Indian Pipe & Blue Crawdad

It rained here for most of a week, so when the cloud cover let up and the sun came out, I headed down the path for a walk on the mountain.

Lance has been putting in regular time on some of our trails to get them more passable since Hurricane Helene made a mess of things last fall.

I started out into the slough, and just past Rocky’s grave I was happy to see the Ghost Pipe colony up and shining in the dappled sunlight. I left a couple of broken Pipes with some usnea on a log as an offering.

I also turned down-mountain to pick up the Yellow Birch Trail, which I’ve not been on in a couple of months. The best part of that bit was coming across one of our blue crawdads, making her way toward a swampy spot where a spring drains down toward the creek.

It was a good thing I was going slowly or I might have stepped on her. I crouched down to say hello, and to get a photo, but she was feeling very defensive and held up her claws at me.

“No contest,” I told her. “You have the right of way.”

She was only a few more feet from the swampy spot or I’d have given her a ride down there.