Paths in the woods last a long time

Tropical Storm Hanna brought us heavy rains, but modest winds. We'd closed all of the windows last night, save one, so the house was still stuffy when I got up this morning. With the back door open, I could smell the wet pine scraps that we've left on the wood rack on the back deck.
Across the street, the little stream sounds like a torrent. The little stream feeds a small pond which feeds another stream that runs through the Alden Labs. This afternoon, we took a walk through the woods around the labs. Back in the spring, there had been a lot of trees cut down in those woods and branches left across the fire roads where we walked. It was treacherous at times, stepping through the branches and brush. It's still not clear what they were trying to accomplish. There are still a lot of hardwood logs, good for firewood, lying on the ground. It isn't an easy walk, but the exercise is good.
Paths through the woods last a long time. It's difficult for new growth to establish itself on the hardened ground. Eventually, of course, left to themselves, the woods will reclaim everything, but that can be years, even decades.
Along the way, Marley stopped by the rushing stream to have a drink of the hurrying water.

The river bed is orange, a sign that there's dissolved iron in the water. That's common around here, but it's a bit surprising, then, that we don't have iron ore in the ground.
We walked out of the woods and past the lab buildings, learning along the way, how fish are able to graduate from one grade to another in their schools: