Morning walk along Minnehaha Creek

Minnehaha Creek below the falls is running pretty fast these days.  Several of the bridges that cross the creek are underwater. That foot of snow we got two weeks ago is largely melted although there still is some snow hanging onto the cliffs beside the falls. There were some muddy spots along the trail this morning and even one patch of ice.

I wasn't looking for trash this morning.  I was looking for spring flowers.  There was plenty of skunk cabbage in all that moisture.

I was able to identify three plants this morning without the benefit of the internet. Yeah! The yellow one is Marsh Marigold.  I remember seeing it at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden last year.

This white one is Bloodroot.  Most of the plants were finished blooming so I felt lucky to find one that still looked good.

At the end of the trail is a sandstone cliff that has been sculpted over the years with faces, hearts, names and at least one marriage proposal.  So what about trash in the park.  There is plenty to pick up and the Earth Day event is Saturday May 12th.  Hopefully some of the flooding will be down and the trails will be less muddy for that event.

Earth Day 2018 Postponed

 

Minneapolis Park and Rec Earth Day cleanup events scheduled for tomorrow at various park locations have been postponed for obvious reasons. I took a walk along Minnehaha Creek and Lake Nokomis this morning.  While the snow along the creek looks beautiful it is not what we hope for in the middle of April. The annual event has been postponed until May 12th. Maybe by then those kayaks will be out on the lake and we will see some spring flowers popping up! 

Crime Scene on the Mississippi

Last week I volunteered with Big River Journey.  A hundred plus 4th graders boarded one of the Paddleford Boats at Harriet Island for a trip along the Mississippi River.  Kids rotated between 6 stations where they could learn about river navigation, otters, eagles, macro invertebrates, geology, or my station, river trash.  The name crime scene pulls them in of course and they get to dump out bags of trash found in the river and try to figure out how it got there and why it might be bad for it to stay in the river.  Hopefully those kids came away with an understanding of what a storm drain is, maybe how it differs from the sewer system, and just maybe they will remember what a watershed is.  They will probably all remember that they are made up of 60% water and they most likely get their drinking water from the Mississippi River.  When I was out for a walk along Minnehaha Creek days later and saw this storm drain, I thought removing this is easy enough to do.  So do it! Otherwise, it's headed right to the river!

We have had a lot of rain lately and the Creek was really full.  We started our hike at the 46th Street station on the Light Rail Blue Line.  The trail takes you past Lake Hiawatha, Lake Nokomis, and into the neighborhoods of cute homes along the creek.  You could follow the creek all the way to Lake Harriet before heading back north toward downtown Minneapolis.

The creek had a lot of Virginia Waterleaf in bloom as well as Violets and a few Dame's Rockets.  

It's always good to get distracted by a new restaurant along the way and this one is a keeper.  Somewhere into the Lake Nokomis neighborhood is this little gem called Hot Plate. It's breakfast (plus beer) and the food was really great.  I was starving when we got there and the pancakes with lingonberry butter plus chicken fried steak, sausage gravy, eggs, and fried potato was actually way more fuel than what I needed to keep walking.  The restaurant's owners are collectors of old paint-by-number paintings and the weirdness abounds.  Picture an Emmett Kelly's "Weary Willie" next to the Virgin Mary and you get the idea.  Lava lamps and plastic figurines and old 1980's style hand held electronic games add to the decor.  This place is definitely worth the detour off the trail.

Walk along Minnehaha Creek

Last Thursday we had beautiful weather and a fine walk along Minnehaha Creek starting from the Light Rail Station on 46th and walking as far as Nicollet Avenue.  Some of this stretch was new for us.  We usually walk from Nicollet to Lake Harriett and back.  I didn't even think about bringing a bag to collect trash along the way.  It has always seemed relatively trash free.  I probably could have picked up enough trash to fill up a small Target bag.  There was the occasional water bottle cast aside and a few candy wrappers. This part of the creek seems to be well maintained.  So I was surprised to see a tire out in the creek just west of the Highway 35 bridge.

If the Park and Rec folks don't take care of this I hope someone will be able to remove this tire on the official Minnehaha Creek clean up day on July 26th.  That is a chance for volunteers to get together and work along the creek as well as clean up the Lake Hiawatha and Lake Nokomis areas too.  Volunteers get treated to beer and barbecue after they work.  What a deal.  http://www.minnehahacreek.org/events/2015-minnehaha-creek-cleanup-july-26