Walks

I have decided that the walks at Whiting Road are going to be my exercise. Some of my friends do the "athletic walk" thing, round and round on a track. That's just not my cuppa. Too boring for me, though, they love it. So, to start at least, I am going to go on a trail walk every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. With the walking I do at the track on Saturday, that should help strengthen me up.

Last Wednesday, I did the Blue and Yellow Trails. There was lots of stuff to stop and take pictures of.

Fleabane



Elderberry



Canada Mayflower



Blackberry



I found where somebody had dined on fresh greens.



And saw a mass of baby spiders, getting ready to set out into the world.



The Blue and Yellow trails are probably the most popular of the trails there. They're the easiest, and go through different terrains. When you see vistas like this, I can see why people love to walk this trail.



Friday, I did the Orange trail. This is the trail that goes through the Great Meadow for a good part of its path. Bikers like this trail because it is quite long, and it has some grades. It doesn't seem to be so popular with walkers, maybe because you're out in the sun for a good portion of the time that you are walking.

The Hawkweed was out in force.

Yellow Hawkweed



Orange Hawkweed -- Not as common as the Yellow, and I only found a couple of patches.



Many Yellow Hawkweed.



There were flowers everywhere.

Creeping Buttercup



Multiflora Rose



Nightshade



And, this weird thing. I'm not even sure it's a flower. Every plant of its kind had this thing on top of it. It's not leafy feeling, but, rather, hard. So it's either a flower, or some kind of disease. If it is a flower, poor thing, to always have people wonder if you are a disease.



Here is a video of the Great Meadow itself





The Great Meadow used to be an orchard, and, along the perimeter, I found this remnant, still valiantly putting forth apples. I bet the deer love this tree in the fall.



The meadow is threatened by this plant -- Black Swallowwort. It's a plant that used to be planted in gardens at the turn of the 20th century. It escaped, and now represents a real problem. Unfortunately, it's practically impossible to eradicate.



Oh, and the spitbugs are flourishing.



Whiting Road is in an area that, long ago, was part of Lake Ontario, when it was much larger. So, the soil is very sandy. I'm including this picture because you can see that it can look exactly like beach sand.



I thought that this was kind of neat. These bushes only produce leaves at the top. Underneath, the horsetails have found just the shelter they need to survive in the Great Meadow.




But, the Orange trail isn't all through the meadow. It transitions quite abrubtly into woods. It's like walking from one world to another.




So, the last part of the journey is through cool, dark woods. Up and down a bit, also.




The Orange Trail is very long and I was pooped at the end. But, now really, isn't this better than walking around in circles?

Today, the Red Trail -- all deep woods.