The beautiful weather beckoned me to do something wild…explore the outdoors and do some nature watching.

Our travels brought us to the small village of Brandon on the Allegheny River north of Kennerdell and south of Franklin.

It is a remote area with many cottages, camps and old farms dotting the way. The village of Brandon is one of the trail heads for the Recreational Trails of the Allegheny National Recreation River.

Better known areas for the trail are the Franklin and Emlenton areas and both have facilities for food, fuel and resting.

We had come to Brandon to check on the conditions of the trail head and to see if we could find it again.

We had walked the trail up river to Indian God Rock and checked out the messages left on the rock sitting in the river since 1200 A.D.

The rock is on the National Historic Register for its historic significance, is awesome to see in person.

I had purchased a pair of trail bikes a few weeks back and plan on riding the trail up to Freedom Falls and the Rockland Furnace which are impressive natural and man-made sights to see.

The trails and the points of interest are easily found on the maps and brochures offered by the Allegheny Valley Trails Association.

You will likely see more wildlife than people on the trails and it can be a pleasant way to get the family out and do something wild!

The fall leaves would be gorgeous along the river hills and even on the drive to any of the trail heads.

Speaking of Leaves…my neighbor who is a senior in high school notified me and my wife that we have an important school project to complete.

The Annual Leaf Collection!

I would like to have a dollar for every leaf that I helped to collect and identify.

She’s lucky that we are the nerdy neighbors that have the collection of the National Audubon Society Field Guides.

I especially have one that will be useful as it is the Field Guide North American Trees. Collecting leaves over the years has also taught me one other thing…the location of special trees.

Not every tree is easily found in the neighborhood.

One such tree is the American Sycamore tree, one of the largest trees in our geographic region. The sycamore often is found along the wet soils of stream banks, flood plains and edges of lakes and swamps.

The places that I have found sycamore trees in this area have been along the Shenango River in New Castle and on Wolf Creek around Slippery Rock.

That’s not to say that more stands of these beautiful trees are not in our area, but these were found easy enough in my travels.

A tree stand that I had used in West Virginia for years was located in a sycamore tree.

My neighbor who has a son living in West Virginia gave me some interesting facts about this tree.

The sycamore is considered a shade tree and it grows to a larger trunk diameter than any other native hardwood.

The present champion tree’s trunk is over 11 feet in diameter; an earlier giant was 15 feet across!

Apparently in earlier times the hollow trunks of old, giant trees were homes for chimney swifts! There is also a legend of two soldiers hiding out in the hollow depths of a sycamore during the Revolutionary War to escape British troops. I will need to do a bit more research on that subject before I can confirm or deny the report.

I suppose that I can do some double duty and scout some hunting spots and find leaves as well. The list contains a lot of trees that are favorites of wildlife.

Oaks, dogwoods, beech, hickory and aspen all attract wildlife.

The basswood tree is one that is on the list and I know that the fragrant blossoms of the basswood are a much favored flower of the bee family. The buzzing of bees has alerted me to the location of a basswood and made it stand out in my mind…we can tick that one off too.

The buck rubs on the saplings have started in earnest as the velvet on the new antler growth has to go.

The bucks that I have seen are pretty much done with velvet as the daylight hours dwindle which sends the message to the bucks that a new phase in their growth has started and one has ended.

A good tree to find near rub lines are the sassafras trees that form thickets and is often sought after for its aromatic oils used in tea, root beer and to perfume soap.

Early colonists and explorers learned from the native population that it was often chewed on for a pleasant spicy flavor to settle various stomach ailments.

So in a nut shell…so to speak…nature has many educational and recreational connections to all of our pursuits in the outdoors whether it is hiking, biking, wildlife viewing or even leaf collecting. Until we meet again…get outdoors this fall.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.