January 20

Wednesday, Remi and I traveled 18 miles north to just east of Mt. Pleasant off Leaton Rd. to hike the 25-acre, Williams-Blackburn Preserve, one of 19 acquisitions of the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy. The mid-day weather was partly cloudy with a temperature of 18 degrees and a slight breeze out of the southwest. We left the car parked in a cul-de-sac, hiked south and then east next to a fenced boundary of private property before entering the preserve where I paused on a bluff to admire the scenic Chippewa River landscape. Since there were no trails to follow and only 3 inches of hard packed snow on the ground, I easily made my way along the bluff where Remi sniffed out the tail fur of a Melanistic Gray Squirrel lying on the ground. Descending the bluff to the riverbank, I paused to take in nature’s river wonderland. Continuing south, I walked to the end of a peninsula where the meandering river flowed rapidly south and made a sharp turn to flow north. I turned around, walked back up the slope and hiked west along the bluff where I saw a tree trunk that at one time was worked on by carpenter ants followed by a woodpecker feeding on those ants. Also, nearby on another tree trunk was a familiar oval-shaped nest hole of a Pileated Woodpecker. After gazing fondly one more time at the river, I turned north into a dense stand of evergreens consisting of mostly Red Pine and White Spruce. Finally, we made it back to the car and headed home.

Tell me your story

Watercourse of worth

Shrouded by ice

Caressed by the earth

Your current speaks

Flow, waters flow

Washing the rocks

Muffled by snow

Nature’s treasure

So much you deliver

Riparian wonder

Chippewa River

D. DeGraaf