Burt, Cool Guy, and I bundled. That is, we combined a hiking trip with a grocery shopping trip. I love to combine things in trips, being the super-efficient person that I am. Ha. When it works out that way, great. This morning, I knew that I had had to go grocery shopping, and I really wanted to do a hike. Nothing huge like Fort Hill, just a little, local hike. Kroger Wetlands was just the ticket.
It is located behind (surprise) the Kroger store in Marietta OH. My guess is that the land was donated by Kroger, but I don't know for sure. The trail is maintained by a local hiking group, and we could tell that a lot of time and care has been put into it.
The main attraction of the Kroger Wetlands is, duh, the wetlands, which means lots and lots of migrating birds. There is the water, the marshes, the bugs, the wildflowers: all wonderful things for the birds, and all in an island of solitude in the midst of urban/interstate sprawl. It was hard to believe that we were so close to the hotels, highways, and, yes, grocery stores, but it felt that we were miles and miles away.
The trail was just a flat, simple loop. Nothing fancy. We had glimpses of the marsh area and sometimes the path went right up to it. There were two observation decks, and several signs identifying the birds and plants. We saw lots of ducks, cattails, lots of other marsh plants, and we heard lots of birds, but I'm afraid that we were making a little too much noise and weren't still enough for long enough for the birds to begin to come out.
You see, it was drizzling all morning. I had to use my best persuasion to get the guys to even consider coming out, but I knew once we got hats on, as long as it wasn't really really raining, then we'd be OK. And we were, but at the same time, we also weren't going to just sit waiting for birds to show up. That will have to be for another trip.
I think the highlight of our walk was finding the tree trunk 3/4 chewed through by a beaver. I don't think I've ever seen that before. We noticed that many, maybe most, trees near the water's edge had been wrapped in a wire mesh, probably to keep them safe from beavers. I'm sure it's difficult deciding whether and how to best manage various animals' and humans' interests, as in why it would be more important to allow a tree to live rather than let the beavers set up housekeeping in the wetlands. I'm not doubting or disputing the decision to wrap the trees, but I am curious about the reasoning behind it.
For a little bitty, flat, 1 mile loop, we certainly saw a ton of neat things, breathed some fresh outside air, and really enjoyed our time, drizzle and all.
It is located behind (surprise) the Kroger store in Marietta OH. My guess is that the land was donated by Kroger, but I don't know for sure. The trail is maintained by a local hiking group, and we could tell that a lot of time and care has been put into it.
The main attraction of the Kroger Wetlands is, duh, the wetlands, which means lots and lots of migrating birds. There is the water, the marshes, the bugs, the wildflowers: all wonderful things for the birds, and all in an island of solitude in the midst of urban/interstate sprawl. It was hard to believe that we were so close to the hotels, highways, and, yes, grocery stores, but it felt that we were miles and miles away.
The trail was just a flat, simple loop. Nothing fancy. We had glimpses of the marsh area and sometimes the path went right up to it. There were two observation decks, and several signs identifying the birds and plants. We saw lots of ducks, cattails, lots of other marsh plants, and we heard lots of birds, but I'm afraid that we were making a little too much noise and weren't still enough for long enough for the birds to begin to come out.
You see, it was drizzling all morning. I had to use my best persuasion to get the guys to even consider coming out, but I knew once we got hats on, as long as it wasn't really really raining, then we'd be OK. And we were, but at the same time, we also weren't going to just sit waiting for birds to show up. That will have to be for another trip.
I think the highlight of our walk was finding the tree trunk 3/4 chewed through by a beaver. I don't think I've ever seen that before. We noticed that many, maybe most, trees near the water's edge had been wrapped in a wire mesh, probably to keep them safe from beavers. I'm sure it's difficult deciding whether and how to best manage various animals' and humans' interests, as in why it would be more important to allow a tree to live rather than let the beavers set up housekeeping in the wetlands. I'm not doubting or disputing the decision to wrap the trees, but I am curious about the reasoning behind it.
For a little bitty, flat, 1 mile loop, we certainly saw a ton of neat things, breathed some fresh outside air, and really enjoyed our time, drizzle and all.
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