Canoe the Little River

The Little River meanders through the southern section of the town of Canton. A car top boat launch by the wooden bridge on County RT 27 just outside the village limits of Canton is a good access point. From there you have the option of paddling upstream through the many oxbows or head downstream where it drains into the Grasse River.

The wooden bridge is just around the bend headed upstream from the boat launch. After taking a photo I turned around and headed to the Grasse River. The trip to the Grasse is short, it took me about 20 minutes of lazy paddling and drifting.

Why so slow? Spotting a Great Blue Heron pretty much stopped me in my ‘wake’.

These are pretty shy birds that don’t like anyone getting too close. I let the slight breeze push me slowly towards it.

I never did get close, thank goodness my camera has an 18x zoom.

Turtles are even more wary of big green logs floating by with a wiseacre on it. I don’t know why they’re so shy. They keep their shells on while sunbathing so it’s not like I’m going to see their naughty bits.

After disturbing the wildlife with my camera it only took a couple of minutes to sight the end of the ‘road’ where the Little River empties into the Grasse River.

Looking downstream on the Grasse River. The Miner Street bridge is just beyond the houses in the distance.

It was time to turn around and head back. Here’s a photo from the mouth of the Little river looking upstream.

I took my time going back too. There were a number of wildflowers to check out. Pickererweed, Arrowheads, Joe Pye-weed, Turtleheads, Cardinal Flowers, Swamp Milkweed and others lined the shore. Even drifts of Forget-Me-Nots had bloomed where the water had receded. But it was the Bullhead Lily I was after. They had yet to be added to my trophy list and I was determined to get some good photos of them.

Bullhead Lily – Nuphar variegatum

To really appreciate the flower you need a close look and a peek inside the cup like bloom.

A older flower has lost it’s yellow stamen like petals but has attracted a bug collection of some sort.

Anyone find my little excursion on the Little River ribbiting besides this guy? But then he’s sitting in muck ready to eat flies.

I only hope you’ve got better taste than that. If not you’re welcome to join him. Here’s a Google map to help you find the way:

View Larger Map

…and a year long mystery solved – probably. The first 2 photos are from last year, taken at an isolated grave site for two War of 1812 soldiers that died on a march from Plattsburg to Sackets Harbor. The site is set back off a back road in the woods and sees few visitors, just the place for ghosts to hang out.
Last years post of the grave site and Ghost Plants

The most common name for these plants is Indian Pipe. Another is corpse plant. I prefer Ghost Plant, it rolls off my tongue a lot easier than Monotropa uniflora

The pale white translucent plants are eerie looking in the deep shadows. Without chlorophyll they do look like a ghost of a plant.

What got me last year were these specimens growing in the same location. I thought they were a different species since the others as they matured didn’t have the same appearance.

Those in the photo above weren’t nodding and certainly weren’t turning black like the others as they got old. So I did what any self respecting lazy man would do. I forgot about them. That is until I ran across some more Ghost Plants while I was hiking about the Middle Branch of the Grass River this summer.

These made me take a second look and sure enough I’m agreeing with some of the comments on last years post. They sure do look to be the same plant. Just to make sure I peeled the outer petals from one. I’ll swear they’re the same plant. Guess it’s OK for Mother Nature to fool me. Fool me once – shame on me, fool me twice and I guess you know what I am. But that’s OK, MN and I get along fine even though she’s a big tease.

This creeping native wildflower with evergreen leaves has an odd way of producing berries. The flowers at the end of the stems are twinned yet only form a single berry.

I knew that intellectually but it didn’t really sink in. Reading is one thing but seeing the ‘process’ another. Let’s start at the beginning with the flower buds. Cute as a button, aren’t they?

Partridgeberry flower buds

Moving on to the flowers you can easily see they’re coming from a common base. look close – that base is source of the berry.

Partridgeberry twinned flowers

That was the part I didn’t fully understand until I finally saw the next photo and all the pieces clicked together.

Partridgeberry – maturing green berry

The indentations at the tip of the berry are where the flowers had been attached. DOH!

This is one of the ‘mysteries’ I mentioned that was cleared up during my visit to the Stillwater Club on the Middle Branch of the Grasse River. The other had to do with ghost plants and I think I finally know what I found last year. I should get right on that before I get distracted again.