Presumpscot River Preserve

Today we hiked the Presumpscot River Preserve, an easy jaunt in the vicinity of Falmouth/North Deering neighborhoods, just north of Portland, Maine. The trail-head is well marked with a sign and runs through a 60 acre preserve starting from Summit Street.  There is a metal gate in place to prevent vehicles beyond the mountain bikes from entering.   Summit Street doesn't offer parking, but the nearest side street to the trail head is a quiet residential neighborhood just footsteps away.  There were perhaps 10 or so other people enjoying the trail today.

This trail offers an easy mile-or-so hike to the Presumpscot river, with one area at the river that's uphill for perhaps 20 yards. There are several more trails branching off once you're down to the river, but we didn't venture more than that first mile and then back again, since I had been to the dentist this morning, so I was feeling a little uncomfortable.   It was around 65 degrees, a little hazy but sunny, and far less windy than it's been on the Portland peninsula.

It's a mixed woods, with primarily a few small Eastern Hemlock, White Pine, White Birch, Beech, and Oak.  Several small streams, and other runs, low-lying marshy areas are all along either side of the trail, but mainly to the right, or river-side of the trail.

It is obviously an area that experiences a lot of drainage and was quite moist despite the recent dry, clear weather.   Solomon's Seal is up, we saw a few dozen to the side of the trail, about 6” high with 5 or so leaves. This is typical timing for them in the region. A thriver, they extend all the way from Sasketchewan south to Florida, Montana to New Mexico. They come up in May and bloom from late May through June.

We saw one patch, about a square meter, with around a half dozen Sessile Bellwort in bloom. This very common early bloomer from the lily family, Uvularia Sessifolia, get to be about 6”high, and have a range across nearly all of wooded North America.

Yellow Trout Lilies are a favorite of mine, not for their graceful drooping flowers, but for the speckled patterns on their waxy, wide leaves. There were quite a few of these....

"Troutlily Gaggle"

Exceptional specimens of  Erythronium americanum Ker-Gawl.

The Trout Lilies we saw were all 6" in height.   Common Violets were in the lawns in the residential area, but we only saw purple,  no canadian, white or yellow varieties.  One chipmunk was spotted.

Strangely, there were no song birds. Not a lot of undergrowth to attract them, and with a hundred bird-feeders in the residential area flanking the trail, it's likely they've got it pretty good...Nik did think he saw a Turkey 

We were pleased to see Horsetails with their graphic looking stems.

They were new, also about 6" tall, stems perhaps 1/2 inch diameter, tops. I had, in fact, never seen horsetails before, but knowing that these are prehistoric fern-like plants with unique and interesting characteristics and taxonomy, I was pleased to run up on them.  I would love to re-visit them to get a good look as they grow and as the season wears on. Today I was very interested to learn that their rhizomatic root system outweighs the tops by a 100 to 1. 

Everything seemed at the same height, about 6".  Probably everything shot up at once about 1 week ago.  

Along the trail today, we saw that a number of trees were downed, or otherwise done-for,  most likely broken off in wind storms,and hanging in precarious positions. We have had a rough, long winter here in Southern Maine, with temps below F. 0 for a good week, and one of the worst blizzards ever, so it's not surprising to see this amount of downed wood.  Wind provides a cleansing of weaker branches, a natural pruning, if you will.  These trails are maintained by volunteers, and I'm sure they are always happy to have helping hands or donations. If you live in Maine, or a frequent visitor, and value access to the outdoors and experiences in natural setting, support Maine Trails, a very good cause, methinks.