As I have mentioned in my previous posts, @mrsbozz and I have been having a quite difficult time dealing with the passing of our dog Jovi. She was our faithful walking buddy for fourteen years, so the idea of going on a walk without her brought with it an appropriate amount of tears.
@mrsbozz has been adamant though that she needs to keep busy. Which I totally get. Sitting around the house looking at all of Jovi's stuff we haven't had the heard to take care of yet, or watching the water in her bowl evaporate isn't healthy at all.
When she asked if I wanted to take a walk this past weekend, I knew I had to pick someplace really special. Going to our usual park was out of the question. It's going to be a while before we can walk those paths alone.
I immediately remembered a location I had scoped out during Covid when we were looking to get out of the house.
I remember the specific reason we didn't visit this area during Covid was because of the fact that they don't allow pets. While that was a non-starter back then, it was perfect on this occasion. It's not that we don't like pets (obviously), but watching other people happily walk their dogs around might have been a bit too much too soon for us.
I actually grew up right around the corner from the Chippewa Nature Center. The entire area consists of 19 miles of trails, though they have expanded it quite a bit since I moved away from home.
For example, most of my early life, the wetlands area we visited this past Saturday didn't even exist.
While I have visited the main area of Chippewa Nature center countless times through my life, this was my first visit to the wetlands area and I have to admit, it was absolutely beautiful.
Chippewa (pronounced chip-eh-wah) Nature Center has a strong dedication to nature education. In fact, it looks like they are in the process of building a large education facility. I know students go on field trips to the nature center all the time. In the Spring they they have a maple syrup festival where you can watch it being processed in the "sugar shack" on the property.
They also have special festivals in the fall as well. The elementary school I went to as a kid is just across the street from the center, so we used to just walk across the road on field trips.
There is also an oxbow lake on the main property which is pretty cool to see.
I thought the whole 1.7 mile trail we walked on Saturday was paved, but that ended up not being the case. The trail was well kept up though and we only had to dodge mud a couple of times. On our whole journey we only ran into two other groups of people.
We also saw one dead mouse and one large turtle. I didn't get a photo of either though. First, who wants to see a dead mouse, and second one of the groups of people we saw was fixated on the turtle and I wouldn't have been able to get a clear shot anyway.
The trail had a good mix of open areas and wooded as well. @mrsbozz expressed an interest in visiting this area again when the leaves were on the trees and things were more green. I bet it is pretty beautiful. It's just a short 10 to 15 minute drive from our house, so I can see us definitely visiting here again through the summer.
We just might check out some of those other 17 miles of trails as well. Once things get a little more green and a little less muddy!
At various places along the trail they have built benches and picnic table so you can sit and have a snack or just enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. It was pretty peaceful on the morning we visited even with the geese and ducks honking away and making quite the ruckus in the water.
We passed by this stump that beavers had appeared to be gnawing on, @mrsbozz was insistent that I take a picture so I could write a post about it!
They had some really nice docks as well that you could sit on and watch the water. There are actually four distinct bodies of water in this marsh area. Heron Marsh, Dragonfly Marsh, Treefrog Marsh, and Muskrat Marsh.
Near the entrance to the area, they built this really nice observation tower. The stairs take you all the way to the top level, but there is also a middle level that is accessible by ramp for people in wheelchairs. We skipped it when we first got there, but we felt obliged to climb up on our way out.
The views were absolutely amazing!
We really couldn't have picked a nicer morning to take a walk. There was a chill in the air, but the sun made it warm. We wore our winter coats, but about half way through we could have easily taken them off as we were sweating from the physical activity and the sun.
I still don't quite understand why they don't allow pets in this park. If I had to guess they are worried about outside animals disrupting the ecosystem or people just not cleaning up after their pets. Who knows. Given the fact that we didn't see many other people during our time there, I question how much they actually patrol this area to enforce the rules.
Bicycles are supposed to be prohibited as well, but we clearly saw some bicycle tire tracks in the mud on the trail.
It was honestly just what I needed to help shake off the funk a little bit.
I'm submitting this post as a #wednesdaywalk post sponsored by @tattoodjay
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