The Miraculous Tree

For Christmas, hubby bought me a Valley Quest book. In it, there are clues for 75 different "treasure hunts" in the Upper Valley area of NH and VT. The clues are given in the form of a poem, riddle or even haiku! They are a really fun way to spend an afternoon, learn about the local area and just be active. Today, we did 2 quests. The first one didn't go so well. Let's just say that one of the adults did not listen to the other adult who was very reasonably *ahem* explaining that none of the clues matched up to what we were seeing and perhaps we were on the wrong trail. OK, perhaps I was not all that reasonable, but I was scared! The trail we were on was very steep and not very family friendly. When it became a narrow, slippery, leaf-covered trail at the top of a ravine, this mom took the two youngest and turned around...it was too much for my nerves...not to mention my legs, lungs, etc. The braver members of my family found the waterfall we were looking for, PLUS the correct, family-friendly trail, which they followed out. Anyway. A little chipmunk peeking out from his hole at the bottom of a tree

waiting for the others to come out of the woods, enjoying the view
wild forget-me-nots...why can't I get this camera to focus correctly!?

Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to go on another quest in the same area. This time for a Miraculous Tree. In this quest, we were led through a bit of tree identification, learned what a DBH is (diameter at breast height), and followed clues to find the Miraculous Tree. It turned out to be the Ely Chestnut! Amazingly enough, this mature chestnut tree survived the blight that killed all of the American Chestnut trees in the early part of the 20th century. It will most likely be the only mature American Chestnut tree that we will ever see in our lifetimes, according to the quest!! It truly was a treasure hunt! We took pictures, picked up some fallen chestnuts (OUCH, they are really sharp--they look like giant burdocks, but much, much sharper!) gathered a couple of leaves and will record them in our nature journals tomorrow.
It was a lovely day spent with the people I love most (except college girl, who was working) , outside in beautiful weather, enjoying God's creation--including a Miraculous Tree!