A Winter Wog Walk

Over the past couple of years, Brian and I have developed the habit of "celebrating" holidays by taking scenic hikes. It's a perfect time to have the snippets of metropolitan wilderness that remain to ourselves... so last Thursday, when we had a few hours together on Valentine's Day afternoon, we packed up the dog and headed up to Edgewater Park. A la chuck b. who blogs at My Back 40 (Feet) I took some pictures so you could join us.

I was happy to see that Lake Erie is frozen near the shore, at least. As you can see past the end of the short (and no longer used, except by fisherman and walkers) pier, the shallows are covered with a layer of ice and snow:

The presence of a long, dark shadow further out in the lake makes me think that the ice doesn't stretch very far, however. (And that was verified by the lake effect snow that the eastern suburbs received this week--when the lake freezes over, the lake effect snow ends.)

There are a few random things in the lake--intake platforms for public water supplies, for example--but I am pretty sure that this is a ship. Huge lake vessels like this make Gordon Lightfoot play in my head, and bring out my inner sea-yearning romantic:


(By the way, my heritage is mostly German, but I am a quarter Welsh and a smidgeon Spanish. I blame my Welsh sea-cliff-dwelling ancestors for my love of ships and open water.)

There were few footprints off the walking path, but Coco apparently found evidence of animal life near these shore rocks. It required additional investigation, of course:

I loved how the rocks were covered with blankets of snow, while the twigs and brush sticking up were encased in sparkling ice. You can understand why shore plants have to be tough ones when you see pictures like this:

As we neared the beach, the more natural-looking rocks give way to huge boulders, cut and placed here long ago. These are the rocks where I scraped up my hand in October, so we kept the dog away from them this time. In the background of this picture, you can see high-rise apartment buildings on the border of Lakewood (where I live) and Cleveland:

Pulling away from the tree, you can appreciate how yellow its twigs look en masse:

And further out still, you can easily guess which direction is northwest if you know that the winds tend to come off the lake in that direction here:

Another tree silhouette, beautifully warped and gnarled from years of living on the shore:

Finally, to the beach. Unlike some others we saw, we respected the "No Pets On Beach" sign and simply walked around it instead of through it. I'm sure it's a hygiene/cleanliness issue to have animals on the beach, but that's a bit ironic considering this beach is often declared unsafe for swimming because of the lake water anyway.

Look a little closer at the iced-over water. It looks like there are still waves here... I'm thinking because of the way the water froze in sections that happen to mirror the shape of the shoreline?

On our way back to the car, I stopped to admire some pretty tree bark. (Possibly an American Sycamore?)

The peeling bark on its branches looked neat against the blue sky.

The picnic buildings are usually full in the summertime, but not so much in the winter. I really liked the little xeriscape bed in the foreground--hurray for winter interest in a corporate/public landscape!


Nearer to the car, the snow had a crusty, 3/4 inch thick layer on top. We made the mistake of tossing a few sheets of this snow to Miss Coco, frisbee style... since she is a relatively tireless Lab/Malamute mix, we ended up continuing the game at her insistance for a good 15 minutes or so.

Coco looks like a tough girl here with her tail and ears up and her teeth showing, because I had caught her in mid-prance. She does this short, urgent, higher-pitched bark and her front paws prance a bit when she wants you to throw something to her... and here's she looking intently at Brian, who had a foot-wide chunk of snow that she felt she was ready to catch:

So much for the tough girl act... whenever she misses a chunk, she turns around and goes bounding through the snow looking for it. Silly dog!

The game of fetch concluded our little scenic walk for the day. But now that I look outside I see that the skies are a similar shade of blue and the sun is shining again... maybe it's a sign that it's time to throw a harness and a leash on Coco and take another walk. Even if it's just around the neighborhood instead of along the lakeshore. Have a wonderful weekend!