On Wednesday ten of us started work at Miquelon A84; soon finding a new pond we needed to skirt, then arrived at our 10 section boardwalk over a bigger pond with one end needing a ramp, the other another needing 15 ft added. Then as we stepped on it, the walkway sank below the water……..sooo we moved on to a closer prospective mushroom trail; North Miquelon. We found a lot of down trees and our chain saw misbehaved…..coulda used two, thought of it too late. Working hard, one weed eater handle broke in half. There was new water everywhere; albeit this time it was passable. Some of the more recently used field pathways looked less inviting than the wooded former trail in a couple of places….so we may reinstate those next time. We experienced a new coffee place better located for the Coal Lake & Camrose volunteers in New Sarepta at the Market restaurant, and found it was a bit expensive for us, although looked good to try for a meal.
Landowner Rights & Trail User Responsibilities
The Waskahegan Trail is a unique resource that exists only because of the generosity of landowners. Before you set foot on the trail:
- Know the landowner rights and the trail user responsibilities.
- Check the trail conditions
Prairie Crocus
Prairie Crocus (Anemone patens) blooms so early in the grasslands that snow may still be on the ground.
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Don’t be surprised to see small insects (pollinators) within the flowers because the temperature in the flowers is often 10°C higher than in the surrounding air. The sun’s rays bounce inward from the white cupping petals to heat the yellow stamens.
The flowers are Nature’s original solar panels.
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WASKAHEGAN FIELD NOTES
The self-planting seeds of the early blooming Crocus are also part of Nature’s design, allowing rapid penetration through the grasses to the soil and germination when moisture is adequate, thus escaping competition from the grasses when they start to grow. If moisture is inadequate, the seeds will wait another year to germinate. The Prairie grassland ecosystem has other adaptations for survival of its species. The Crocus ranges throughout the whole system and beyond on sandy soils.
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