Leta and I took a nature stroll along paths in Little Bennett Regional Park, on the southwest side of Little Bennett Creek. On this holiday weekend, the main entrance road was closed to all but campers, so we followed the suggestion at the contact station and parked at the maintenance yard and walked in. A better choice would have been to park in the lot at Wilson Mill along Route 121. This lot is connected to the trail network, despite what the map I received at the contact station said.
Indeed, following that map was a challenge, as it showed trails that weren’t there along with not showing trails that were. And since it’s the area is designed for camping, it’s full of short trails that don’t go in the direction you want. A little bit of climbing, not much; somewhat rocky footing with lots of white quartz cobbles exposed. About 4 miles round trip from the maintenance yard.
Nevertheless, we did make it as far as the Mound Builder Trail to see the earthworks built by Formica exsectoides. We kept an eye on the ground to avoid stirring up the ants that scurried across the trail in sixes and sevens.
Dogwood and spicebush were coming into fruit. We found some interesting mushrooms to confirm some of the IDs I learned in this summer’s class. I heard a Common Raven to go along with the usual mid-day forest bird residents. At a wet spot (relatively so: all the stream beds were dry), Leta spotted Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema sp.) in fruit.