Sunday February 18, 2007 was a fairly nice day for a winter hike.  It wasn’t as cold as it has been the last few weekends.  Pete was recovering from a double hernia operation and Steve was still in Mexico, so it was just me and Bob this day. 

This story and the next few stories are going to be relatively short.  Since the next few stories are going to be short my plan is to try and post them more often to try and catch back up.  For some reason, and I think I know the reason, I just always seem to fall behind posting stories.  It might not seem like a lot of work to write and post these stories, but it is time consuming.  One thing that really puts me behind is when Steve takes a ton of pictures.  Even though I edit out quite a few pictures there always still seem to be a lot which really takes a lot of time.  Steve, don’t take this the wrong way.  I really do appreciate your pictures and I have enjoyed being able to go back and remember the good times we had through the use of your pictures.  It is just when I am currently posting a large group of pictures it tends to put me behind, but in the long run I am glad they are available.  

Another problem I have when I wait this long to write and post the stories from weeks past is I tend to forget what we did.  I have been trying to write myself short outlines on the day’s activity to help me remember.  Sometimes these notes work and sometimes they don’t.  I am afraid this story is an example of where I didn’t leave myself good notes and I flat out can’t remember many of the highlights of this hike, thus a short story. 

Bob and I drove out and parked in one of the main beach lots out at this winter’s favorite hiking location, Stoney Creek Metro Park.  It had warmed up enough for the lake to start thawing.  It was still primarily covered by ice, but there were indications that the certain areas were on the thin side, so we stayed off the lake and stuck to the paved path.  We hiked the full 6.2 miles of the main path at a nice fast pace.  It took us about one and a half hours to do the full perimeter, which is a nice pace, right around 4.0 mph.  

One of the cool things about being out at Stoney is it’s size, it is really an expansive place.  There are a lot of wooded areas and field areas.  This gives the local wildlife a good place to live.  It is not unusual to see deer, raccoon, woodchucks and obviously squirrel.  We also see a lot of different type of bird.  With the lake there is all kind of water fowl and various land bird, like wild turkey, pheasant and quail.  The trees are filled with a lot of other various birds including an increase in the quantity of hawk we have seen this winter.  Lately we have also seen a lot of Downey Woodpecker.  I think the woodpecker is a particularly fun bird to watch and they are also very pleasant to the eye.   

I can’t remember where Bob and I stopped for lunch after our walk, but I am sure we had a good meal somewhere before returning home. 

Following are the statistics from this hike, we went the full 6.2 miles around the lake at a pace of approximately 4.0 mph.    
David Lindquist