Bennett Mill Site Hike
December 9, 2013

Location

Aerial view of the trek via Google Earth. Start of trail is in the upper right (NE) "corner". The mill site is at the NW point of the trail.
Another view of the trek superimposed on an aerial photo taken during fall or winter.
Area as shown on 1858 map of Oxford County

Hike Summary


Elevation Profile
(note that GPS elevation readings are less accurate than position (horizontal) readings, resulting in the fluctuations shown below)

Notes and Photos

On the way to the mill site, we saw:
huge trees,
weird trees,
huge fungi,
racoon outhouses,
scat of various forms and sources,
tree bark, and
on and on.

Finally we found the mill site - a beautiful location completely taken over by nature.


Left: An incredibly large and vigorous white pine with multiple trunks. The trunks are most likely the result of injury to the original terminal shoot (by animal or insect), when the branches below took on the role of new leaders.
Right: This twisted tree looks as though vines have encircled it. What appear to be vines are actually ridges in the tree. What caused the ridges and the ultimate spiral form?
 
This tree was evidently a favorite of the pileated woodpecker.

   

This is probably an artist conk  mushroom, but it is huge!

This is scat of unknow origin. Nearby was an accumulation of scat indicative of a raccoon (oddly human-like). Unlike many other forms of wildlife, raccoons tend to poop in what I would politely call "restrooms". Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of said restroom.
 
     
This is a weird shelf mushroom grown on what appears to be a gray birch.

This is the Bennett Mill site, clearly returned to nature. The stones of the foundation are visible through the trees in the center of the photograph.
 
A closer view of the mill site.

...and a little abstract  art