Walking Beside The Grand River

Recently I needed to get out of the house, and so did my friend, so we went to the area around the Grand River in the south end of the city. There is a trail where we went and we decided to explore one we had never gone on before. It became quite warm that afternoon and as spring was just starting to show off its beauty I was able to capture a lot of great photos. This writing only includes a few that I have from that day, but it has been fun editing them.

As my friend and I stood in front of her car we tried to decide to we go left or right. I asked her if she had ever been to the path that shows just ahead in this first picture. She said no and that she  had no idea where it went, I suggested that we should maybe take it. We can always go left another time.

This picture shows us a bit of the path to the left, and all the scrub brush that was directly in front of us.

I had a feeling that the path to the left would lead us to a spot we had been on many years ago, and was glad that we decided to go to the right.

Many of the trails that I've taken in the last year have a warning about there being no winter maintenance of the trails. To me that is sad as I would just love to walk along these trails with the winter snow and icicles hanging from the trees and scrub brushes.

I was immediately glad that we headed this way when I saw the path ahead.

I had seen these lilies before but didn't know what they were called. Now I know they are trout lilies.
































There were a lot of fallen trees and branches alongside this path, and at first I thought it would be great if they cleared them out, or cleaned up the area. Then I realized that it would be a groomed trail if that were to be done, so I just tried to capture as much of the beauty that the fallen wood presented to me.

I had noticed this stump where these roots are a part of upon entering the trail, and just had to capture the stump, and the tangled root structure that is displayed here.

The same stump without zooming in at the roots.

There were a lot of stumps, fallen trees, and such with all kinds of colour, including the fresh growth of greenery on the forest floor along here.

I probably have missed all these trout lilies coming out in bloom that are visible in this shot.

There were only a few here and there, and they all seemed to be hiding their faces from me.

I don't know what kind of plant these are but they are beautiful and remind me of a butterfly. They could be wild bleeding hearts, but I'm not sure.

More trees down, and it looks like some of them had been cut down.

A different colour of trout lilies.

 And then we saw the occasional Mayapple flower.

I was beginning to see glimpses of the Grand River at this point, and wanted also to capture the beauty along the way.

This tree was interesting and had an interesting look to it, almost like someone standing on their head. lol

Even the colour of the dead leaves from last year added to the colour of the forest carpeting.

The path is wide enough for people on bikes to pass me and I had my walker with me.

It looks like these trees didn't have a good root system and that is why they came down.

This stump almost looks like a twister took the top of the tree off.

More and more I am able to see the Grand River along here.

There is a lot of symmetry among the trees in many of these photos.

The further we advanced along the trail, the more of the river we were able to see. There were smaller trails that led down closer, but they were too steep for me to attempt that day.

Some more mayapples.

And then we came to an incline and I debated whether to climb it.

Along the way I saw some more Mayapples.

I decided to try the incline in stages and am I ever glad that I did.

I was able to see much more of the river from this elevation and also the landscape beyond it.

You can get a bit of an idea how much of an elevation difference there is a the top of this incline, compared to where I am standing as I took this shot.

One step at a time and eventually I did get to the top.

But meantime I paused periodically to capture vistas that were there for me to see.

Onward and upward was my thoughts as I looked to see how much further the top was.

 And suddenly we had reached the top. There was a log where one could sit and rest if one wished. I used my walker as a seat while my friend sat and relaxed.

 We were told that the path takes a fairly steep incline down closer to the river just ahead, so we decided to take that trail another day.

After a nice rest we headed back to the car, at a leisurely pace of course.

But while we were still up at the top I took a couple shots of this rotted out stump.

This is the view of the top of the incline that we had come up.

Part way down the incline I stopped at this spot to capture some shots.

And just for the fun of it I took a selfie.

 I happened to notice this stump right up against the trail area, and just had to capture it. The rustic colour intrigued me.

And then a spot of deep red captured my eye and I just had to get a shot of the only trillium I saw that day out there. But to get it I also had to include the yellow trout lily, but it was worth it.

More trout lilies.

The sky had an interesting blue and white clouds floating along on a breeze that I hardly felt at this point along the trail.

And up ahead you can see the parking area where we started off at.

The other side of a fallen log I had captured early on the walk.

It was a fantastic break away from home and yet close enough that I can go back and visit whenever I want to. The weather was perfect for the trip, it wasn't too wet out on the path, and I'm so glad that I decided to suggest a photowalk.