Catching up. Bog Brook Cove Preserve, Maine

It really has been too long.  I have let some great experiences go unrecorded so I do this now to recover some of what I recall.  I especially wish I could have managed to blog while I was on two collecting trips with Daniel.  Better late than never, I guess.  So here we go...For both trips, we visited Bog Brook Cove Preserve in Maine near the Canadian border.  On one trip we camped in the Ham Camper.  On the other we stayed in a very rustic cabin on the Preserve.  In both cases there was no phone or internet access unless we went into Lubec and hopped on the library's Wi-Fi.  That's my excuse for not blogging then and I am sticking to it.

Daniel has been conducting a complete inventory of the flora of the Preserve.  To do so requires several visits at different times in the blooming/fruiting season.  The project will take several years to complete. This is where we were: 

We camped in Cobscook Bay State Park.  Even in August the nights were in the 40's.  We had to go to a Wal-Mart to buy sleeping bags.  Even though we were in the camper, it was very cold at night.  Even so, it was quiet, sparsely populated and beautiful. 

This is the view from our campsite in Cobscook State Park.  We thought we had the best site in the park(high tide).

We returned in May 2014 and  had more commodious accommodations in the cabin on the Bog Brook Cove Preserve.  The cabin is used by the blueberry workers in season and by visiting scientists such as Daniel.  The cabin is right above the rocky shore with views of Canada.  While there is a generator, there is no electric light, heating, or other such conveniences.  Just propane for light and cooking.  

We spent some time exploring a beaver pond and admired the remarkable engineering.  

I loved these red soldiers growing on a log...

..and some colorful bracken on a tree.

Best of all was the bog and the pitcher plants.  This is my favorite shot ever--two carnivorous plants here…the pitcher plant and the sundews.  Both perfectly designed to trap insects.  Feed me.  

We collected in the blueberry barrens, which from a distance look like this: 

…but up close reveal their fruit.

In the barrens, in addition to the blueberries, I collected a lot of specimens for Daniel to press.

Sometimes Daniel photographs the flora we collect.  The photos may help with the identification later before a specimen is filed in the herbarium.

We also visited a local bog, loaded with carnivorous pitcher plants, a favorite of mine.   Some of them are red, some are green.  All waiting for their dinner to come in and become trapped.  Feed me. 

I also found this rare orchid, sadly not in bloom.  We did not collect this as it is endangered.  

In the summer the bunchberries are everywhere, the woods are carpeted with them.  

They don't call it the Bold Coast for nothing.  It is a real treat to hike to the coastline and see surf crashing on rocks.  

A highlight of the August trip was a visit by kayak to Reversing Falls.  Reversing Falls is a narrow passage where the tide from Denny's Bay rushes between rocks to Cobscook Bay.  The tidal change in the area is one of the most extreme on the planet with a 30' drop.  The velocity of the water when the tide changes is incredible and creates a real roar of water.  You can hear it from far off.  It makes for thrilling kayaking--it's a fun series of rapids and whirlpools.  Once through them though there is no return, that is until the tide changes.  There were bald eagles flying overhead.  The weather was perfect and we had the whole area to ourselves, not a soul in sight.  No pics of kayaking--we were too busy negotiating the whirlpools and rapids.

We stopped here on the way to Reversing Falls to wait until the tidal conditions were just right.  The outgoing tide is building momentum almost ready for a good run.  

After running the rapids I parked in a tidal pool and relaxed in the sun while I waited for the tide to let up so I could kayak back.  The high tide mark is up at the base of the trees--pretty extreme.  

We spent some time in Lubec, a tiny town that was once a busy fishing port.  Locals are trying to create a museum from the derelict smokehouse and skinning shed.  The smokehouse has a distinctive odor as you can imagine.  Strong woodsmoke, the sea, and time.  

The town of Lubec is cute but struggling.  Lubec is the easternmost town in the continental US.  

We had some cool and crummy days when I amused myself by painting some of the local flora I collected from around the cabin.  I pinned the sketches to the cabin wall and Daniel, who returned there without me later in the summer, said they were still there! 

I love doodling and have always wanted to take some classes.  I finally signed up for a class at the New York Botanical Garden.  They have a pretty rigorous certificate program in Botanical Illustration.  I signed up for a Materials and Methods I class which starts tonight.  I bought all the required supplies and then got nervous…will I be in over my head?  So the other day I clipped some rosemary and knocked out a sketch with my new pencils.  I think it is OK.  Actually it was thinking about posting my progress here that got me to get back to this blog in the first place.  I will post my drawings as I accumulate them.  It's such an easy way to keep files.  For now here is my pre-class drawing.  I hope to significantly improve my skills.  

