CONSTRUCTION AHEAD

Saturday I did a hike on a 10.5 mile trail in Orange County, Indiana called the Springs Valley Lake Trail. On this particular day I found a lot of construction along the way. You know the phrase 'busy as a beaver', well these guys have been working overtime. The first mile into the hike you have a stream to cross and the water was up a bit so I had to go looking for a decent place to cross. I found this first big tree that had been gnawed on and brought down by the big furry things. I put my pack next to the tree to give you some scale as to how be the trunk was. They're just not afraid to bring something big down, although I know they had to be disappointed with this one because it didn't get all the way to the ground. This one had been done in the early spring but I found lots of others that were a lot fresher.

When it comes to building dams these guys know their stuff. Halfway into my hike I found this dam here at left that was a big one of close to 50 feet across. The water behind the dam was 2-3 feet deep as well. I never saw any of the little guys around but I'm sure they were aware that I was there and probably just kept themselves hid. The dam was tightly held together and letting very little water through as you can see here. The biggest construction area, however, was yet to come. I found a total of six completed dams on two streams.

This was the biggest construction zone on the whole hike. There were three completed dams at this site and the beavers had also brought down several big trees, as big or bigger than the one in the first photograph. A tree you can't see is one to the far left that is as big as the one seen here on the right. As of right now they've gnawed about halfway through it. I expect by the time I hike this trail again the tree will be laying on the ground. You can see two dams here the beavers have built. I guess they just weren't satisfied having one swimming pool. They needed three instead. Yes, there's a third dam about 30 yards over to the right where you can't see. And they brought down even more trees 100-200 yards upstream from this site. You've really got to admire these guys. They really get into their work.