Silver Springs

This past weekend I took my children to Silver Springs State Park on the Fox River, just south of Plano Illinois. It was my first trip to the park, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I made some sandwiches for lunch, grabbed a bottle of Koolaid, and packed my rucksack with a few paper bags should we decide to collect to samples. The park is all of 15 miles west from where I live, and took about 30 minutes to get there. Unsure of the weather, I made the kids bring their coats, and ended up carrying them for latter part of the day. On the whole, it turned out for be a wonderful spring day, with the temperature somewhere in the mid 50s.

The Fox River

We parked the car in the lot east of Loon Lake, and headed in the direction towards the spring. Rather than visiting the spring straight away, we continued down the trail down until we reached the Fox river, occasionally stopping to investigate some plants and take photos. At the bank of the river, we spotted a duck sitting on a rock in the distance, probably a mallard. The girls commented that this was the closest they had ever been to the river.  

The Woods

At this point, we were essentially at the eastern most corner of the park, and for the next hour followed the river trail at the edge of the woods. The woodland was not particularly dense and the groundcover consisted primarily of a sea of garlic mustard with some blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) riding the wave. 

Upon reaching an intersection, we veered to the left towards the actual spring. It was here I made my first fungus discovery. Growing at the base of a tree were some tan coloured mushrooms with a conical cap and black gills. I withdrew a pruning knife and collected a sample for further identification at home. 

When I stopped to pay attention to some plants, a passing couple told me they knew them as "bloody noses", but they did not know the common name. With the help of my tryusrt field guide, and online resources, I would later identify these plants as Trillium recurvatum, commonly called Prairie trillium.

The spring for which the park is named is covered with watercress. Beside it is a wooden bridge which  now appears to serve more as an observation desk than anything else. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources describes the spring as: 

A pool of clear bubbling water which sparkles like silver on sunny days...

and further notes that: 

Even on extremely cold days, this pool does not freeze.

Near the spring is the remains of a fallen tree, which proved too great of a temptation for young folks not to climb and explore. 

Climbing

As our journey down river trail continued, the budding young naturalists were more interested in collecting  rocks than the flowers and fungi that were the focus of my attention. It wasn't long before we hit another intersection, in which the new trail climbed up an embankment. It looked mysterious. "Can we go up there?", the explorers asked. I agreed, and they happily ran up the short path to be immediately greeted by a clear blue lake. Nearby, a man sat fishing. No sooner had they seen the lake than a rock left their possession and plopped in the waters. I told them they should not throw stones into the water when someone is fishing, as this can frighten the fish away. A little further down lake was a picnic bench, and we decided that this was a good opportunity to eat our lunch.

Lunch at Beaver Lake

We headed back to the river trail and followed it until we reached the road that runs through the park. There was a ramp that runs directly into the Fox River, at which point Scarlett commented, "Who would want to drive down there?" It's a reasonable question for a six year old, so I explained that this was for people who had boats. 

Not having a map of the park and its trails, I wasn't sure which direction to head next; that was, until I spotted another path that headed into the woods. This proved to be the most interesting part of the day, as the trails would often split, leaving us with a crucial decision to be made. It's was here that I was honoured to make the acquaintance of Podophyllum peltatum, or Mayapple, a pretty plant in which a single flower hides under a skirt of leaves. Often we would head down a trail, only to backtrack when it appear to take us out of the woods. I tried to snap a photo of an admiral butterfly, but the damn thing refused to cooperate. We climbed over trees, and followed the trail up a steep slope. Eventually we came out into a clearing, and spotted a children's playarea. We stayed there for a while, and like the big kid I am, I spent some quality time on the swings. 

What goes up...

Our last trail walk would take us back to car and through the wooded areas south of the lakes. We caught a brief glimpse of a red cardinal, and a couple of young love birds (human variety) on a bridge. 

...must come down

When the trail split into two, with one heading upwards and the other going down, we always seemed to take the one that required the greater expenditure of energy. I can only assume that in the opinion of the youthful mind, the path that goes up is much more exciting and interesting.

Overall, we had a fun day out, and will probably be visiting again in the summer.