Nature Bike

(Please remember, if you'd like to enlarge
any of the pictures in my blog, just click on it.
Then hit your back arrow to go back
to where you left off.)



As the summer is winding down, I find myself looking for a last bit of excitement.
And even though today was cool and overcast,
it turned out to be a perfect day for a Nature Hike -
or should I say Nature Bike!

I still enjoy riding my bike as much as I did when I was a kid.

See...I can do it with no hands even!


And so this afternoon I biked all the way to the end of our town's bike trail,
and crossed over the Minnesota River.


Then down the highway, and to the public river access.

This I found to be muddy and unexciting.

But what's this? A trail?

On the muddy banks of the river I note that other explorers have come before me.
Looks like some time ago they built a fire pit.
And these cleft-footed tracks tell me another visitor was here as well,
perhaps earlier today.

Ooo. Look! A Monarch in a tree.
Too bad it's a bit dark here. Too dark for a descent picture.


But here's a lovely little pink flower.
If only the Monarch would fly over here to get it's picture taken.
Some bugs are just camera shy, I guess.

You think I'd be used to it by now,
but it always makes me sad to see the first fallen leaves.
Summer gives way to fall, and fall gives way to winter...

Enough gloomy thoughts.

Time to head back to my bike and continue my little adventure.
But do I go back the way I came (boring)
or take an alternate route through the tall grass?

Why not? It's too late in the year for wood ticks. I should be okay.

The grass was all full of happy bugs, buzzing hither and thither...
including this cute little guy. I named him Charlie.

Time to head back to town. But as I stop to take a second look at the river
I feel something crawling on my arm. I brush it off and discover...


this!

It was one of the biggest spiders I'd ever seen.
And to think, it was probably on me since the tall grass!
I think I'd rather have a wood tick...

No, I wouldn't.

I hate ticks.

Back to the bike trail.


Hey look! There's more Monarchs in these
wild flowers growing along side the trail.
This one is feeding on a lovely wild thistle.
I think blooming wild thistle are just gorgeous! Don't you?

Almost as gorgeous as the Monarchs feeding on them.
These late hatching Monarchs
will likely fly thousands of miles and winter in Mexico. Amazing.

Here are some more of those cute yellow bugs.

But what are they doing...one on top of the other?

Why it's a regular bug orgy. Charlie doesn't know what he's missing!


This poor old Viceroy has been through a lot.


He's lost a chunk of each hind wing, and tons of scales to boot.
Poor fella. Oh well.
At least he doesn't need to fly down south for the winter.
He'll die soon. Viceroys winter as caterpillars in these parts.

I found all sorts of bees and wasps here too.
See the orange ball on this guy's leg?
It's the pollen he's been collecting.
He stores it there. What a smart and busy bee!



After I got tired of looking at bugs I continued on, back through town,
past the grain elevator, and the ball park, and some graffiti covered buildings,
(Between you and me, I find graffiti art to be quite stunning
and pleasing to the eye, but I won't post it here lest there be
some vulgarities in my photo I am unaware of.)
and finally came to just the place I was hoping to find.

A quiet little hill on the edge of town where I could sit and finish my book.

Which I did.

That is the end of my hike,
the end of my blog,
and (unfortunately) the end of summer.

But it's also the end of the hiatus I have been taking from blog writing.
I plan to go back to posting one-a-week from here on out.

Or at least, until next summer.

Bye for now!

My Long Walk

Hi, everyone.
I'm going on "my long walk."
Want to come along?
Great!


(As always, click on a picture to see it bigger.
Then click back to continue on our walk.
However, I made these pictures pretty small,
since there are so many of them.
The only one that is sort of big
is the close up of the butterfly.
Oops. That was supposed
to be surprise. O well.)

Let's go...

We'll just stroll through the back yard and be on our way.
Hey, let's see what's growing in Jeff's garden.

Peeking over the fence I see a few day lilies,
a few purple flowers, and look at that!
Two white lilies have opened.
Aren't they lovely.
He got them from my mom.

Now we'll head northwest down West Street (New Ulm's a little off kilter).
Here's a nice stump. I like stumps.
I think I might even devote a future blog to favorite stumps I've seen.
There's one you won't believe...but I'm getting off track.

This stump sits in front of a home
that's been for sale for quite a while.
Thinking of moving to New Ulm?
You might want to consider this house...
if you like stumps.

Let's keep going. We have a long, long way to go yet.

Here's the hospital.

Time to take a left and start heading up the hill.

Hey. Look over to our right.
That's Loretta Park.

And if you want to,
you can go check out "The Way of the Cross."

As for me, I think I'll pass.
It's nice...but a bit too
Roman Catholic for my Lutheran blood.

