Nine people came out to the Hastings Lake area and the Allen Nature Trail. It was a beautiful day through forest, pastures and around sloughs.
We got to St. Margaret’s Church early, so we decided to hike the Allen Nature Trail before lunch. Marja Allen met us at the lake with binoculars for bird watching.
Marja was excited to find this new beautiful new wild flower.
It turns out this is Orange Hawkweed, a invasive non-native plant on Alberta’s prohibited noxious weeds list.
We hiked the rest of the trail keeping our eyes open for the 100 year old spruce tree and a Hawthorn tree full of berries.
We returned to the church for lunch. Marja opened the doors and shared the history of the church, the cemetery and the area.
It was a great day. Thanks to Marja for sharing her incredible knowledge of the area. Thank you to Trail Maintenance for the great work and to the landowners for their continuing generosity. You can see all the photos on Flickr.
