Hikes

Kopp Lake a New Way

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Several people came out on a fabulous day to hike Kopp Lake. This included walking the new re-routed section which crosses some beautiful open country. As you can see, the new leg of the path is wide and green.

To get there, we climbed the new unique stile. It’s designed so that we can cross precisely at an intersection of two fences—from one corner of a property to the property at its kitty-corner opposite.

Flowers seen today include Blue Columbine, Blue-eyed Grass, Twining Honeysuckle vine, Bishop’s Cap/Mitrewort, Tall Lungwort/Bluebell, Starwort/Mouse-eared Chickweed, and Canada Anemone.

  • Bishop’s Cap
  • Blue-eyed Grass
  • Blue Columbine
  • Starwort

What luck to have a bee fly in just as this photo was taken of the highbush cranberry. Other creatures seen today include one of the crab spiders, of which there are several. This one looks like a Goldenrod Crab Spider. The butterfly looks like an Arctic Skipper.

  • Bee
  • Goldenrod Crab Spider
  • Arctic Skipper

Lunch was enjoyed in a shady spot.

Thanks to Trail Maintenance for the clearing the trail and putting in the new stile, and thanks to John S. for leading the hike. You can see more photos on Flickr.

Wanisan Lake Loop Hike

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A group of 8 and a group of 7 came out to hike starting at the trail head of the Wanisan Lake trail section. We took the detour leg, a lovely segment that’s not walked very often, and entered the Blackfoot Recreation Area at the Detour and Wanisan trail junction.

Stopping alongside a lake, we watched birds dive-bombing the water. They were as graceful and swift as swallows, only much larger. From these magnified images, we believe they are breeding black terns, for their bodies and bills were all black and their wings long and grey. But if you know your birds, perhaps you can confirm in the comments.

Black Tern?

Leaving Meadow Shelter we headed south to exit the park, joining the Waskahegan Trail again on the section that we usually hike. As we came out of the woods, we were rewarded by a large landscape of beaver ponds that stretch out in both directions.

We turned right and headed down to the boardwalks that run behind the beaver dams, which put us at eye level with the beaver pond’s waterline.

While marvelling at the beavers’ feats of engineering, we scrambled to get the best photos of water callas that are just coming into bloom.

Then it was into the forest again with a quick stop at the Wanisan Stopover.

And that was our loop.

Flora seen today include bluebells (Mertensis), Water Calla, False Solomon Seal, and fruit plants in bloom–strawberry, bunchberry, chokecherry, highbush cranberry, and gooseberry.

  • Bunchberry
  • Highbush Cranberry
  • False Solomon Seal
  • Baneberry

Thanks to Trail Maintenance for the work on this trail last Wednesday and to Lee for scouting and leading the hike. You can find more photos on Flicker.