Trails With Tails (See Extra)

Today was Myles 12th birthday - the first one we celebrated since 2012.  Poor guy, but he got a lot of special treats today including a good walk and a Frosty Paws Ice Cream and new peanut butter cookie treats.  He ran that trail like a puppy - long may that last.

There's a conservation area near our house with quite the history as I found out reading the available trail material.  The Great Meadow is a 100 acre legacy of the last glacier.  "Indians were here for thousands of years before the first settlers arrived. Within a mile of this site, an archeological site where lithic materials were found dating from 8000BC to 2000BC!"  When the first settlers arrived in 1734 only a ribbon of water flowed through this meadow.  Hunters and trappers had virtually eliminated the beavers sometime during the 1500s.  The beavers were reintroduced in the 1940s and the dam was rebuilt, the Meadow flooded once again and a beaver family flourished for the first time in 500 years.  The trees that had taken over eventually drowned and only a few dead trunks remain as perches for birds.  Today there were swallows in the nesting boxes (lots of them) and lots of wildlife activity is evident.  A bear has been spotted here about a year ago.  Fortunately we didn't see one today.  

The Birthday Boy is laid out on his mat sleeping peacefully.