FODR is blessed to have several walking trails/access roads on its properties, trails and roads that give access to the Dragon Run and its surrounding lands. As such, the trails, etc., provide opportunities to view not only the Dragon, but also the terrestrial fauna and flora of the Dragon lands. The current trails are all level, relatively clear and well marked, provide easy walking, and have one or more benches to sit on.

There are three trails/access roads that are more or less actively being used and further developed for “nature viewing”: 1) the Mascot Loop Trail, the main focus of this note, 2) a Circle Access Trail at the canoe access area/parking lot where FODR holds its annual picnic in October, and 3) the Big Island Loop Nature Trail. The latter two trails will be featured in subsequent notes.

All three of these trails variously feature trail-marker signs, kiosks, and wooden posts with attached plates that designate plants, or features of interest, at that site. In addition, many orange “utility-company” flags designate candidate posts for inclusion. The plates on the various posts primarily emphasize trees, because plates for vines, shrubs, ferns, flowers, etc., are generally not commercially available, except by special order at quadruple the cost ($3-4) of regular orders.

There is something to see, or listen to, throughout the year along the Dragon lands trails, though these things change in a regular monthly and seasonal progression. For example, it is now raining heavily as I write this in midwinter. That makes me think about the deafening choruses of chorus frogs, small tree frogs of the genus Pseudacris, that often begin calling in early February or so, even with snow on the ground. They are soon followed by choruses of spring peepers, another tree frog, in March, and, a bit later, by large numbers of birds migrating into and through this area as April progresses and a large variety of plants begin to leaf out and grow. Many of these plants have been identified and marked along the Dragon Trails.

The Mascot Loop Trail (MLT), a dry trail some quarter-mile long and with unrestricted access, is located on FODR property near Mascot where the Dragon crosses Route 603; this well-defined trail begins where the grassy parking lot at the roadside leads down the bank to the Dragon. It then proceeds upstream along the edge of the Dragon bottomlands for some 200 yards, then makes a wide loop to the right away from the Dragon and circles back to the far end of the grassy parking lot. A nicely-done kiosk off “in the woods” to the right near the beginning of the trail provides information about Dragon Run ecology and FODR; a short central path beginning at the kiosk provides an alternate route back to the main MLT.

A series of 26 exhibits – posts (12) and candidate posts (14) – now designates various plants, primarily trees (24), along the MLT; please do not remove the orange “utility company” flags as the plants there may not be easy to find again. A few specimens (8) still need definitive identification, but most (18) have been completely identified and just await installation of wooden posts to complete the exhibit.

Completely identified trees now include, more or less in sequence, American sycamore; sweet gum; overcup oak; river birch; baldcypress; American holly, beech, and hornbeam; red maple; loblolly and Virginia pine; sassafras; tulip-tree; pawpaw; redbud; flowering dogwood; and eastern redcedar. Tree identities still requiring some confirmation include swamp white/swamp chestnut oak; a hackberry; black walnut; northern red oak; black oak, and an elm. One vine, muscadine grape, and one shrub, coralberry, have also been marked, at this point, and there is an extensive patch of Lycopodium, a fern ally, around the Virginia pine. Other taxa may be marked in the future.

Although FODR does a good job maintaining this trail, a few thoughtless people still just discard their litter, primarily at the grassy parking area and along the first fifty feet, or so, of the Trail. Every piece of trash picked up helps a little bit to keep the MLT clean and attractive, and provide an example for our world. -