The last photo in particular makes it look like a meandering river, but it’s just a pair of elongated lakes. Also, that small island used to serve as a hillfort a thousand or more years ago.
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Did you take these from a plane?
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Just a drone, flown at various points along a hiking trail.
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Aha!
I was trying to identify the location just from the pictures, but when i realized one picture was taken so high above the observation tower I was stumped!
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Took a bike ride yesterday along the Illinois & Michigan canal trail. Came across a chonky groundhog. At first I thought it was a bear cub but bears have been extirpated from Illinois for years. When I got closer he took off running.
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Did you get to hear the whistle?
One of their vernacular names is “whistle pig,” and it’s been funny getting to know them here. Now, whenever I hear a chipmunk squeak, I can hear that they’re related, one’s just much larger. And more destructive to my garden.
But both are undeniably pretty dang cute.
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Looks idyllic.
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And a meandering bench!
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Visited Kernavė, a place that has been more-or-less continuously inhabited for the past 11 thousand years (the first few millennia it had temporary settlements of hunter-gatherers), the capital of the Lithuanian state in the 13th century, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A reconstruction of a few 13th-14th century houses based on archeological findings and build using tools and techniques available at that time:
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Housing types are so interesting: the same patterns emerge all over the world, based on available materials, climate, etc.
You could have told us those log cabins were part of an outdoor historical museum in Ontario, or Missouri, or Montana, and we’d have believed you.
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Some follow-up! Back again biking to my two favorite Twin Cities parks today, to see how things are since the Mississippi River flooded. The water has receded, things are pretty much dried out. But have the paved trails been cleared? We shall see!
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Hidden Falls Regional Park: The trail was cleared for a ways, but all good things come to an end, and it’s time to walk the bike through the sand. ↓
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Turning to the left at the above spot, here’s an off-trail view of more sand that the river left behind. So much sand! ↓
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Continuing walking through the sand, here’s an exposed bit of the paved trail. (You may recognize the spot from photos I’ve posted here in the past. That’s the Highway 5 bridge, and directly across the river, at the other end of the bridge, is Historic Fort Snelling.) ↓
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At a higher spot that didn’t get flooded, there’s some of our friends now! (though they must use smaller equipment to clear the trails). (Hey, I wonder what they do with all the sand? Do they take it and store it somewhere, and use it on the icy roads in the winter??) ↓
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Now we’re in Crosby Farm Park: there’s some cleared trail and…well, I guess they just pile the sand up, at least for now. The river is on the right. ↓
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Welp, that’s the end of that cleared part of the trail. There’s a bit too much shadow from the trees, but maybe you can see where the cleared part of the trail just stops. Time to walk the bike through some more sand. ↓
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And we’ve come to another cleared section of trail! ↓
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Now on a different cleared section of the trail. This is an extra picture just for the sake of comparison—this part of the trail was under water, but it’s farther away from the river and didn’t get all the sand, so it’s just muddy. ↓
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Back home. I had a feeling I should take my shoes and socks off outdoors, because I could feel sand between my toes…sandiest bike ride I’ve ever had! ↓
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It might not count, as this is not recreational but just while walking to work.
Weather allowing, it’s a nice 5 km walk, mostly park and woods.
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Is the sand soft? Like what we call, down here, “sugar sand?” It gets in every nook and cranny of my bicycle. And it’s awful to ride in.
@newbrain That’s awesome!
A great sunrise down here this morning. I dunno if the fires “up north” are contributing.
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Yes, it’s very fine. Somewhat difficult to push the bike along, just walking in it. I didn’t even try to ride on it.
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Ugh, yeah. That stuff is awful. There are races I do where it’ll be a couple of miles of that sugar-sand and I usually just shoulder my bike up and jog it. Yuck.
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Kiddo rappelling after a climb, SW Sweden. I hired a guide for two days of relaxed instruction and climbing - best decision of the trip!
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