April 6th, 2006
bread loaf rock
It seems that there are some fellow rock lovers among us, so I thought I’d post a photo of a rock mentioned in my comments to a recent post. Unfortunately, this photo doesn’t quite do justice to this immense rock which may be found atop one of the the higher ridges on the Shoreline Centennial Trail at Charleston Lake Provincial Park (click on photo for larger view). I’ve photographed it on several occasions, which probably says something about my obsession with such geological features.
The rock is probably about 40 feet long and maybe 6 to 8 feet or so high at various points, and somewhat wider across. It’s always a little difficult to get a sense of scale from a photo, but it’s a very impressive rock when you come upon it. We think it resembles a massive baguette which has had a couple of slices cut from one end. It’s covered with lichen, mosses and a colony of ferns. I believe it’s granite as, in this region, most mammoth rocks which are so worn and then sharply fractured through, tend to be Precambrian granite. Just a little further along, the trail passes between two hulking spines of rock which are encrusted with moss, ferns and lichen. If my memory serves me well, there are probably a few Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) growing in tiny pockets of soil in the fractures — if not here, then in many similar places where we hike.
Tags: Shoreline Centennial Trail, Charleston Lake Provincial Park, Precambrian granite, Aquilegia canadensis, Wild Columbine
April 6th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Thank you for following up with that, Bev! It DOES look like a loaf of sliced bread! (A moldy one, though.) That tree beside it looks like the three-toed foot of a very large bird.
And I adore Aquilegia. The wild ones are so delicately pretty.