Imagination On The Trails

Have you read The Salamander Room?

One of my son’s favorite books, this is a beautifully illustrated, imaginative story about a boy who wishes to turn his bedroom into a forest habitat so that he can bring home a salamander.

On a recent hike in the Clarksville Cave Preserve, we imagined that we were in this salamander room.

Arriving at the preserve after a torrential downpour, we were just in time to be greeted by dozens of Red-Spotted Newts, a type of salamander that we also find on the muddy trails of Grafton Park.

There were so many of these amphibians that Alex worried that we would step on them. Not a chance. It’s hard to miss these bright orange-red creatures. The newts’ greater danger is that they could be loved into extinction.

This is Amphibian Ally Brigid Smith’s concern. Noticing the decreased population of the Red-Spotted Newts at Camp Kresge, this young woman launched an outreach campaign to raise awareness about the proper handling of newts. Brigid Smith’s fun and rewarding project has earned her the highest achievement in Girl Scouts, the Gold Award.

As a fellow amphibian ally, Alex knew that, no matter how adorable, the newts had to stay in their forest home.

While Alex worried that we might step on newts, I was more concerned that we might land in a hidden cave.

Hiking these trails really means that you traverse “karst terrain (a bedrock surface that is highly dissolved and cracked) above Clarksville Cave.” (Dunn & Delaney)

Now, I’m not saying that there is any risk of falling into hidden caves, but that didn’t prevent us from imagining the possibility.

Then, again, when you explore the world with an imaginative crowd, you are likely to wonder about all kinds of things. Like, why is it that in these beautiful, natural settings in New York’s Capital Region, it is not unusual to discover abandoned vehicles? How did they get there, among all the trees? Were they dropped from planes?

Beware falling cars!

So, what’s your theory? How did these abandoned cars appear in the Capital Region forests? Post a comment. No suggestion is too wild for consideration.

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