I Spy on the Trails - Weeks of Oct 15 and October 22, 2023

Temperatures for these two weeks started in the balmy mid-50s and headed into the 60s for a day or two. We have had some foggy starts to the days which makes blufftop hiking particularly notable not for the obscured views but for the lovely rolling fog coiling and roiling below the high bluffs. 

This last weekend finally brought the frost I’ve been expecting (plus some snowflakes) for the past few weeks and daytime temps in the 40s. Still, I can't help but feel we are in for another record warm month in October.

The autumn colors were on full display in our neck of the woods. One of the most stunning drives to see them is along the MN bluffs as you drive Hwy 61 between La  Crescent and Winona. The leaves have progressed from stunning bright blazing colors two weeks ago to the more muted golds, browns and russets of the last leaves this week. Wind and rain tell me even these leaves won’t last much longer.

I wasn’t alone in hitting the trails often during the past two weeks to enjoy the light filtering through the golden leaves. While most undergrowth has died back, the fungi and ferns are having a glorious time. It has made the past two weeks of hikes a marvelous experience. 

Wildflowers/Plants

• Yellow coneflower

  

  Crowded parchment mushroom

  
  
• Yarrow
• New England aster
• Hairy aster
• Calico aster
• Wild blue aster
• Smooth blue aster 
• Aromatic aster
• Brown-eyed Susan 
• Zigzag goldenrod
• Spinulose woodfern
• Lady fern
• Maidenhair fern
• Interrupted fern
• Evening primrose
• Goldenrod
• Fly agaric mushroom
• Resinous polypore 
• Puffballs
• Hairy curtain fungus
• Crowded parchment fungus
• Agueweed, species of dwarf gentian
• American bladder nut
• Sharp-lobed hepatica

Wildlife (seen/hear/detected)

Wooly caterpillar in a bootprint

• Wooly caterpillar
• Pileated woodpecker
• Black-capped chickadee
• Red-wing blackbird
• European starling
• Robin
• Nuthatch
• Bluebird

What are YOU noticing on your hikes?

Two weeks of hikes:  Great River Bluffs State Park, Nodine MN; Mathy Quarry Rim Trail, La Crosse WI; Coulee Experimental Forest, La Crosse County, WI; Riverside Park-Myrick Park Marsh Trail, La Crosse WI; Wagon Wheel Trail, La Crescent, MN; Reno Quarry, Brownsville MN; Appleblossom Overlook Park, Winona County MN; Lost Creek Trail, Chatfield MN

Image - Kris Lawson

All images, unless noted, Marge Loch-Wouters