Thursday, April 22, 2010

Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest

The trail saga at Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest continues. I finally finished flagging the last of the potential new trail and have begun to look at looping options. The trail is roughly 4.75 linear miles (however the terrain is rolling which should add more actual mileage) and has 17 stream crossings. While implementing this trail will be difficult, it is my hope to have it completed and ready to open by Spring 2011 (maybe April).

This trail passes through a variety of scenery from hardwoods, various life stages of pine, soggy bottomland, clearcuts, and wildlife meadows. While on the trail today I saw at least 5 turkeys, a large black snake, and lots and lots of bear scat. I will hopefully have some pictures downloaded soon as I also saw a bird's nest nestled in the tall grass, dogwoods in bloom, rhododendron in bloom, and a sphinx moth. I also ran into some VDOF hoodlum's preparing to put in fire lines around a clearcut area adjacent to the trail. They will then burn this area in preparation for a new generation of Loblolly pine seedlings. It's amazing what you might see when you are out enjoying Virginia's forests!

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