Monday, July 16, 2012

Songbird Slough: July 14, 2012

While there isn't too much to see at Songbird Slough other than a bunch of prairie grasses, the sounds definitely make the preserve worth the visit. While you can still hear the interstate not too far away, the dominant sounds are cicadas and other insects buzzing, and songbirds chirping and singing. We weren't able to get any pictures of the birds, but they were plentiful.

There are two paths that we saw and tried. One is very smooth asphalt, which is about a mile long from the entrance of the preserve to the picnic area. The other is a path through the prairie grass to the pond area. While the asphalt trail is very stroller friendly, the grass path definitely is not. But it is the only way to get to the small pond.

Overall a very relaxing walk, even though we had to do another mile afterwards at home as the total trail was only 2 miles. We also had a little green stowaway that made it into the car.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Bemis Woods: July 4, 2012

We decided that for our 3-mile walk on a very hot Independence Day, we would find a forest preserve that would hopefully have a nice shady trail. Bemis Woods is off of 294 and Ogden, near Brookfield Zoo.

The south path is rather shady- once you get to a road (Salt Creek Rd I think), you have an option to go back West and North or to continue East towards Brookfield. We decided to go to the West/North and it was not as shady. Even with sunscreen I got a little pink.

A very beautiful path overall, and very well paved. I don't know if it was because it was the 4th, but the trail was very busy- both bicycles and roller blades. They were friendly, but I felt that our two strollers were a bit in the way.

The scenery is much the same as many forest preserves. Lots of trees, very peaceful. The trail does pass by Salt Creek, with a bridge over it that gives you some nice views.

Terrain is pretty flat, which was nice in the very hot weather. Very nice walk overall.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Elmhurst Storm Damage- July 1, 2012

Our walk Sunday evening was punctuated with the buzz of cicadas and the hum of generators. One of those quick yet painful summer storms blew through around noon, and power was still out all around our neighborhood at 7:00pm, and likely will be for a few days. Most yards had at least a few branches down (ours included), some had trees snapped in half, and others had trees completely uprooted.

The nice thing about the storm was that it cooled things down at least a little, and it also made it so that a lot of people were outside, so we got to visit and talk to a few neighbors we rarely see.