Glacial erratic wedged into tree trunk at Bald Mountain/ photos by Jonathan Schechter

                                                      

Bald Mountain State Recreation Area in northern Oakland County, Michigan 
encompasses almost 5,000 acres of glacially sculpted hills and lakes.  
Without much effort hikers can spot glacial erratics (boulders  ripped from the Canadian
 Shield and pushed south by the last great glacier some 12,000 years ago) along the trails
 and in the woods.

 Some weight just 50 pounds or so, others are tons. 

 But one ancient  and colorful glacial erratic formed millions if not billions of years ago
 before being moved and smoothed by the glacier is wedged in a tree trunk along the Graham 
Lake Trail.Without question the last glacier did not put the stone on a tree. 

The mystery remains: How many years ago did a human place the rock between the forked 

trunk of the tree?  All I know for sure is this rock is now firmly and permanently wedged 

between the trunks with the expanding bark sealing it in place.