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You can find more travel stories and photo reports in Lithuania on the blog “You don’t feel at home”
Such is the brief history of the Lake Juodl rena rebirth, which is worth knowing when going to the Kurtuvėnai Regional Park, and the Juodlė Cognitive Trail around the lake is probably the most beautiful in the entire regional park. Maybe that’s why it’s marked with number 1 on trail marking boards?
When arriving from Šaukėnai on Juodlės Street or arriving at the lake from the Kurtuvėnai side, a beautiful panorama of the lake immediately opens up. Only by looking closely at the stands of the Kurtuvėnai Regional Park, can you understand that the educational trail around the lake begins next to the dam. On the western shore of the lake, the trail runs along the embankment and on the shore of the lake, so from this side it is better to look beyond the artificial lake and look for the 8 islands on it.
The islands, like the lake itself, are also artificial. While managing the bottom of the lake, the excavated soil was poured into piles, which became islands as the water level rose. One of them was called “traveling” because his whereabouts changed a little, but he finally finished his wanderings on the lake and stopped traveling. In summer, when the lake water warms up, you can see more islets that appear on the surface of the water when the peat rises.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
Both counting the islands and looking around the lake is fun from the newly installed observation bridge, which is the second stop on the nature trail, which features bird watching. There are many of them here, so since 1967 this lake has been declared a bird sanctuary. Around 30 species of birds breed on it, so if you can’t see them live, you can definitely hear the voices.
Birdsong is sometimes overshadowed by the voices of people emanating from the beautiful new camp next door. People who come and gather here can get to know each other even more when the traditional crafts center located in a beautiful wooden building opens.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
Leaving a picturesque but noisy spot, the cognitive path runs around the lake counterclockwise along a very wise fir path. The next stop is the continental dunes, which are the legacy of the same ice age. As the weather warmed up, the windblown dunes in the former cold desert began to cover themselves with vegetation, and now they look like the ground of a rolling forest.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
The trail, paved with cones and carved by tree roots in places, is not without visitors. In some places it becomes completely narrow, but that does not deter the trip even with strollers. And visitors travel in both directions, although the markings are not as clear as clockwise.
With the mark on the Juodle cognitive trail a little overloaded. Previously, the trail was marked with blue and white stripes on the trees and green arrows with a hiker sign, and as if that were small, the regional park has installed another new signage that is more beautiful but more erroneous. There are places where the old notation is kept. Not only that, in addition to the educational route, the route overlaps with some other routes from which the marked trees look like billboards. An elderly couple walking in one place turned. They say we are back because we no longer understand where to go.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
Untangling the marking bus, I took a step forward and, unlike most of the ones I met, stopped at every stop along the way, like a long-distance bus that stops at every stop, making the ride deadly. Traveling the Juodle cognitive trail evoked completely different sensations, so the slow pace with short stops allowed us to further enjoy the company of the cozy forest. After reading the informational media about the key forest habitat, the gaps, the nameless stream and the Scots pine, I approached the swamp.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
Little by little, the vegetation began to change, the path of the wooden tables began and a swamp shone through the trunks of the pine trees that remained forever small: a cherry in a cake, the decoration of each cognitive path.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
In the southeastern part of Lake Juodlė, a lowland swamp with large aquatic plants forms. You can also see the plants listed in the Red Book here, but as you get closer to the observation deck, the trail is getting worse and worse. Eventually, the last stretch of several tens of meters becomes passable only for adventure seekers who, after reaching the most beautiful place that opens up to the swamp’s view, find a new information booth on a pile of rotten boards. Here’s a cherry on the cake waiting in one of the most beautiful places on the nature trail.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
Hopefully during the quarantine, visitors who flooded the educational trails will not get money to the Kurtuvėnai Regional Park for visitor entrances, and a new trail of the same style with an observation deck will soon hit the swamp.
Until then, paying close attention to the lake and surrounding nature, the cognitive trail came to diversify the journey, and the planted lime alley leads to Kaminskinė. The farm was once here, and now the area is named after the last surviving hosts. Only from the description can one imagine an old farm with outbuildings, to which a path planted with lime trees led, was surrounded by a fence, a rippled pond at the foot of the hill, and each withdrawal of water from a well was accompanied by lever squeak. The cattle grazed, the meadows were mowed, so this place did not grow too much in the forest.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
After the path leading up the hill, there is a cozy place to breathe. It offers a view of the Gabriejolė pit, this time it is no longer a work of man, but a work of beavers. When beavers dam the Ilga stream, it flooded and formed a swamp. Behind is the head of the Vainagiai-Raudsparnė, which, when broken, dripped water from the ancient ice age lagoon.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
To get to this place, you must follow the bridge over the Ilga stream on the right, not stepping on the main road. The old blue and white mark that survives is a true salvation. After turning the circle through the farm and well, the trail route returns to the lakefront road and runs through it to the end. There are still a couple of stops left, and one of them is a reed.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
For some, reeds are food, for others, houses, and for those who walk the reed path, this is another fun place on the cognitive path. The nearly 5 kilometer long nature trail keeps you bored and has something interesting on every part of the trail. When the end of the trail is almost at hand, the route offers to go back out of the way and after climbing Juodlod Hill to look at the lake from above.
Photo “You don’t feel at home” / Juodle’s cognitive path
Created by people over 50 years ago, the lake is now not only a popular vacation destination, but also the richest in water quality in the Kurtuvėnai Regional Park. In order to preserve various terrains, rare plant and animal habitats have been established in the Ilga Landscape Reserve, and one of the information booths recalls that camping and noisy events are limited here, but awareness of nature. In other words, take the Juodle cognitive trail, but choose a different place to organize your picnics.
You can find more travel stories and photo reports in Lithuania on the blog “You don’t feel at home”
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