Bear's Corner hike

Monday, June 20

We started this morning at the headquarters of the Pleeschevo Lake National Park. The offices are in an historic building that is over a hundred years old. We met the director of the park, Mikhail Yurovich, and then were given a tour of the building by Ludmila Varobjeva. In the basement of the building was an educational room for children. It was a model of the forest, complete with life-size animals. Ludmila showed us some of the games that teach kids about different species of animals and plants.
 

Svetlana and Ludmila by a map of the National Park.

 Educational Games

 

We also met our guide for the hike, Sergey Kochev, who is the vice-director for tourism at the park. Also joining us were two colleagues from Yaroslavl State University, Oleg Anatolevich and Sergei Tarnu. Oleg is a botanist that specializes in orchids, and Sergei is an edible plant expert. We were very lucky to have them along on the walk to help us learn more about the local flora.



 



Sergey Kochev, Vladimir, Svetlana, Sergei Tarnu, Mariel, Ludmila Vorobjeva, Oleg Anatolevich

 

The section of the park we hiked through is called Bear’s Corner. A bear did live here at one point in the past. A wolf will also come through the park occasionally. Other large mammals in the park include moose, wild boars and lynx. We followed an interpretive trail that featured signs and feeders meant to attract the animals, but we did not see any large wildlife while we were there. The trail is open as a group hike only after permission is given by the park.

 Large mammals of the National Park

 



Wild Boar feeding area, a wildlife camera on a nearby tree records the animals

We hiked through at peak insect season. Horseflies and mosquitoes were the most noticeable. Ants were also very prevalent, with huge ant hills several feet tall. We passed one that Sergey said had been taller in the past. Over the winter, when the ants move down into the soil, wild boars move into the ant hills for warmth! This hill had been partially destroyed by boars.

The ant hill partially destroyed by boars, but still a few feet high and teeming with ants!

 

 

We saw many rare plants, including a few in the Red Book. Quercus rober was one of the first we came across. This tree can get to 150 feet tall, but is rare and confined to this region and some others in Russia. We also found an orchid, Neottia nidus-avis, a saprophyte which is in the Red Book for the Yaroslavl region.

 

Neottia nidus-avis

 

Sergei was enamored of Thalictrum aquilegifolium, which were mainly white-flowering, with a few plants with purple flowers.

 

We saw a few sphagnum bogs on our excursions today. I was drawn to the Eriophorum vaginatum and E. polystachyon. When we saw these later in the evening, their cottony-white flowers were glowing in the fading light. One of the many new plants I saw today was Ledum palustre, a small shrub with aromatic leaves in the Family Ericaceae.

 Eriophorum polystachyon

Listera ovata, an orchid we found in a sphagnum bog

 

Ledum palustre had very aromatic leaves

 

 

From Alec, we learned there are seven species of the Dactylorhiza orchid in this region. During this hike and shorter walks in the evening we saw four species. Dactylorhiza fuchsii is the most common in the area, and was even abundant in some spots. Dactylorhiza traunsteinii is much less common and included in the Red Book for Russia.

 

Dactylorhiza fuchsii along the side of the road

 



Sergei, the edible plant specialist, was very drawn to the smell of plants. By crushing up leaves, he id’d a plant to the genus Campanula. He also harvested some Valeriana officinalis roots for us to smell, and noted that it has a catnip-like effect on cats.

Our lunch break included our first taste of квас, a fermented beverage made from dark bread. It is a little sweet, but reminded me a lot of molasses.

 

_{Lunch in a traditional Russian restaurant. The borscht was very good!}

Tomorrow we leave to visit Rostov and then head back to Moscow.