Monday Motion

Today was a usual Monday with a little extra paperwork thrown in because of yesterday's volunteer injury.  Unfortunately, I wasn't at Troy for very long at all today.  I met with my coworkers at the beginning of the day, talked about some projects, and took care of the paperwork before heading out for Monday errands.  While I was at Ichetucknee, I looked through the spare and scrap lumber that they had in their shop.  I took some of it back to Troy for an upcoming volunteer project.  I had to cut some of the lumber in order to transport it and had to drive to the other side of the park to get a saw.  On my drive down the service road in the park, I stopped at a couple of my favorite springs on the Ichetucknee River.  These two are well hidden and are not usually seen by visitors.  The first two photos are at Mill Pond Spring.  This beautiful spring really bubbles up out of the ground and flows steadily out to the river.  It is named for a grist mill that once used the spring for power.  The cuts in the rock where the water wheel sat are still visible, though covered in moss.  Unfortunately, they are hard to see unless you get in the water and I wasn't going swimming today!



The next two photos are the Grassy Hole Spring.  Appropriately named, it is a tiny hole, surrounded in Eel Grass.  The water also bubbles above the surface at this spring before it flows through more dense vegetation to the river.  The water is crystal clear and the vibrant green and red from the Eel Grass and the leaves are almost like stained glass.  Its hard to not be awestruck by this river system. 



I took care of what I needed to at the shop at Ichetucknee, with the assistance of one of the other rangers before I headed back to Troy.  By then it was mid afternoon.  Our volunteer and I began to unload the lumber that I had rounded up at Ichetucknee.  I had just started when my arm began to ache and I realized that I had better stop before it got worse.  I was at least able to load it all without any pain.  I am getting closer and closer to having a fully functional arm again.  I took a few minutes to walk around the park next.  I chatted with a group of canoers who were passing through and answered their questions.  I also looked at a project that my coworkers took care of while I was out of the park.  They removed the deteriorating hay bales that had been slowing rainwater runoff from the cabin porch.  We are battling some major erosion on the hillside in front of the cabin and I am going to get new hay bales this week.  The remnants of the old ones were moved to slow water in another area.  We can't really repair erosion that has already happened, but we are trying to slow any further progression.


I wrapped up my projects and loose ends in the office and talked to my evening relief for a little while before heading home for the day.  I will rest up for another day on the go tomorrow.