Alum Creek Dam

Greg and I went to Alum Creek Dam today. There was a lot of water flowing! We walked up the huge concrete staircase to the top of the dam then decided to go to the right toward the woods because we had never gone that direction. It was a beautiful day with sun and blue skies. The wind was a little chilly but I was ok with no more than a t-shirt and jeans on. There were a lot of people out jogging and walking their dogs. About half way to the woods I started hearing a high pitched noise. I asked Greg if he thought the sound was birds or if it was a loose belt on a car far away. He didn't hear the noise I was talking about so we kept listening. As we walked the noise got louder and louder until I knew it was coming from the woods and it was the sound of many many frogs! I was excited that there are frogs out, that means it really is getting warm out! Greg asked me if I wanted to go down to the grass area and I said "I want to go in the woods to find the frogs!". So we carefully walked down the big rocky hill and slipped into the woods. There were a lot of briers that will soon become berry bushes. There were hundreds of tiny plants sprouting underfoot. We walked a little farther then we saw a tiny swamp! As soon as we got near the swamp it became silent. We couldn't help but make a lot of noise getting there because there are still crisp dried leaves covering the forest floor. I sat there for a minute but the frogs didn't make a sound so we kept walking. I saw something bright blue at the very edge of the water so I looked closer and saw that it was an old aqua colored glass insulator. I picked it up then I realized it was broken so I put it back down. The date on it was 1893.

As we walked up a small hill Greg said "look, there's a snake!". I couldn't see it at first so we each took another step and the snake slithered away. I saw it that time. It looked like a queen snake. They look similar to garter snakes but they are more brown in color. We walked around a little more then decided we were done fighting briers and found a way out of the forest.

We climbed back up the rocky hill then down the other side which was covered in grass. Near the bottom of the hill I spotted a dandelion! The first one I have seen this year! Winter was so hard this year I am happy to see any kind of flower! We noticed that the sky had turned grey and it was getting colder. We walked in the wet mushy grass back to the truck and just after we got inside it started to rain. We were very glad to get back when we did!