It was everything you could want in a middle-of-the-summer hike–sun, refreshing breezes, a glistening lake, toads, butterflies, and a flurry of dragonflies that kept the mosquitoes in check.
Twenty-three people followed the path out of the park and onto the Waskahegan trail for a 10.5 km hike. We stretched out single file as we walked through the tall-grass meadows and the “islands” of forest that dotted the fields.
At the highest point was the St. FX monument, put in by the St. Francis Xavier High School biology students who cleared the trail in 1970.
For lunch, we decided to sit down in the grassy field where we could take advantage of the breeze.
Plants of note were the Indian Pipestem (Monotropa), distinctive for its lack of chorophyll, and a few Indian Paintbrush.
We want to give a big thank-you to Trail Maintenance, who made this trail extremely walkable. Also a big shout-out to Brad, who returned to the trail afterwards and cleared a huge spruce tree that had fallen on the path.
You can see more pictures on Flickr.
The highlight was watching a fawn on the path lope (saunter?) toward us. As quietly as we could, and making as little motion as possible, we snapped photos. Eventually, the fawn stopped coming further. It turned around and disappeared into the woods. We let it get far ahead before we resumed the hike.
