Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 3 - The Marsh

To tell the truth, I would have been happy for today's adventure to have been sleeping in bed, but I knew it was important to Laura to hike all of the trails in Rondeau this week so I went with her.

Laura said we could hike a little more slowly today since we have less ground to cover but, once we got onto the Marsh Trail, there were so many interesting things to see and smell that I soon forgot I was tired. Before we even got to the trail itself, a huge bird of prey flew overhead. He swooped down so low, right over our heads, I was glad Laura was with me lest that enormous raptor took a fancy to me as a nice light morning snack!

Walking along Water Street, we were escorted by a friendly monarch butterfly. Then, on the trail itself, more Monarchs as well as Cabbage Whites, Clouded Sulfurs, Pearl Crescents



and Red Admirals.



We saw lots of birds too: little brown birds, a whole flock of black birds resting in the bullrushes, a couple of swallow-tailed birds near the north end of the marsh, more raptors circling overhead



(watch out little brown birds!) and lots of dragon flies. We saw bullrushes and tall blue grass and thickets of raspberry canes and grape vines and those white berry bushes,



pretty orange flowers, golden rod, tiny white asters, tiny buds of purple, and white & pink morning glories.

We hiked along a couple of boardwalks out into the marsh. At the end of one there was this cute little shelter, just the right size for me! It sure was nice of the Rondeau Park people to build this for me!



At the end of the other boardwalk there was a lookout tower into which we climbed. We could see water and marsh for miles around from up there, and it was super windy!





a>

Laura really liked it up in the Marsh Trail Tower, looking out over Rondeau Bay, the wind in her hair -- but she said she was glad she wasn't out on the water in a canoe that day!