Winter in the woods is special

But we can't spring forward without a winter look back.

It’s spring! It’s just ONE WEEK from the LAST planned group hiking and education event on the Lost Creek Fungi Hunt!! It’s been a TIME!

Athough I’m ecstatic to see all the little plants and leaves and teeny green things poking up out of the dirt and hear all their little funky names (Dutchmen’s Britches, Mayapple, Jack-in-the-pulpit, etc. etc. etc.) - let’s not forget how wonderful winter on the trail was!

On the trail in February 2025

November:

Trail was closed for the whole month of November for hunting season. I was a good egg and did not go out on the trail - although I have hiked in November before, utterly and blissfully unaware that hunters were in the woods. (Not at Lost Creek, at a state park and not this year! Even though I have hunted in the past, it never dawned on me that sometimes with particular permits and at particular times of the year, yes, it is legal to hunt on state park property!! The more you know!)

December:

Cold. I did not go out on the trail much, due to my heavy teaching schedule and the fact that there was no snow and I really wanted to make a hike when there was snow on the ground. Instead I worked on some repairs for a few mushrooms that had been shredded by squirrels in the fall.

Dryad’s Saddle, chewed by squirrels

One thing I learned from the fall when the squirrels, chipmunks, and other forest chewers were most active is that natural fibers in yarn (wool, cotton) were vastly preferred over the acrylic, cheap-o yarn I used for others. So all my replacement pieces have been made with synthetic fibers and I’m saving the nice wool fibers for indoor artwork.

January:

Colder still! The winter group hike and education event also happened in January. Despite below zero weather on the day of our hike, we did about 4 miles of the trail through a section owned by Mary and Bill Bailey, MN foresters and some of the founders of the Lost Creek Trail.

The Bailey’s own a chunk of land that has been wooded for 80+ years. It was set aside WAAAAY back in the day to be logged as firewood for Stewartville residents but was never cleared. Now the Bailey’s use modern forestry and timber management practices to keep these acres of trees healthy and productive, protecting rare species of oak and pine as saplings and logging healthy, mature trees to clear the way for new growth.

I LOVE the Bailey section of the trail (5 of the 15 mushrooms are on his stretch cuz it’s really pretty). I’ve been looking forward to this hike since I cooked it up nearly a year ago, and it was well worth getting cold toes and fingers for.

Bill talked us through some of the timber management practices he uses on his land, showing areas where he logged trees 10+ years ago and the new growth that has come up since then. He showed us a (rare) white oak sapling he discovered just off the trail that will get special treatment (watering during droughts, cutting/pruning of nearby trees to allow sufficient light) so that it grows well. We learned how the bark of trees changes as they grow, with cracks deepening and widening when trees are having a growth spurt.

We also talked about potential diseases and infections that can impact trees, noting spots where damage to the bark created hollow cavities or growths where the tree tried to protect itself.

All in all, a wonderful hike was had. The Bailey’s do a variety of forestry education activities on their property, including hosting field days for the Fillmore County Forestry Department. They are a wealth of knowledge that I feel lucky to have gotten to hang out with and ask questions of.

February:

Did another maintenance hike on a rare warm-ish day in February. There was a little mending to be done on the puffballs, which had been well-nibbled by squirrels. My patch-job was not great (my fingers were numb almost immediately), but hopefully helped prevent a bigger hole being made. I’ll check on it this spring and see how my work helped or hindered.

I also put up a new Dryad’s Saddle, since these had been basically destroyed by squirrels earlier in the year. I had to wait until for the tree trunk to thaw enough for my staples to go in, so to any winter hikers who lamented at only finding a shredded matt of yarn on one tree near the east end of the trail, sorry! I did my best!

I love hiking in the winter. It’s possibly one of my favorite times of year to hike. The woods are so quiet and so loud at the same time, with bird calls traveling much further in the naked branches and the crunch of rabbits in the thorny bushes easy to locate.

Also, Lost Creek has a few sinkholes that are most visible in the winter, where the steam coming up from the comparatively warmer water underneath forms a circle of thawed early and ice crystals that stands out from the landscape.

March:

Quiet time in the woods. We’re resting and recharging, waiting for spring to spring and unleash bluebells and wild ginger across the forest floor. I was busy swapping emails with Fillmore County naturalist Jake Stacken, trying to guesstimate a day to schedule a spring ephemerals wildflower hike.

We’ve landed on April 27, from 1-3 pm. Hope for sunshine and flowers and red-winged blackbirds making a racket along the creek. We’ll hike 3-ish miles of the trail through the woods and river valley and Jake will be on hand to answer questions about the flowers and plants we spot along the way. I’ll be there too, to talk about the mushrooms and basically geek out with all y’all.

This is going to be a fun one, folks! I’ve been waiting for it since the installation kicked off, and I’m beyond stoked we’re finally here. RSVP if you’re going to come (it’s a free event but your RSVP helps me get an idea of the headcount AND means you get helpful reminder emails so you don’t forget).

For details about the hike, including where we’ll be congregating to start the hike, go HERE. Bring yourself, your friends, decent shoes (in case of mud), something to drink, and little hikers if you have them. Please no dogs (the section of the trail we’ll be hiking is off-limits to dogs).

See you soon!