? It's well-nigh impossible. Just as we started to get close, it took off (I have a whole series of shots of this). It landed just a little further along and we tried sneaking up again. It looked like it caught something here - see the extended throat?


Finally we were too much for it, so it took off again and disappeared.


I love wetlands. They are so beautiful. Once seen as pestilential places only good for draining and filling in, today we know just how important they are to not only their immediate ecosystems, but to ecosystems further downstream as well.

Jackie pointed out water marigold, another Bidens. When I lifted it up, I was amazed at its underwater leaves. Looking from above into the water, I thought the plant was coontail, another aquatic plant, but no, it was water marigold. Underwater they look a lot alike.

Earlier in our paddle, I had asked Jackie: "Have you ever actually seen a frog ON a lily pad?" "No." "Neither have I - I think it's all entirely fictional."

Lo! and behold! Guess what we saw?!?!


We also found two painted turtles sunning themselves. It was very hot by now (my car thermometer, when I picked up my car about an hour later, read 93*F), so I was surprised these two were out basking.


They didn't stick around for long, though - like the heron, they don't like to be watched.


We also talked about bladderworts. I was trying to remember the name of one I wanted to see, but couldn't. It was late and I needed to get my car, so we headed back to the town beach from which we had launched. "Oh, look," I said. "Bladderworts."

Jackie decided we should stop and see which ones they were, because this late in the season she couldn't imagine what would be blooming.

I reached down and plucked one from the water. "OH! This is the one I wanted to see!"


This is Utricularia inflata, which, according to Newcomb's is a coastal plant. We were very excited. It was a new plant for each of our life lists. Actually, it isn't. We now believe it is U. radiata, which is a threatened species in NYS. Read more below in the update.


The species name, inflata, refers to these "pontoons" that keep the plant happily afloat in the water.


Here you can see some of the tiny bladders that grow on the underwater portion of the plant.



And this is a close-up of one of the "pontoons."

We were both so excited with this find. I went on-line at the library after picking up my car to see what I could find out about this plant. According to the USDA site, it is not only an endangered species in NY, but is only listed as occurring in one county downstate.

I immediately emailed Steve Young, the state botanist, to tell him of our find. I went on and on about how I'd be happy to go back and get a GPS reading for it.

Today I had an email back from him. "It has been found in the ADKs, leaves only, in the Raquette Lake area but not in the Hudson. Seems to be spreading more and more and acting as an invasive." I've been crushed.

Still, it was a new plant for me, and an interesting one at that.

Update: I just read Jackie's blog of this trip and apparently she sent an email off to Steve as well. Because she is a regular correspondent with him, she got a much more detailed answer from him. Here's what she wrote:

I heard from NY State Chief Botanist Steve Young that Utricularia inflata has not only been removed from New York's endangered plant list, it is now considered a dangerously invasive plant in certain areas where it is crowding out other native species. That's the bad news. The good news is that the bladderwort in the photo above is more likely Utricularia radiata, or Small Inflated Bladderwort, since those radiating arms are only a little longer than an inch and branch out only at the ends. Another distinguishing feature is that the flower petal's lower lip has three distinct lobes. U. radiata is indeed a rare plant in New York, and as far as I can tell, has never been reported in Saratoga County. Until now.

Well, I guess it wasn't a total wash after all!


My day full of adventure didn't end once I picked up my car. I was running late, and it was rush hour, so maybe that explains the final adventure. I'd gotten my groceries, and wanted to find the cheapest gasoline, so I headed back into Glens Falls. I don't know how it happened, but apparently my attention drifted for a moment and WHAM! I hit the curb. Whap whap whap. Uh-oh.

Flat tire.

Pulled in to a pizza place and called AAA. Their guy came about a half hour sooner than they said, and before long I had my spare on. He didn't recommend driving back up to Newcomb with the spare. It was 7 PM - who would be open now? Try Wal-mart. (UGH). They couldn't help me, but Sears could, so off I went.

The dog! Called my boss - could you let the dog out in the yard?

It was after 9:30 when I finally got home, with my new tire and my melting groceries. The dog was very happy to see me - he'd raided the compost bucket and had eaten another pair of underwear. >sigh<

I'm still waiting for the underwear to reappear.