Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Dead Swamp

I walked along the eastern edge of Dead Swamp. With a name like that, I hoped to see something interesting. I wanted to walk clear around it but I was pressed for time and figured to at least get up to those ridges and valleys visible to the north of the swamp.

I saw one isolated newly formed pile. Sitting by itself with no context, I cannot imagine why someone, recently, would want to build such a pile. It looks like a sort of boundary marker.
(You can see the dead trees of the swamp in the background.)
I continued along and saw a smear of cobbles on a slope facing westward towards the swamp. I had been hoping to see something facing westward over the swamp - you know the kind of pile which is built directly on the ground, rounded, and perhaps with a white rock or two? Anyway this was all I saw as I passed:
I have little doubt that this once was a rock pile - but no clues in terms of little white rocks. Someone sure took care of it. I walked to the top of the little knoll and glanced around. Then I continued on my walk towards the north.

Later, I ran out of time and had to skip exploring much of the northern side of the swamp, and headed back the way I came in. When I got back to the smeared out pile, I looked more carefully. And there was a small bump on the slope I had not looked at the first time. When I examined it closely, here is what I saw:
Let's take a closer look.
So there is the white quartz "blaze" in the pile, as hoped. And this lonely pair of piles is all I could find. At least one of them survived the vandalisms of time. I wish I had been able to explore more there, around Dead Swamp.

4 comments :

JimP said...

The dead trees suggest the fairly recent work of beavers. Isn't it possible that some features are now under water?

pwax said...
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pwax said...
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pwax said...

There was a distinct cut-off between dry and wet land. I think you are right about the beavers.