Bunch's Journal: Beaver Pond Journal 2013 #2

Journal Entry for August 25, 2013 Mary and I were up at 4:00 A.M. and on the road at 4:30 A.M.,destination Moose River Plains Wild Forest and the new beaver meadow that was the beaver pond.

Arrived at the Indian Lake Trailhead parking lot at 8:40 A.M. After parking the truck I grabbed my 5D Mark ll camera with the 100-400mm lens attached then walked across the road and down to the meadow to see if any wildlife was about. All was quite, suddenly the silence was broken by loon yodels and wails from the area of Squaw Lake.

Looking across the meadow I noticed over thirty dew drenched, backlit spiderwebs along the south edge of the beaver meadow. I couldn't resist, just had to shoot a few images of the spiderwebs.

Early Morning Spiderwebs

Headed back to the truck to arrange my packs for the bushwhack around to the far side of the meadow. Stopped to retrieve my cached set up pins along the way. After getting the set up pins I'd only gone a few steps when a movement caught my eye. I had nearly stepped on a toad, an American toad I believe. The toad hopped back into a depression it appeared to have dug. Again I couldn't resist, shot an image of the toad nestled below ground level in the depression.

Toad Nestled Down in a Depression

Mary and I arranged our packs then completed the bushwhack that was far more difficult than I had anticipated. We made the bushwhack O.K. but won't go back the same way.
After a short break I positioned my tripod, then assembled the panoramic gear to shoot the beaver meadow. The light was very harsh, lots of contrast, this was going to be a difficult shoot. Put in nearly two hours of shooting five panorama series as the light continually changed. None of the light was
great , but the changing shadows did help.

Beaver Meadow From the Southeast Corner

Meanwhile Mary shot some images along the southern border of the meadow and collected a few flowers and leaves and put them in her flower press.

Packed our gear and began the hike back to the truck before noon. Took a break for lunch, then went over to the beaver dam, found the Dam set up pin and shot an image as close as possible to the original Dam Detail image. Next I moved the tripod about six or eight feet to the right and higher, then shot a few more images of the dam area. That done I moved my gear over to the location of the Timber Detail set up pin and shot five more images.