Mountain Jaguares goes to Coopers Rocks Oct 3

Today we went to Coopers Rocks.  We found all kinds of new stuff.  It was Kris’s first time at Coopers Rocks and it was his birthday :]!  We climbed rocks+we went in caves that we had to squeeze through.

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Happy Birthday Kristian!!20141003_162115

Here we are at the Overlook!  It was supposed to thunderstorm on us…but we didn’t cancel!  And we had a great (just damp!) time!  Woohoo.  For our international friends who don’t know, we are wearing orange because it is hunting season here in West Virginia.

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Here is Adam showing us how to tell Rhododendren and Mountain Laurel apart.

We also learned about a new animal and a new tree.

The most famous creature at Coopers Rocks, unique to the Cheat Canyon worldwide, is the Three-toothed, Flat-spired Land Snail, a.k.a. the Cheat Three-Tooth — and the only one protected by the Endangered Species Act.

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There is habitat created for this snail at Coopers Rocks.

We also learned about a tree that the ridge we were on is named after.  The ridge we were on is called Chestnut Ridge after the American Chestnut Tree.  Many animals like the nut of the American Chestnut tree.  However, a blight spread from China and wiped out most of the trees.  We saw some young trees that were still alive but beginning to die and fall over from the blight.

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It is a beautiful sight to see one alive.  Here is a picture of the bark of an American Chestnut that is being affected by the blight.

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Here is a map of Coopers Rocks, and we drew a rectangle around the area where we hiked today.  Thank you to Adam and Daniel for taking us on this fun hike today!

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