Along Ship Harbor Trail, an angled panel displays a wayside exhibit entitled "A Walk in the Woods." The path meanders through a dense forest, offering wide steps on a hill where logs lie half-buried in the dirt. At times, long planks provide a smooth bridge over rocks and tangles of roots.
The exhibit's title appears over an illustration of a lush forest of white birch, red spruce, and balsam fir trees. A small map shows the Ship Harbor Trail.
Introductory text reads: "This spruce-fir forest juts out on a ledge to the edge of the sea — epitomizing Acadia's and Maine's rocky coastline. Dense stands of red spruce and balsam fir limit the sunlight, curbing the diversity of plants on the forest floor. But mosses, lichens, and witches' butter — a jelly fungus — flourish in the shade and moisture down below as they slowly break down rock and bark into soil. Birds dine on insects and conifer seeds while red squirrels tear into fir cones and store seeds for the long winter ahead."
A variety of plants cover the forest floor. Ferns with long feathery leaves abound. Yellow witches' butter forms lumps on fallen branches, next to a dense green patch of pincushion moss.
A dragonfly called the common green darner hovers over the vegetation. A double set of narrow wings extend from its long thin body, which resembles a darning-needle. Little black ants crawl over patches of spongy sphagnum moss near clumps of pale reindeer lichen and British soldier lichen with its red, bead-like spores. Overhead, old man's beard drapes over tree-branches.
Several birds perch in the trees - a red-breasted nuthatch and a black-capped chickadee, along with a golden-crowned kinglet and a ruby-crowned kinglet. A red squirrel climbs a tree-trunk.
A final note offers this safety tip: "Use insect repellent to deter biting bugs and check for ticks after hiking."