So now just a few parting shots…this one of the cove...

The view from the cabin on a cold, rainy day. 

Next post will be all about botanical drawing.  Wish me luck.  Comments are welcome.  

No Fracking Way!

Before we get to the fracking story, an update on where we are and the botany.  As I write this we are in the truck just east of Rugby, North Dakota.  We traveled from Glacier yesterday on Route 2 (the "High Line") which runs across the north of the country, near the Canadian border.  We ended last night west of Minot ND.

Unlike the scenic byways we took to get here, Route 2 is straight as can be.  Still, it is pretty country, lots of open sky and rolling prairie.  We started out yesterday morning from Cut Bank, MT.  Cut Bank is near Fort Disappointment, so named because it was where Clark hoped to make celestial observations about the location but bad weather made that impossible.  Also it was the only place on the whole expedition where L & C encountered hostiles and two Indians died in a scuffle over horses.  We imagined that they must have collected plants from the exact spot where we did.  Located on the banks of a bend in the Cut Bank Creek.  There was a train trestle nearby and a classic ranch in the distance.  It was a dry, desert landscape that yielded no fewer than 50 different species, nearly all of them new species for this trip.  We do collect duplicates sometimes because they help fill in the distribution map, especially for those species that are on the edge of their range.  A great spot.

Mentezelia

Eriogonum

Townsendia

Truck du jour

Daniel was super happy.  Of course I made a little bouquet which I left this morning at our campsite.

We stopped in a little town and explored a creek that was loaded with Persicaria and other goodies.  Later we saw vast ponds chock full of Persicaria.  Acres of the stuff (the swath of pink.)

We hit the road with the goal of getting to Minot, ND by nightfall.  As we did some advance Googling for accommodations we realized that we were once again, out of luck.  Traveling across northern ND we started seeing all these oil fields under construction or in operation, pumping something.  When we stopped in Williston, Daniel, a good Texas man, recognized a boom town when he saw one.  All the cues were there.  Lots of RV's.  Lots of pick up trucks.  Crowded gas stations.  Lots of plates from Texas and Colorado.  The rough necks were in town.  Lots of them.  And taking up all the hotel rooms.  On the outskirts of the towns we saw corporate barracks of worker housing.  We saw Halliburton outposts.  It is all about fracking and northern ND is booming.  Here is what Route 2 in ND looks like these days between Stanley and Minot.  What a fracking nightmare.

Jobs are important, I know, but fracking is unproven economically and environmentally.  Fracking is a process of extracting oil from the shale or sand by using a combination of water and chemicals to separate the oil.  When we were collecting in upstate NY several weeks ago communities seemed to be aggressively fighting fracking, which is where I first saw the No Fracking Way slogan.  In the meantime, this is what ND is giving up.  Makes me wanna cry.

We had to deal with the no room at the inn situation.  We found a campsite at Lewis and Clark State Park which is located on Lake Sakakawea.  Daniel was able to set up the tent in the dark without delay.  He was smart enough to put on the rain tarp in case, and yes, it did rain during the night.  It was a very pretty place.  Here is the view as we drove away.  The sad thing is that at night you can see the glow of all the fracking fires off in the distance.  That's just wrong, as my dear Cassie would say.  

For those of you who doubt, here is proof that I camped with good cheer.  Actually, I was grateful for the tent.  If not for it, we would have been sleeping upright in the truck.  

Late morning we stopped on a long dirt road for a brief break and some lunch (goat cheese, hummus and olive sandwiches off the back of the truck.)  There was another fixer-upper, some pretty flowers for a truck bouquet, and a vast open stretch of prairie.

I am sure many people see this landscape and think Hmmm, I wonder how much oil is in all that sand under the prairie.  

Driving on though Minot, which is located in a low lying area we again saw flooding and felt a little deja vu.  It's a gloomy enough drive with the rain.  When you know it will add to people's misery it just makes it so much worse.  The water was lapping the shores on both sides of this road.  

Last update for this posting:  we are now in Roseau, Minnesota.  Tomorrow we will hit the Voyager National Park.  After that it will be a major push for home and probably time on the interstates.  No collecting today at all.  Just rain.