A Creeklet Excursion- Part 1

You might remember from yesterday that I said the creek in the cemetery is only about 1.5 miles long. It's roughly a mile from the cemetery to the river. I followed that once, years ago, in the summer. It was fun, but definitely involved crossing private property where I wasn't too welcome. Believe it or not, I'd never walked the northern half mile, to the source... until today.

Today was a beautiful, snowy winter day, so I decided to do it! I wore my snowshoes, and Maggie wore her coat. Oh yeah, I wore a bunch of clothes, too! Even though the trek was short, there was a variety of discoveries, so today, you will only get half the journey.

The first picture above is the even farther north from the second picture from yesterday, around several bends. The valley is deeper and steeper. Can you tell? There really isn't any way to walk near the creek there. In the picture above, near the right side, you can see the curve of the culvert top where the creek comes under the road.

The culvert used to be large, and the road not so high above the creek. But in 1990 the two-lane road was widened to five lanes. The small culvert is a real problem. There used to be muskrat in the creek, but with the small culvert they could no longer cross beneath the road. That first year after road changes, the carnage near the creek was high. Not a happy story. Now the muskrats are gone.

After crossing the road, the creek opens up into a small pond. In this picture you are looking back toward the road. You can see the straight line of the guardrail, just above the middle of the picture. All that open, white expanse is the frozen, snow-covered pond. Now, you might think that this would be a really nice place to visit in summer.

I wish that were true. The water moves too slowly- I suppose because of that small culvert, and it's stagnant and scummy. It could be a beautiful place- almost like a park at the edge of the cemetery- with some work. But there's no way, unless the water flow could be restored.

To get this picture, I simply turned around from where I took the one above. This is the part of the cemetery on the north side of the road. There are regulations about the height of headstones in this "new" section. I don't like it as much as the south side, "my" side. I don't think it has as much character. You can see my snowshoe tracks in the lower left corner.

How much farther could I follow the creek? What did it look like? You'll have to come back another day for the answers.

See The Creek in Winter