Wood frogs egg masses line the edge of a ditch along the Ghost Town Trail. The trick is to lay the eggs in a spot that will retain water long enough for the tadpoles to hatch and mature into froglets. Large blooms of egg masses like this are a defense mechanism to help perpetuate the species by providing protection in mass. Wood frogs are widespread and are found even as far north as the Arctic. They have the ability to freeze almost solid and then resurrect themselves as temperatures warm.
There must be something in the ancient human psyche that compels people to stack stones, known as cairns. Throughout the world you will find places where stones have been stacked in various formations and alters. These ones stood for quite awhile along the Ghost Town Trail. "A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Most people have heard of Punxsutawney Phil, not so many have heard of Blue Spruce Bob. Each year, for many years, our maintenance crew would place Blue Spruce Bob out near our park office to celebrate Groundhog Day and to have a little fun with Marlene, our former secretary. Each year Bob was decorated in a different theme, this one being the year the Steelers last made it to the Super Bowl. When Marlene retired after 28 years with us Blue Spruce Bob also retired.
