Today, Maggie and I went on one of my favorite local short hikes, Scottville Riverside Park. The walk is about 1.5 miles when you can actually do the whole loop. If the water is high, you can't get to the back side of the loop by the river.
Here, Maggie begins to cross a bridge that is actually level with the ground. It looks as if it is high, with steps, because the snow is so deep on it. Below is one of my favorite places on the walk where the trail passes beneath a band of white cedars.
Finally, even though the water is fairly high, it is frozen. So Maggie, and I didn't even bother with the small bridge that leads across the swamp to the river edge. Here we found evidence of how high the water had been in December when we had a nearly complete thaw of the previous 90 inches of snow. In this sort of bayou of the river the water had backed up and frozen, then broken away leaving these table-top collars on the trees.
I was really quite surprised that the river is frozen almost solid. There are only a few openings where the water is flowing. Deer and rabbit tracks criss-crossed the ice.
I love the details of so many things, stark against the snow. Here are just a few of them: Cedar bark, cattails, a small unnamed creek, and ice trapped beneath one of the collars, sculpted and curled as the waters rushed away again.
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9 comments:
Nice to meet Maggie. I came to know a few dogs and their interesting stories these few days during these festival visit to my relatives.
Sitting in front of my PC looking at Maggie makes me smile, thinking back.....
Such a paradox feeling the warmth amidst the cold.
Til then!
Freeallcards
www.freeallcards.com
I love the picture of the bullrushes. Beautiful.
Hi Rainfield- Maggie adventures with me near home. She doesn't do long trips! You can see lots more of her at http://myqualityday.blogspot.com/2009/01/getting-to-know-maggie.html
Freeallcards- Oh! Thank you! I like that you see warmth... the joy I feel at seeing things is like warmth, isn't it?
Heartache- There almost is music in the cattails, the way the wind has molded them- glad you heard it too!
oh, love that table top collars on the trees, they are just amazing! and love the 2nd and 3rd picture with maggie too, she looked like she really stop to pause int hat photo, either pausing to enjoy the scenery or for a picture or for both :)
This takes me back to when I first started walking in the winter. I guess it was my first hikes. I used to take my old dog for long walks like that. About half way she would get cold, and I'd have to carry her back. When she got warmed up, she always wanted to go again. I had forgotten about those times until now.
Wow; what a contrast between there and here, where the grass is green and stuff is blooming!
Lovely pictures!
Hi betchai- Mostly, Maggie can't figure out why I stop to take pictures!
Ratty- hope those were good memories for you....
and Pam- I like green and blooming too! But I do like all the seasons, so I'll always be a northerner (in the N hemisphere!)
What a beautiful place for a dog hike. My dogs, unfortunately, would have sniffed the snow and headed back to the car.
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