Monday, November 17, 2008

Stearns Woods/Veteran's Acres Hike

We met Dave and Pattie, Len and Marlene, and Carol at Stearns Woods in Crystal Lake, and hiked about 5 miles there and in the abutting Veteran's Acres Park.



Obvious from our attire is the below normal, 34 degree temperature and 19 wind chill -- too cold for us to bike but fine for hiking the wooded trails. The only green remaining is the few evergreen trees and on some of the shorter trees and shrubs, which of course allows for better sight lines into the woods. Alas, the only deer we saw was under a motorist's car on a nearby street, although a number of birds were still around.




Crystal Lake is fortunate to have these two wonderful hiking/mountain biking venues right in the middle of their town, and I especially appreciate the sentiments on this sign which hung by the observation deck overlooking the lagoon...



After the 1.5 hour hike, we lunched at Colonial Cafe, and then Ellen and I ventured over to Woodman's Market --- our first time at this immense grocery (and misc.) store. We were looking for Blackwing Ostrich meat which we sampled yesterday at the food expo and which is sold here. We found it, bought some, along with more food items we needed.

No comments: