Glorious Temperature!

  Cathy is now officially semi-retired, so we can do longer walks on Tuesdays. There is still the constraint of bell choir practice at 5 pm, but we were able to do a longer road walk. And we chose a place where not every road is a straight, flat line.

We were welcomed by this cutie.

The temperature was almost 60 degrees! I started out with a light shirt over my t-shirt, but ended up shedding even that. There was a light breeze, but surprisingly, it was warm. The wind near the lakes is almost always cold. The sun made last year's beech leaves glow.

This loop was out on the north portion of Hamlin Lake. There are quite a few other loops we can do in this area, so I'm sure we'll be back there. Upper Hamlin is more narrow and is oriented east-west. There's a map at the link below if you care to see. I was a bit surprised to find that it's still completely iced over. (If you look at that map, we were hiking near the number 10)

We walked past a place I've showed you before, but there is a new sign there now. This is Indian Pete Bayou. More about it at the link below.

It certainly felt spring-like in more ways than just the temperature. We saw and heard the first red-wing blackbird of the season. Ditto a sandhill crane. I tried to get a picture, but only got two shots of blue sky. I did catch a cedar waxwing.

Sun on the water makes nice reflection pictures.

We hiked a 6.4 mile loop, and had time to go buy cold drinks and a salty snack. We went to the beach to enjoy them. Locals enjoy walking the beach in any season, even if we have to put up with the ugly sand fencing in the winter. It does keep the sand from drifting to some extent. Even so, they always have to do serious road and park cleaning in the spring, to return lots of sand to the beach. You don't have to guess where the lighthouse is in this picture! People were even walking on the breakwall today.

In other news: Finished the tax paperwork- ready for the appointment tomorrow. Took this walk, had bell choir practice, and then did grocery shopping. I think I'm done for today!

And just a silly sidenote- I got an itch to rewatch the 1978 movie, Coma, last night. It holds up surprisingly well. Still pretty creepy!

See Indian Pete Bayou