Arrival!
Finally, with a tremendous thrill, I reached the top of the mountain I had been climbing. The peak of the mountain was
cleft into two small hilltops, with the acidic pond sitting between them. It was a classic bog, rimmed with low-growing
ericacious shrubs and beds of Sphagnum. There was absolutely no sign of human visitation--no
plastic wrappers, no fishing lines, no footprints, not even beer cans.
Nor were there any non-native plant species that I could see. I was glad that the night before I had carefully cleaned the
Microstegium and Phragmites seeds from my boots.
No doubt I made a racket reaching the site, so I saw no large mammals (despite all the droppings
I continued to find). I lunched and hydrated while watching a spotted sandpiper forage along the water's edge, then found two
sturdy branches--one for each hand--that I used like ski poles to probe the ground for holes and balance myself as I
began my circumnavigation of the pond.
The photograph above is one I took by stitching together two images. Make sure you scan the image horizontally to see the
entire view of the pond! You can see one low peak of the mountain to the left, and the rise towards the peak at
the right.
