A Place You "Otter" Go

Well, a whole month has gone by since I last posted, and once again, I am three hikes behind.  I'll catch up one at a time, starting with my return to the Great Dismal Swamp.  I led an ODATC hike there on March 16, and we hiked on the West Ditch and South Ditch Trails, just like back in January when I scouted this area.  This time, I went a little further, almost to the end.  The total distance of this out and back hike was 9.7 miles.  See the January post for a map of the route.

Spring was springing in the swamp.  It was a sunny day, and most of us picked up a bit of sunburn.  The trees were beginning to bud.

Here, my group - there were eight of us - amble down the West Ditch Trail.

Reflections in swamp water.

The trails are so straight that you can see for a long way.  I would periodically raise my binoculars and scan ahead for bears and such.

A heavy wall of invasive bamboo lines a good part of the West Ditch Trail.  I don't know how they would ever get rid of it.

I liked the starkness of this dead tree against the bright blue sky.  By this time, we were hiking due east along the South Ditch Trail.  In the distance, we spied a dark animal moving around.  There was only one thing it could be - a bear!  We would stop periodically to see what he was doing.  He always stayed to the right side of the trail.  But as we got closer, doubt began to enter our minds.

Here is the "bear!"  From a half mile away, it looked black, and it was open and windy there, so the bush would move in the wind.  We called it the Green Bear, figuring it was dressing for Saint Patrick's Day.

At some point, a large fire had moved through this part of the swamp, which was wide open - no curtain of bamboo here.  As we moved along, Jim said "There's an otter!"  After the "bear" incident, I was doubtful, but sure enough, there was a river otter, then a second, and then a third.

We could hear the otters calling back and forth to each other as they moved through the swamp.  They did a kind of circular pattern, moving and disappearing through the dense vegetation, then entering the water.

They would swim for a bit, sometimes entering the vegetation again, but eventually circling back right in front of us.  They didn't have fear of us, and entertained us for nearly a half hour.

It was so entertaining that we just decided to have lunch right there and watch the show.

Other than the green bear and the otters, the only wildlife we saw were a couple of turkey vultures, but we did see this old abandoned beaver dam.  If it were active, beavers would never allow this much water to flow through.

You never know what you will see in the Great Dismal Swamp.  We got lucky today with the otters, seeing them up close and for a long while.  It was a good day out in Mother Nature!