Backyard Nature: A hiker’s pain is the squirrels’ gain as slippery acorns drop in large numbers

by Marlene Berlin

Autumn in Rock Creek Park is a paradox. You want to lift your gaze to behold the unfolding beauty of autumn. But if you don’t watch your step, you could slip on an abundance of acorns.

Have you hiked on a trail virtually carpeted in acorns? It is like trying to walk on marbles. And some Rock Creek trails are covered. As one who has hiked the park’s trails many times over the years, I don’t recall seeing so many. But it is unclear whether this is a “mast” year, when oak trees produce more acorns than usual, or simply the outcome of a very moist and long spring.

An acorn-covered segment of Rock Creek Park’s Western Ridge Trail.

It’s not just the marble-like oak droppings we need to worry about. Baseball-sized black walnuts are appearing in large numbers, as well.

A pair of black walnuts in husks at the Soapstone Valley’s Albemarle trailhead.

While walking around the horse corral by the Western Ridge trail, I stumbled across (and over) a great many, but I managed to stay upright.

These black walnuts, by the Western Ridge Trail horse corral, were camouflaged by grass and leaves.

We have to remember, though, that the bumper crop of nuts that’s making hiking a little more difficult is making life easier for squirrels, chipmunks and other wild animals.

Right now, small critters are fattening up and storing nuts for winter. In 2012, another bumper year for acorns, the late Marjorie Rachlin wrote all about it.