a walk on the Boughton River trail

Saturday was another beautiful fall day. It was windy, but at 12 degrees, we had to get out there and take another walk.

At the eastern end of PEI, the Boughton River trail starts at Bridgetown, about 65 km east of Charlottetown.  The start of the trail is on Highway 4, on the right, just past the firehall in Bridgetown.

The trail follows the Boughten river on both sides.  It is narrow, with lots of ups and downs, exposed roots, and foot bridges.






It is rare to see any wildlife when we travel in a big group, but today we it was just the two of us, and we got really lucky.  I thought I was walking past just one more stick, but Wayne suddenly yelled "don't step on that snake!"  And there it was, about 14 inches long, grey and black, with a long red tongue tipped in black.  It acted like a much bigger snake with a feisty, aggressive attitude - it coiled up and struck at us.  I think it's an Eastern Garter Snake.  I'm glad I'm not a mouse!
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Lots of foot bridges are kindly covered with old shingles to prevent us old walkers from slipping.

My theory as to why tiny trees in the woods have really big leaves:  The trees in the woods are fighting for the light.  Small trees are shaded out by big trees.  The small trees produce big leaves as a way to catch as much light as possible, which they turn into energy so that they can grow tall too.

big beech leaves on a tiny tree

Larch can't really be called an evergreen:  it produces needles but drops them in the fall.

This hen of the woods fungus is growing around a wild rose.  This mushroom is often found at the base of oak trees.  It has many overlapping brown-colored spoon-shaped caps. The interior flesh is white, and the bottoms of the caps are covered with tiny pores instead of gills. The caps grow on short stems and each stem originates from one common, heavy stalk. Although some hens-of-the-woods appear to be attached to the lower trunk of a tree, they actually sprout from the trees’ root system.  This is an edible mushroom that can be sauteed in butter.

Mountain ash berries drop from neighbouring trees.

this stump is starting to decay in a rounded pattern.

Walking along the trail seems like you are in the middle of the wilderness, but the sounds of civilization are always present.  Looking through the trees to the other side of the river, and there are signs of people everywhere.