The Beauty of Decay on the Superior Hiking Trail

Few forest trails are better than on the Superior Hiking Trail in the autumn if you want to have a rotting good time. As I walked the trails this year, I - now in my seventh decade - couldn't help thinking of the phrase "there are more days behind me than in front of me." The forest too has very few days of non-dormant life remaining in the year 2024.

Much of the trail was obscured by the fallen leaves of various textures, yellowed and soft, or desiccated and brown. The birch trees stand as silent and bare witnesses to the passing of the summer. But along the path, there is beauty too, in the soft carpet of dead leaves, and the rotting logs extravagantly decorated with moss and mushrooms.

Adding much more significance to the mere visual beauty of fallen logs is their ecological contribution to the forest long after they've fallen. Hundreds of species inhabit the logs on top, on the inside hollows, underneath, and along the sides of the logs. And, the collective biomass of downed trees and other debris provide a moist mulch, cooling the forest during the hot summer months.

Rooftop party for a family of fungi

A micro-forest of moss blankets the hills and valleys of old bark, no doubt home to many lives.

Mushroom caps struggle to find a grip.

Pale sentinels stand guard on the trail.

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