Another Favorite Tree of Mine

Here is a photo of a new favorite tree of mine. This one is a red cedar tree and you are looking at the right side of the tree. This tree is located in St. Michael. A friend of mine owns this tree and I went to his house today to pick some bittersweet vines for my winter foliage displays. As you can see, he lives high above a river. The river is the Crow river and across the bank is the Crow Hassan Park - part of the Three Rivers Park District. This hill we are on is a clay bank formed by a glacier terminal moraine. The Wisconsin lobe of the glacier ended here at this spot and the silt and clay particles sifted down as the glacier melted away and formed this high cliff. Much of the cliff has fallen away but this 6 foot long skinny spit of land is being held in place by this tree. The owner calls it a bonsai tree and that seems appropriate as it so twisted and gnarled that I could not determine what was the trunk and what were the roots. Because cedars are slow growing and because the clay soil is lacking in nutrients, this must be a very old cedar tree. The owner says this tree was once a hangout for high school students; a place for them to do things they didn't want to do in public. The owner climbed onto the trunk and up part of a branch. I was thrilled enough to be standing next to the tree on this narrow peninsula with 100 foot cliffs on either side of me. I had no need to climb onto the bonsai tree itself. As we stood admiring the tree, we kept our eye on some bow hunters walking through the fields and patches of red twigged dogwood across the river. Suddenly we noticed a pair of deer running. One deer ran awkwardly and desperately. We knew it was injured - probably been struck by an arrow. The three hunters walked through the weeds and shrubs that were at times at tall as their shoulders. From our tall vantage, we could see the deer and the hunters. We tried to signal to the hunters which direction the deer were headed. It was hard to know if the hunters saw us. This was about 3 p.m. I sincerely hope the deer did not suffer and die for nothing. I hope that if the deer was shot by a arrow, it died quickly and the hunters found their bounty.