My latest slightly ill-advised adventure took place on a Sunday morning at the beginning of January. I rolled out of bed and was eating breakfast when I looked out the window and saw a snowy winter wonderland. Because it was early on a weekend morning, the snow was light enough, and it hadn’t been windy overnight, not only was the ground covered in several inches of snow, but so were all the tree branches. I’ve been working on a photography project (to be revealed later), and was waiting for a day such as that to get snow photos. After consulting three weather forecasts, I determined that the temperature was going to rise above freezing by lunch, and two out of three forecasts said that the snow would stop by midmorning. The third said it would turn to rain, but two out of three is sixty-seven percent, which is a passable grade in plenty of engineering courses. Also, it didn’t feel like a snow to rain kind of day, and I was willing to take the risk of getting caught in rain. I decided to try and catch the window of time after the snow stopped and before the temperature rose above freezing so there wouldn’t be snowflakes blurring my pictures but would be snow on the tree branches. Which meant that I had to get out that morning.
Having no progeny, pets, or plants to be responsible for, I finished breakfast, got dressed, and was out the door with my camera, water, snack, and extra dry jacket, mittens, and hat in ten minutes. My destination: Barton Nature Area. Depending on your definition of walkable, it’s walkable from my apartment. I arrived at the nature area without incident, encountering the usual three categories of people
dumb hardy and adventurous enough to be out in that kind of weather: dog walkers, exercisers (including runners, cross country skiers, and fat bikers – bikers riding fat bikes, not bikers who are fat), and photographers. And I got the timing almost exactly right. It stopped snowing about fifteen minutes after I arrived and by the time I left, the snow was already melting off the trees.
This nature area is contained within a loop of the Huron River, with bridges connecting it to the other side of the river. It’s adjacent to the Bird Hills, Kuebler Langford, and Hilltop Nature Areas, which together form one of the largest, if not the largest, contiguous-ish natural areas in Ann Arbor. There is a way to hike a loop through the four parks (which I did
here), but on this morning I stayed within the Barton Nature Area. There are good views of the river, a dam (according to the parks and rec website it’s the only dam in the city still generating electricity), and a pond. I walked a loop through the park before making my damp way back to my apartment, where I spent the rest of the day nice and warm. Enjoy the photos.
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| The Huron River from the south bridge |
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| Looking the opposite direction, train bridge and US 23/M-14 |
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| Snow-covered trees |
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| A tree and a pond |
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| Train tracks |
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