A recent controlled burn here has left a patchwork of new growth of sedges, rushes, and grasses, which will be punctuated with fireworks of colorful flowers later in the year.
other fun finds included:
a well supported bench on high – probably useful for waterfowl hunting.
a spontaneous terrarium.
nice views.
Old maps call this spot Gun Club Ponds, and it doesn’t take long, after walking the narrow strip between the railroad embankment and wall of Phragmites, that the gun club comes into focus.
A good place to look for waterfowl.
there’s slag here too!
a tunnel of european buckthorn leads us to the ponds.
it’s big leaf season as we head back over the tracks to the Indian Ridge Marsh parking lot.
A gorgeously warm November afternoon yielded a golden IRM, with the last of the asters and goldenrod setting seed.
I started on the trail going north, through the wet prairie-
-and then kept going.
At the old Wisconsin Steel/Acme Coke site I found a new slag for the typology- charcoal briquet slag?! It was all quite dark black (some were also really lightweight), even if the raking sun bleached out some of the photos below. Or maybe this is just some coking byproduct.
It was really quiet and isolated in a sea of Aristida and a few interspersed cottonwoods and willows. I’m quite surprised I didn’t see any deer or other animals about. In fact, I was only surrounded by birds birds birds (mostly dark eyed juncos), in the the many standing dead trees – and a big crabapple – once back at Indian Ridge Marsh.
Calumet Region Adventure Club 