the Way of the Turtle

2.6 Mile Walk at Peebles Island State Park
Sunday, December 27, 2009

Once we got out of the mountains it turned out to be a fairly sunny day, so Ann and I decided to stop and do a bit of walking before we needed to head out to a dinner appointment. I'd been wanting to get back to Peebles Island after running there in mid-July and it was (sort of) on the way home... so that's where we headed.

The path was pretty muddy, but we were expecting that given all the rain we've had recently. We ended up walking much of the perimeter trail, though we did take a short cut back to the trailhead instead of doing the hilly path through the woods. Apparently this was a popular place to go today - we passed ten or so other folks out on the trails.

Not much wildlife in sight, though we did spot a couple of deer early on, and as we were walking back across the old railroad bridge Ann spotted a group of black-backed gulls out on the river. (They're easy to spot when they're with the usual ring-billed gulls because they're so much larger.)

I especially wanted to see the waterfall and wasn't disappointed, though Ann was definitely underwhelmed - she didn't remember much about the island and thought the waterfall was going to be much more impressive (really, it's more of a cascade than anything else.) Despite that it was a good afternoon for a walk - not to cold and lots of sunshine - and having her there just made it even better.

JMH