Mississippi Riverwalk Trail

When I write about living near the Mississippi River, I usually think to remind folk that we don't live on that Mississippi but the one in Eastern Ontario that flows into the Ottawa River and from there to the St Lawrence and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. No Gulf of Mexico destination for this Mississippi. No siree.

So, now that we have that settled (I know, this is a repeat for some long-standing visitors), I am here to take you onto our Mississippi Riverwalk Trail. I also ask you to excuse the redundancy of walk and trail, but around here we're nothing if not redundant.

It starts just around the corner from us although don't care to have a naming sign at this end and runs adjacent to the river for almost 6 km. For the most part, the river is somewhat hidden behind bush or swamp, but it's accessible in several spots. Regardless: whether you can see the river or not, it's a pleasant place for a stroll, and in decent weather, I tend to do a section a few times per week — which basically means that I only get there about three times per annum. Just sayin ...

Being the camera nerd that I am, I more often than not have one of my toys tools with me.  Let us begin.

One place where we can see the river, near a road overpass.

In a section of gloomy swamp, the sun hit and lit a handful of the hundreds of grass seed heads

Poor photo but bedrock is close to the surface hereabouts and outcrops right here

I don't often see fishers out there, but on Saturday I saw these three with one more out of the frame. Curiously, they were all lined up facing north.

In another swampy area, I found a few irises blooming. I don't know
if these are genuinely wild irises or cultivated escapees.
Either way, I found them delightful.

Dead trees reflecting across the water. Possibly afflicted elms?

Another view of the [unmighty] Mississippi

I recently purchased a new compact camera, partly for me when I don't want to carry my DSLR and partly for Sue to carry about whenever she wishes (the DSLRs being a little heavy for her). It has a feature that I am playing with to see how useful it might be. What happens in this one mode is that I can shoot a still, and the camera will record some video around the still. It will then magically put all of one session's clips into one longer one. I think it's potentially a great way to record a day's events without any editing.

This was the result of one outing on the trail. I went a little overboard, but I am still getting used to it and wanted to experiment.