The snow started melting on Friday and the high water you see is strictly from snow melt. This is taken from the ford on the Beery farm where the creek makes a u-turn. There were no skunk cabbage as that area is under 1 to 2 feet of water right now. There is good news for mushroom hunters as one of the prime areas is under water as well. Deer Creek has been over banks several times this winter and there is a lot of debris deposited. The grass is greening under the trees to the left. The geese were scolding us as we upset their gathering. Jerry the boxer (named for THE Jerry Beery who is no longer with us) flushed a deer and Brookes has seen 11 or 12 wild turkeys in the cornfield near the creek. We are all hoping for an end to the snow and freezing temperatures. Today was a good start!
The annual creek walk started in 1993, soon after I returned to Madison County. Jerry and I started walking the creek the first warm weekend in February to see what had changed over the winter when neither of us was fishing. Jerry was a life-long steward of this land and would scrutinize each of the many trees he planted to control erosion . The newly returned beavers loved his ash trees even more than he did. After Jerry's death we have continued this tradition and tell stories to remember and keep alive all the stories from this special place.
In one such story, Jerry went to feed his cattle about a quarter mile from his house during the blizzard of 1977. As he was walking back, a white-out cut the visibility to zero. He blindly stumbled around until he walked into a tree. He knew which tree it was and easily found his way home. Not very many of us know any place that well!
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