Fort Wilderness/Wilderness Walk with Photos, Part I up

<there is a wide cart
road that starts behind the Settlement Trading Post and leads to the
start
of the Nature Trail. The Nature Trail starts at the bridge over the
canal
and goes off into the woods and with wooden boardwalks, around through
the
swamp>

The boardwalk portion is buttoned up for the last few years, still
navigable though, and although minus a few boards still as pretty and
peaceful as ever. The cabin that sits at the head of the swamp trail
is the one and only rental cabin that was moved out of the 1200 loop.
After it's departure it's site became one of the few pull-throughs in
FW.

Denise <tinybeetle@> wrote:

: >> There is a nice small herd of deer that hang out in the woods between
: >> the WL and FtW. They mostly stay in the deep woods but are regularly
: >> seen in the area of the exercise trail at the Settlement end. They
: >> tend to come out at dawn and dusk.


: I have seen this group a couple of times - more towards the WL than FW,
: I've seen them in the distance. Maybe 8 or 10 of them. I didn't know
: they normally hung together.

They are frequently seen at sundown or soon after by bus riders on the
purple bus. This bus goes from the settlement through the back road, past
the Meadows Group camp, the 2000 loop and then up into the cabin loops. In
that short back road section the road curves and the deer regularly hang
out along the roadside along there and the bus drivers have to be very
careful incase of deer crossing the road on the blind curve.

: I've seen more armadillos lately than ever before. It's interesting
: when I have walked on the path at night, and it's very dark, hearing the
: clacks in front of me as they cross the path. :) In December I saw like
: 10 of them in one day.

That's good. Actually I noticed a drastic decline in the number of
armadillos durring the several years when there were encephalitis scares
in the area and Disney was going into heavy, agressive insect fogging. I
also noticed that the anoles (the little lizards) became scarce. But I
did notice that the anole population seemed to be on the rise again the
last time I was there (but there are still few "big" ones, in the 6 to 8"
length range). So maybe the reduction of fogging (or maybe a less
agressive chemical) is allowing the insectivores (like 'dillos and
lizards) to recover. The 'dillos will take longer to build up their
population as they are less prolific than the lizards. :)

BTW I haven't heard anything about the rarely (or never) seen major
wildlife that has been reported in the past. Has anyone heard any recent
rumors of the bobcats that had been seen a few times in the very remote
areas of the property or the rumored (but never seen) panther (mountain
lion) that had been heard, and tracks seen, but had never been spotted?
The last time I heard anything about the panther was 6 or 8 years ago. but
I had heard bobcat sightings as recent as 2 or 3 years ago. I am always
happy when I hear such rumors as they are evidence of a healthy eccology.
:)

Randy

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Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL