A Walk in the Park

 

Red-Tailed Hawk, Tyler State Park, Newtown, PA

21 January 2024

Still on the mend, Tom announced he'd be at Tyler State Park's boathose at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday if we wanted to join him for a 5-mile walk.

We all had to drive at a snail's pace when we entered the park because we'd hit the end of an organized polar bear run and the road hadn't been plowed wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic as well as the runners.

We did find each other relatively easily, considering the mayhem. Joining Tom were Jim, Pete, Rickety, Cheryl G, Eric, Heddy, Our Jeff, and me.

We sometimes ride here when the roads are too icy because the asphalt paths are usually plowed. They were today, too, more or less, but not as tidily as in the past. It would have been rough going if we'd brought our bikes. 

I was testing out a new ankle brace. My old one is from 1992, the year I had surgery to tighten up a ligament gone loose from 12 sprains in 11 years. All that flopping around destroyed the proprioception; my brain doesn't know where my left ankle is. So I do strengthening exercises for the muscles around it, and wear a brace any time I might encounter unlevel ground. The brace shores up my ankle, and, should it wobble, the pressure from the brace tells my brain where my foot is. To my surprise, the new brace, much stiffer than the old one (no surprise, considering), was comfortable, and there were probably times that it was doing its job.

We started by walking across the dam over the Neshaminy Creek. 

On the downstream side, what looked like rocks were, upon closer inspection, Canada geese.

Tom led us off the paved path, down a snowy trail to the covered bridge. This part is never plowed. We usually park our bikes up top, walk down for pictures, and trudge back up again. We did the same thing today, reversing course at the bottom.

But first we milled about, taking pictures.

The view from the far side of the bridge, on the sunny side, showed shallow ice floes on the water's surface.

On the other side, the bridge cast a shadow on the creek.

There were more goose-rocks in the water.

Tom seemed to have disappeared. I followed a trail down to the water's edge. He was there with his good camera, gloves off so he could work the controls. He's been taking photography classes lately. He was already good at this. I expect the photos he'll share from today will put the rest of us to shame.

At the top of the hill, Our Jeff and Pete took a break on a bench. I didn't notice Jeff's finger until I uploaded the photo (click to embiggen).

He did that because he saw what I was doing to Tom's gloves.

We went back up the hill.

There was a horse farm I hadn't noticed before.

We came down a long, steep hill that we usually ride up. I ought to have taken a picture. I don't know why I didn't. 

Later, I noticed some duckweed in a shallow section of the creek.

We reached the dam again. I took some pictures of the path we didn't take that we usually ride up and back on. There's a big hill up that way.

Some of us thought the walk was over. Jeff and Pete called it a day. I almost did too, until I found out that we were going to walk along the path on this side of the creek for a bit. 

Heddy and I got to talking and got a little ahead. The guys called us to turn around.

We found a red-tailed hawk perched on a branch over our heads and stopped for photos. The sun was in my eyes. My glasses are the kind that darken in sunlight, and they're polarized too. I could barely see my camera's display. I was mostly shooting blind.

We walked on, and the hawk flew in front of us to land on a branch closer to the stream, and to us. We stopped again.

This look says, "I'm giving you guys one more minute. After that, I have mice to catch."

This bird must be used to people by now.

Someone left a pile of dried fruit and nuts on both sides of a little bridge over the creek.

The last time I went walking with the Insane Bike Posse at Tyler was in the winter of 2021. Jim and Mighty Mike had just received their first Covid vaccines, and I had severe vaccine envy. We were walking outside with masks on. I'm glad the Posse is still together three years later.