green lakes

Last weekend (is it already time for this weekend?) I went to Green Lakes State Park with two of my friends here.  It was Labor Day Weekend, so the place was quite busy near the parking lot.  As soon as we got away from the parking lot though the crowds disappeared.  I didn't take any photos, so you'll have to rely on my words alone.  I did take my gps, so you can see the walk we took: map.

The lake is in a low valley, the hills on either side rise about 45 meters above the lake surface.  The lake was a beautiful clear blue color and very transparent.  Despite the lakes not being particularly wide, about 600 meters, it is quite deep 55m.  After some research on the wikipedia article, I found out that the bedrock is about 45 more meters beneath the bottom of the lake.  It is covered by sediments.  From the top of the hills to the bottom of the lake is over 150 meters!  I have oven wondered what carves out such deep lakes in places like this (admittedly there aren't all that many of them).  This was a topic of conversation during our walk.  We couldn't come up with an explanation.  The above article suggests that they are the bottoms of waterfalls, and the gorge they are in is similar to the Niagara river gorge.

Also seen on the trek: tiny frogs, about the size of my thumbnail, several different types of mushroom, a few fish, easter white cedar trees.  There is apparently an old growth stand to the south of Round Lake, but I didn't notice it while I was there.  I would like to visit that next time I go.

I really am noticing that the wild life is much more accessible and varied here than back home.  Maybe I just wasn't noticing it quite as much there because I was taking it for granted.  The frogs really surprise me, and the varieties of mushrooms.  I don't know why those in particular stick out.  I have also seen different insects, a fuzzy caterpiller with brushes on his forehead, and a millipede, which I had never seen before.  And of course the fire flies I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

where was frogger invented?

Last night it rained and thundered. And the frogs came out to cross the road. Being from the west, where frogs aren't quite as common apperantly, I had never seen this before. I always thought frogger was an odd game. Well, I propose that it was invented near Syracuse, NY. It was pretty sad to see them hopping across the highway, with their weak mode of locomotion. Hopping just doesn't look very graceful.

bonus late breaking news

A first for me: I saw fireflies tonight.  We went for a walk at Beaver Lake, a little too late for the route that we chose.  As it was getting dark, we spotted what looked like blinking eyes in the distance, but when we got closer we realized that they were fireflies.  It was a very nice welcome!