Winter Walking Trail

A heat wave arrived in the tundra today.  The thermometer in my auto registered 27 positive degrees this afternoon.  A good day to do something new.  I had never before traversed the length of Pike Island on the snow in January before.  I thought I might find some wild creatures cavorting about in the snow, too.  The deer were there, but not on Pike Island.  They apparently have been lured to the mainland by whomever is feeding them crushed kernel corn nearer the entrance to the park.  There were groups of deer and wild turkeys hanging around the mounds of yellow corn.  I guess this is a hungry time of year for wild life, especially the last few very frigid days.

I crossed the bridge onto the island and encountered directional signs showing the way to the groomed walking trail that goes to the end of the island.  There is also a trail for cross country skiers that goes around the island's perimeter.

There was only one other hiker today, and I encountered him on the way back. At the far downstream end of the island there is a bench, pictured below. The 35E bridge over the Mississippi is in the far background. I managed to get a good bench shot as well as a bridge - a two-fer.

I took a photo of the scenery(?) on the way back. The scenery is mainly the black trunks of trees against the white snow. This island will likely flood this spring and all that is pictured here could be under water.

I was on the island for about two hours. After the long walk to my auto and the drive home, I made some simple vegetable soup based on the tomato and spinach soup recipe recently posted by Santini on the family experimental cooking blog.  Except that I used a little too much pepper, it turned out pretty good.