Naturalist Trip - McLane Creek Nature Trail

On this chilly, foggy Sunday morning, I was one of two other cars in a rather small parking lot when I arrived at 8:30 a.m.  As the rest of the group arrived over the next fifteen minutes parking availability never became an issue.  I was concerned about how wet and potentially icy boardwalks (at 32 degrees) might impact our footing, but it really wasn't an issue.  More salmon are dead than living at this point but there is still a lot to see and learn, especially by observing signs placed in the area by the local Stream Team.  In addition to the salmon, the mosses, fungi, lichen, and ferns gave us lots of other things to appreciate.  Our group decided to do the additional 1 mile forestry loop to look at areas of this working forest at different ages and to read informational signage place by DNR.  Everyone in our group contributed observations, questions, and their own ideas and knowledge of salmon and the area.  If I could have changed anything about this trip it would have been to schedule it for one or two weeks earlier so that we could have seen more living fish and their spawning behaviors, but the timing of the salmon run varies from year to year and the "best" time to schedule a trip can be difficult to predict.