Hiking in April means dodging snow storms and mud

Don’t put away your snow shovel yet. It’s only April, and we live in Vermont.

Mark Breen has noted, on Vermont Public’s Eye on the Sky, that long-term weather records confirm that Mother’s Day snowstorms are not uncommon.

Even the most casual observer can notice signs of spring: peepers sing us to sleep, snowdrops and crocuses flower as daffodils bow beneath wet snow. Wood frogs are among the earliest frogs to sing their love songs. While blood antifreeze allows them to spend winter in a frozen state beneath leaf litter, they are quick to awaken to rain and warmer temperatures. They promptly migrate to water to breed.

On a mid-March visit to the vernal pool that our team monitors, we heard the quack-quack song of male wood frogs. A few weeks later, in early April, the pool brimmed with clumps of wood frog and salamander eggs. Adding to the joy of visiting a vernal pool brimming with life, hepatica and spring beauties poked from the leaf litter. No black flies yet, a perfect spring outing.

If you hear frogs and toads but don’t know exactly who is singing, Vermont Center for Ecostudies offers recordings of the mating calls of Vermont frogs and toads. From the center: The sound of calling frogs is one of the most surefire and pleasant signs that warm weather is coming. Vermont is home to 11 species of frog and toad, but depending on the year, you may hear as many as eight species over the course of April, starting with the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus). Wood frogs may start in March with a call that sounds like a raspy quack. When assembled in large numbers, they can sound like a flock of ducks.

The Vermont Center for Ecostudies’s April field guide features eight short recordings of frogs and toads, the second feature of this blog. The first newsletter item describes the entertaining and enchanting courtship ritual of the American woodcock or timberdoodle.

While spring optimism engulfs us and before the realities of woodchucks, bulb-hungry chipmunks and weeds slap us in the face, make a plan to include pollinator-friendly plants in your landscape. There’s still time to order from Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District’s sale of native plants. The ordering deadline is May 3 with pick-up May 10. The plants are generally small and always bare root, so they need prompt attention.

Over the decades I have populated my garden and yard with a wide range of these plants with reasonable success. My witch hazel, planted as a whip years ago, now towers over me, a happy beacon in our little woods. In late October, when leaves have dropped to the ground, it bursts forth with glorious, long-petaled yellow flowers. It’s younger sib, planted more recently, is also thriving. Creating a home for these inexpensive Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District plants is an act of faith and patience, well worth the jaunt to Willison to claim your order.

Meanwhile, local nurseries are including more natives in their inventories.

Itching to hike now that spring is in the air?

Think again. Mud season is upon us, particularly at higher elevations. The Green Mountain Club offers guidance that mostly says, don’t. Roads are muddy; Camel’s Hump Road in Huntington was closed in mid-March, and hiking on soft, wet trails can do serious, long-term damage.

We’re fortunate to have Mt. Philo in our midst. Asphalt may not be one of your spring dreams, yet the paved road gives walkers and bikers a good workout without inflicting damage. The mount hosts spring wildflowers, and the view from the top can’t be beat.

In Shelburne, the Ti Haul Road is Mt. Philo’s opposite, completely flat. The gravel, multi-use trail, originally built for transport of the SS Ticonderoga to Shelburne Museum, runs from the lake at Shelburne Bay to Harbor Road near Shelburne Community School. Parking at both ends.

The Nature Conservancy’s Raven Ridge Preserve straddles the towns of Charlotte, Monkton and Hinesburg. Parking is on Rotax Road in Monkton. A spectacular vista unfolds across the Champlain Valley to the Adirondacks. The Ridge Trail, with many great views along its route, is closed through the breeding season of bobcats and ravens. There’s a wetland with occasional surprises, a beaver pond and the geologically fascinating and beautiful Oven, the aforementioned viewpoint to the west and a trail that leads through mixed woodlands and first growth pioneers.

If you have not visited Raven Ridge, accessible via boardwalk and trail only as far as the beaver pond, make that your spring gift to yourself. Read about it here and see if you can resist.

Happy spring, wherever and whenever you find it.