Douthat State Park - East Side Hike

Yesterday the Monday Morning Hikers hiked along Beard's Mountain on the east side of Douthat State Park: Beard's Gap Trail to Mountain Side Trail to Ross Camp Trail to Wilson Creek Trail back to start. With 43 miles of hiking trails in the park, it's one of our standard destinations.

Crossing the stream along Beard's Gap Trail.

View of Douthat Lake and Middle Mountain from Mountain Side Trail.

Crossing a stream along Mountain Side Trail.

At the 6th stream crossing along Mountain Side Trail (at the top of the elusive Ross Camp Trail), a huge chestnut oak had fallen along the stream bed. Making our way through the fallen crown was difficult for two reasons: (1) finding a way through the maze of branches in the crown, and (2) never knowing exactly where was solid ground and where might you drop a foot or two into the stream bed.

Spotted Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata). The green leaves are visible throughout the winter on the forest floor (hence the name). It does not have a minty "wintergreen" odor.

Goat's Rue (Tephrosia virginiana).

One of my favorite wildflowers: Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) emerges from the forest floor in the summer - especially after a soaking rain. I wrote a whole blog post about Indian Pipe back in 2016.

We also saw two spectacular fungi. This is the Jack O' Lantern Mushroom, that reportedly glows in the dark if it is dark enough. I've tried, but never seen the glow.

Sulphur Shelf Fungus is common and eye-catching.