June 28, 1990 - A Summer's Foray Through the DunesC14 The Suffolk Times • June 28, 1990
A Summer's Foray Through the Dunes
By Paul Stoutenburah
How easy it is to lose track of time
when you go camping. Here I am sit-
ting among tall, white pine trees in
New Hampshire's Bear Brook State
Park. The sun is out and we have just
finished dinner. A haze drifts lazily
through the trees from someone's camp-
Focus on
Nature
fire out of sight. A little chipmunk
chatters unseen in the brush nearby only
to emerge, look about, and scamper off
in pursuit of chipmunk adventures. Is it
Thursday or Friday? I call to Barbara and
she reassures me it's Friday. We've
been away since Monday.
Our first night was spent at Cape Cod
at Nickerson State Park. It was there the
fog set in and stayed with us most of
the week. We'll remember that park for
its tremendous display of lady slippers,
those elegant orchids of pink that we
still have in a few selected areas here on
the East End. We had a grand time at
Cape Cod, even though the fog was
with us and it was here I realizpd how
similar our dunes of the south shore are
to this area. From Montauk to Fire Is-
land, the vegetation is almost identical
to that of the Cape Cod seashore.
From the rugged sea rocket that
stands first against the sea on the outer
beach, to the vigorous seaside goldenrod
now putting forth its lush growth, to
the dune grass that holds and builds our
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
A BEGINNING —One seed can build a dune. A bit sand collect and build around this beginning. The
of an exaggeration, but nevertheless here is the more grass, the more collecting and building, the
starting point. As the wind blows, tiny particles of bigger the dune.
dunes, the similarities were everywhere. Behinds the dunes, where it was less strikingly colorful bird nests. Occasion -
There were the wonderful silvery harsh and windy, we'd find other simi- ally we'll have them in the winter in
clumps of dusty miller scattered about larities. The beach pea, now in bloom our area and they'll visit our feeders;
doing their part in containing the ever- with its deep purple flower, and the salt what a show they make.
moving sands. spray rose that is also blossoming with Ferns Along the Roads
its deep rose color all have a part to With the wetness that followed us we
play in the ever - moving shifting sands.
The rose rosa r Al d i 't� were doubly glad to be in our small but
GONE
GIRDING t
ugosa, wi pro uce
blossoms in both pink and white right
dry camper that rode in the back of our
•
up to September and its blossoms will
pickup. We remember well tenting in
On Sale this
Summer for
yield those red - orange rose hips that, if
just such weather. All along the
used correctly, can make a wonderful
roadside great clumps of ferns made the
$ Q95
addition to jams and jellies. Of course,
woods and road edges look like tropical
49
my friend bayberry, with its scented
forests. The tall cinnamon fern, three to
leaves and later its grayish berries, was
four feet tall, was the one that stood out
,
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Wo \
\ ... ..\...
ti��a
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Gone Birdingl
to be found everywhere.
rY
the most. Later we'd see it with its
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More Similarities
Also in the swale area behind the
dunes the low, leathery- leaved bearbery
carpeted great areas with its thick mat
that held the sands. Poverty grass, or
hudsonia, was in blossom and in some
spots the whole swale was blanketed in
yellow. In among the bearberry and hud-
sonia was the now -soft, blue -green rein-
deer moss. The fog had softened its usu-
ally brittle stems. Come the hot days of
summer this will change and crunch un-
der your feet should you step on it. We
even spotted the familiar earth stars,
those small puff -like balls with their
covering spread out in the shape of a
star. We felt right at home in Cape Cod
and took time to reacquaint ourselves
with the many wonders of this fascinat-
ing area. We visited the National
Seashore's Park Headquarters there.
Their work and protection of these areas
are a credit to the park service and
should be an inspiration to the govern-
ment to acquire more. What better gift
to its people?
As we headed up the coast of Maine,
with the fog all around us, we made a
side excursion to see friends. All along
the roadsides lupine brightened our way.
This one plant outshone all others on
our trip. Once we saw the colorful yel-
low, black and white evening grosbeak.
It's in these -northern forests" that this
cinnamon spikes. We have it in our wet
areas throughout the East End. Then
there was the interrupted fern that looks
as if something killed its foliage half-
way up the stem. It's easily recognized
by this dark section. We also saw
bracken fern that in some areas covered
the space above the ground in such
profusion it seemed as if it was the
ground itself. All this greenery, blended
in with the new tree growth of hard and
soft woods, made driving even in the
fog a pleasure.
After lots of laughter and good cheer
and a stay overnight in Kennebunkport
with our friends, we were again on our
way. Heading up the coast to revisit
Acadia National Park, we found the fog
so heavy we changed plans and moved
inland, where we camped at the White
Mountain National Forest in New
Hampshire. This was a bit more primi-
tive than other areas, but then our needs
are few. Covered bridges and clear, rush-
ing rivers are what we'll remember
about our stay there. Of course, it did
bring back memories when the one- and
two -holer outhouses were once a part of
life which no one regrets leaving be-
hind. The fresh, new pumped water was
a treat and we filled our water bottles
with it. Being so close to North Con-
way, N.H., we just had to poke our
noses into Bean's factory store and pur-
See Focus, next page
J