But I will show you this statue of Father Berghold.
Because of him New Ulm is a better place.
It says so on that thing he's standing on.
I wonder what he's holding.
Maybe it's a list of all his accomplishments.

Enough of that.
Time to get back to our walk.
Let's go up to Highland
and then cut through the ECLC parking lot.

That's what I always do.

ECLC stands for the Early Childhood Learning Center.

It's basically a Daycare Center.

New Ulm has two Daycare Centers that I know of
and I have never seen any kids playing outside either of them.
Truth is, I rarely see kids playing outside- period!
I suppose they're all inside on their PlayStations or Facebook.
But not us. We're out getting our exercise and fresh air.

Right?!?

Now we're at Hazelwood,
so we'll take another left and go down to Center.

STOP! Here's the corner of Center and Hazelwood.
Time to take our first right and
head out of town on Highway 13.

Watch your step.
We're going down a big hill!

See that sign over there?
It says that this stretch of road has been
adopted by the Boy Scout Troop 25.

Good for them.

Hummmm.

Where's a Boy Scout when you need one?

Ahh. Here we are.
The best part of our walk.
Here's where we enter Flandrau State Park.

How exciting!

As soon as I turn off the highway and start walking
down this gravel road I get this wonderful feeling
of contentment and joy.

Part of it comes from the fact that
I'm walking on gravel again.
I grew up in the country, on a gravel road.

Another reason I love this part of my walk is because
this is where the butterflies like to hang out.
I wonder if we'll see any today.

I hope.

I hope.

I hope.

Yes! Here's one. It's a Red-spotted Purple.
I know it looks blue, but that's what they're called.

Poor thing. It's got a broken wing.

Hey look!

There's another one.

Ooo! This one's nice.
If only he would sit still for a minute so
I can get a close-up for my collection.

There he goes...over to that puddle for a drink.
Now I think I can get him.

Beautiful!

Time to get back to our walk.
Isn't this a beautiful park. I just love it here.

Hey, look at this.
It's a branch from a Cottonwood tree.
See all the seeds.
They look like cotton...hence the name.

You may not have noticed, but there have been
Cottonwood seeds floating all around
as we've been walking along.
Over by the Cottonwood River,
which is on our right,
the cottonwoods will drop so
many seeds it looks like it's snowing!

I'd take you there now and show you,
but I hear those trails are under water now.

Maybe next time.

Here's a pretty spot.

See the birches on our left.

I love birch trees in a forest.

Soooo pretty.

I hope you don't mind
but I'm going to make a pit stop
here at the bathrooms.
I had a couple of bowls of my
5-Star Soup for lunch
(See September 12, 2010 blog.)
and I gotta go.

Be right back.

Okay. I'm back.

Time to get off the gravel road and
take one of these great woodland trails.

This one leads us up to two lookouts.

Let's go!

This little bridge isn't on our route,
but we can take a minute to go over it,
just for fun.

What a pretty little stream.
Can you hear it bubbling along?

See these phlox?
A few weeks ago I went through this way
and the entire forest floor was covered with them.
I wish you had been with me then.
It was indescribably beautiful!

I hope you're not too tired.
Time to climb some steps.

Come on. You can make it.
We're half way there.

Okay. Catch your breath and enjoy the view.
Here's look out number one.

And here's look out number two.

I'll admit the view isn't spectacular,
but the audio is great.

You can always hear lots of birds and insects.
And if the "beach" is open,
you can hear kids
laughing and playing too!
Clear as a bell.

Well, we're almost out of the park now.
Just a few more steps down, then a few more up...
Feeling lost?

Perhaps this will help.

You are here.

Now we'll head down Indian Point Drive back to Highland.

Hey look! It's the house that looks like a dentist's office.

I know the guy who lives next door.
One day he told me,
"I live in the house next to the
one that looks like a dentist's office."

I knew exactly which one he meant.

Now we'll go through the MLC Campus.

See that big building on the right.
It's the new Chapel.

Well, it was new about 15 months ago,
but we still call it new.

It's quite spectacular,
but I'm afraid I don't have time
to take you inside to show you right now.

But I will show you this.

It's the statue of Martin Luther.

See that book he's holding.

It's the Bible.

Do you know what he's saying?

That's right.

"I shall not recant!"

Okay, time for more steps,
but this time we're going down
so it's not as hard.

We're almost home.

We just have to go through the park
with the baseball fields and...

Here we are. That's my house...and my new van!

Okay. It's not brand new, but it is new to us, and I LOVE IT!
It's a 2005 Dodge Caravan with all sorts of bells and whistles!
It has a CD player, power windows, power locks...
It even tells me what direction I'll going,
what the temp is outside,
and how many miles I can go
before I run out of gas!

Very cool.

Well. Here we are back where we started.
Time to sit down and put your feet up.


Thanks for coming along with me.

Let's do it again some time.