Rain coming but paint first

This Saturday morning was soft humid and warm. The heat of the past week had moderated with a 0.30 inches of rain overnight and more rain was in the forecast.. but it was a quiet soft morning. I took Russell and Sesugh and new cans of blue tree marking paint and headed for the Woods.

Entering the SW gate off Chautauqua I experimented with the new paint and worked like a charm. I removed the masking tape temporary trial blazes I had placed there weeks ago and marked a permanent small vertical rectangle blaze.

Looking back after I had marked the first several trees, it appeared that the blazes were just right..not too big, but easily visible, good aids for students and walkers new to the trail, new to the Woods.

We'd been out maybe 10 minutes, when to my surprise, I saw Randy Lewis approaching. He was there with a bundle of red flags and tapes to lay out the plots for the coming week's ecology lab on green ash population sampling.

I marked the trail all the way out to the Dune Trail and then marked the Dune Trail southward to the south perimeter fence. Then I turned back north marking trees along the path running along the raised western edge of the lower central basin/ flood plain.

I found the Trans OWP Trail in the north and marked blazes from the Burr Oak bridge west to the eastern end of the Ponds Trail.

I circled and circled the north central Woods looking for the trail I had flagged winter 08-09..and eventually found and marked where it connected with the main SW trail. I marked the junction with a double blaze.

Much more to do in marking trails already roughed out or cleared out. I should blaze the NE Escarpment Trail. But enough for today. Russell and Sesugh were waiting and we left to go for lunch.

Almost no mosquitoes (2) in 3 hours. One large doe in the woods north of the gate; several robins.