Monday afternoon at Mission Creek Park (11 September 2017)

Yesterday afternoon I managed to sneak away from the office for about two hours to visit my favorite local park - Mission Creek Woodland Park.  This City of Mt. Pleasant park is sixty acres in size and has approximately 2 miles of trails.  In addition, the park is home to the city's sledding hill and dog park.  Despite these amenities, much of the park rarely sees visitors due to its swampy terrain - probably one-third of the park can be classified as a Northern Hardwood-Conifer Swamp.

If you want to walk around in this habitat, be prepared to get wet and muddy.  Rubber boots are a necessity except during the winter. Even during the winter I usually wear them because the ice that forms in the swamp is often thin.  During a recent visit I fell flat on my side in six inches of water as one boot stuck in the muck and the other kept sinking.  It's a habitat that teaches humility (a modest or low view of one's own importance).  It's hard to think too highly of yourself when you are covered from head-to-toe in oozing black muck and smell like rotting vegetation.

In spite of (or maybe because of) moments like that, I go to Mission Creek as frequently as I can.  A short walk off trail in a busy park lets me find that wildness that we all (kids and adults alike) need in our daily lives.

European Honeybee on Canada Goldenrod

A willow thicket

Eastern Cottonwood leaves are beginning to change color and drop to the ground

A Poison Ivy vine sneaks its way up in the fissures of this tree's bark

Goldenrods and asters announce the arrival of fall ahead of the changing leaves

Swamp Aster lives up to its name

A single Spicebush berry

Common Boneset

A hoverfly nectars on Swamp Thistle

Ferns hug the ground around the sweeping roots of a Northern White Cedar

Turtlehead flowers invite bumblebees for pollination

Flooding in June caused several trees to collapse into Mission Creek

Up the steep bank, high above the creek, I discovered this animal burrow.  Woodchuck?

Wild apple trees are fruiting - these apples are very tart!