Even though it was a cool, blustery day, 10 people came out to hike this most scenic section of the Waskahegan Trail.

Fortunately, the rain held off on this day, for it was easy to see that the area had been getting a lot of it lately. The grass had grown much taller than expected since the trail was scouted just three weeks earlier. Nevertheless, the trail was still in great shape considering it had not been touched since last fall’s final maintenance of the season.

What wasn’t in great shape though was the initial boardwalk bridge on the slope. So, we avoided it by detouring around along the edge of the sod farm. Pictures of the bridge were taken to pass on to Trail Maintenance.

Then we had to skip another section due to some awkwardly-placed downed trees. It was too much to expect everyone to whack their way through, so we bypassed it by walking along the sod farm instead. However, on the way back, three of our more intrepid hikers decided to try going through, and they managed it without difficulty.

For most of the hike we had fantastic views of the Pipestone, and many hikers commented on just how scenic this section of the trail is. We had lunch at the usual spot, on the grand hill overlooking the creek. We’ll be having lunch here at this same spot in August when we do this hike coming from the other direction.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and to the landowners for their continuing permission. You can find more photos on Flickr.

Where we’re going next.

Seventeen people came out on warm and sunny day to hike the Middle Battle River section towards Schnee Hill. This was first challenging hike of the year because at 11 km, it’s a little longer than usual, and because it has ups and downs…ending with lunch at the top of Schnee Hill.

The terrain is varied, from forests to pastures. The flowers we saw include wild red currant, wild blue clematis, coltsfoot, early blue violet, golden bean, fairy bells, prairie smoke, and saskatoon blossoms. We also saw a morel mushroom.