A Spring Walk to a Spring

Himself and I decided to enjoy a perfect afternoon to take a walk up to the spring that feeds the lake.

After a half mile we go through this gate  to Lake Three.  Only a mile more to go!

It seems the earliest spring flowers are small ones.  But what they don't have in size, they make up in numbers.  SO many of them.

Every one of them lovely.

The critters are out too.

I would have loved to watch him getting up there, not sure how he managed it.

These metallic beetles are amazing.

Beavers... don't often see them but you really see their damage.  They sure aren't cutting this tree a break.

Starting to green up.  Pretty soon you won't be able to see the forest for the trees.

My favorite tree are the mighty beeches with their incredible root systems.

Sometimes those roots hold surprises.

Like tiny Spring Beauties.

Here's an interesting tree group.

There are eight of them in the grouping.  My guess is they were stump suckers/sprouts from a tree that died a long time ago.

Can you see me down on the trail?  Look on the right side...

A little farther along we found this huge grape vine.  It is so big it has its own knot hole!

LOOK!

There's a rare Tennessee micro owl living in it!  Isn't it amazing what you can see in the forest?  ;-D

And finally, the objective of our trek.  Isn't it a lovely little spring?  Next time out I'm going to clean it up.

OK, time to head back home!