January Rambles – Page 3

Klondike Park

Cold! It did occur to me, that January might not be the best time to set off on this challenge. Really, though, this the first time that it’s truly felt like January. The wind is sharp and thick clouds hide the sun. As I walk toward the lake loop trail, I’m worried how bad it may get over the water.

As it turns out, it’s pretty pleasant. The bluffs block the worst of the wind, even as it ripples the lake. My gloves don’t stay off for long when I stop to take pictures or write, but I’m comfortable enough with them on.

Even in August, the white sands of the quarry look like snow. Today, it feels so natural, it’s easy to forget that it’s not. Floods, not snow, are the problem today, though a little is predicted for tonight. I drove through water on highway 94 to get here and Katy trail detour signs line the park.

At the base of the Katy Trail access lane, the trail is damp and dense and soft. It certainly doesn’t look fun to ride on, but I don’t see flooding from here.

A tiny bird taunts me from the edge of the campground, flitting from tree to tree and endlessly calling until I finally catch sight of it.

Summer calls, with dreams of bikes and tents and traveling, even as I abide in the beauty of today.

Bootleggers Run

I had to try this one based on the name alone.

Skirting a ridge overlooking Creve Couer Lake, the trail seems primarily designed for mountain biking, though the trail head shows both biking and hiking icons.

It’s full of mounds and switchbacks, and it drifts in and out of the trees in a five mile loop. The roar of the nearby interstate is surprisingly muted today. I can’t tell if it’s due to the height of the hill and the cover of the trees, or just a temporary factor of the lowering clouds.

The mist advances to full on drizzle by the time I’m half way around.

High above the lake, it’s beautiful and peaceful in the late winter afternoon.

I suspect it’s much livelier in the summer, between the mountain bikers and the overhead ropes course that share the grounds.

For today, it’s so still that a family of wandering deer barely registers my presence.

Spencer Creek Park

I need my grandsons. This place looks fun. The playground, picnic shelters, ball courts and fields all border a long city trail. It’s really a multi-trail system I discovered as I wandered around.

The trail extends on either side of a really cool covered bridge over a city street. It branches into other playgrounds and runs behind houses and apartments. Bordered by a line of trees and a tumbling creek, it’s a busy place on this cloudy afternoon. There are dog walkers and joggers and even a couple men who are running a remote control car across an open field.

It’s not exactly a quiet walk in the woods kind of place, but it’s a fun open gathering spot and wonderful neighborhood link.

Matthews Park

A quick walk today, in the early morning chill. I had only a few minutes between the rising sun and the call of work, so I stopped at a small neighborhood playground nearby. There are no official walking trails, but there’s a sloping field of huge old trees that are beautiful to wander through and alive with the morning songs of the birds.

The watercolor skies brush through the treetops, as I crunch over scattered leaves and knobby hills, infused with the strength to start my day.

McDonnell County Park

I vaguely remember this one. I used to come here years ago to help supervise an 8th grade service day. The kids would lay mulch around flower beds and trees, then eat lunch and play on the playground. I never knew the trail was here.

Designed as a fitness trail, it winding and hilly with challenge structures and instruction boards along the path. A quick breeze stirs dried brown leaves, still clinging to a clump of trees in an eerie rattle.

The playground’s deserted in this wintry late afternoon, the horizon already tinged with the glow of sunset.

Fee Fee Greenway

The paved, curving greenway trail stretches from Maryland Heights Community Center to the edge of Creve Couer Lake Park. It’s not a long trail for bike ride, but it’s a nice short cut to the lake and the Katy Trail connector from there.

It’s mostly deserted today and a little cool despite the slanting afternoon sun. Nature trails wind off the pavement toward the creek. They’re too close to the highway to really be quiet, but even over the dull roar of the traffic, are the sounds of birds and deer and rustling underbrush.

It practically serves as a backyard for the houses edging the park. I wonder how many take advantage of it. The short worn cut-outs from the neighborhoods all along the trail, suggest that many people do.

A quiet picnic alcove, at the end of the nature trail, overlooks the creek and the tangled bramble of winter weeds and mossy branches.

Cliff Caves County Park

So many colors. I expect winter to be grey and brown, but it’s filled with subtle shades begging to be noticed. The weeds along the trail glow bronze and gold in the sunshine. Green moss clings to shaded logs and Sycamore trees tower stark and white in their winter pride.

The park is packed today. Clear skies, bright sun, and winter warmth of temperatures in the mid fifties, brought out families and dogs, mountain bike riders and even a horse or two, crossing the trail ahead of me.

There’s a place for nearly anything you’d want to do here. Paved walkways surrounding the cave, biking trails along the Mississippi River, and multiple side trails for mountain biking and horseback riding.

It’s nowhere near as remote as it feels within the paths. Beautiful homes line the bluffs, and two large parking lots sit within easy access of neighborhood roads and I-255.

Riverwoods Trail

What’s left of it anyway. A part of the expanding Missouri River Greenway, it’s a frequent victim of the equally expanding Missouri River. A section of the trail regularly drops of into the river in the early spring floods. This time, they may have given up on rerouting it again.

It’s accessible still, linked at either end to the Earth City Levee trail. It’s mostly deserted today. Hidden beneath the roar of the Blanchette Bridge, it shelters its flocks of birds and quietly monitors the banks of Old Town St Charles.

Route 66 State Park

I forgot how hard it is to get here. There’s no access from I-44 west. I have to take the next exit and backtrack along the access road. It’s colder today, barely skimming 40. I’m wishing for my hat I left in the truck, but then keep taking off my gloves to write or take pictures.

The park incorporates a section of old Route 66 and is bounded by I-44 and the Meramec River. I wander a cracked and deserted ghost town road as the highway roars only yards way. Rounding the inner loop trail, it fades away in a chorus of birds

So many birds, so impossible to capture. Marshes line the trail, alive with calls and sudden burst of color. A brilliant cardinal in a thick green cedar, rests so quietly he looks like a ceramic Christmas tree ornament. I catch my breath and reach for my camera … and he’s gone before I can lift to my eye. Blue jays, robins, and so many I don’t even know, taunt me throughout the morning, pausing just long enough to be seen, before soaring off to the next hidden grove. Only the owl held just long enough to react to the click of my shutter.

Babler State Park

Beautiful trails wind through the woods and along the hills. There’s little sun today and crisp cool winds, but I warm pretty quickly as I wander along from trail to interlocking trail. At the top of a hill, a small campfire pit surrounded by benches and tables overlooks the valley where I stop for a quick lunch of boiled eggs and an apple.

A fallen tree across a path of soft mud and fallen leaves forms a bench for writing, a sip of water, and a whispered concert of birds and rustling squirrels and gentle breezes.