Our annual pancake hike at Beaver Meadow was a huge success. There were 34 hikers who showed up for the pancake breakfast before we set off to hike the trails. Last year we had to snowshoe the trails but this year there was very little snow to be seen and the ground was just frozen enough that it was not really muddy. We had open views of the Beaver Pond, hiked the gently rolling hills of the Long Trail, lucky patcher apk Backwoods Trail and Tulip Summit before going through the Old Growth section. Along the way we learned about reading the landscape’s history, identifying White Pine trees (with its packets of five needles), middens, Tulip and Amer. Chestnut trees, saw skunk cabbage popping up all over the wet sections, an owl pellet plus many other things.
Afterwards many of our group went back for a second helping of pancakes and then participated in some of the other activities being sponsored that day by the nature center as part of their annual Maple Festival.