Walktober

This year for Walktober I wanted to find a nice place for a walk that I had never been to before; it couldn't be too far away and had to allow dogs. I also didn't want the trail to be too long and I was looking for some place that had some views. Well, I found the W.E. Burton Conservation area. It's about an hours drive from my place and is on the banks of the Castor River. It's a narrow park bordered by the river on one side and Church street on the other. You're never out of hearing distance of traffic noise but with the sound of rushing water the traffic kind of fades into the background. There's only about three kilometers of trail in the conservation area, part of it is a linear trail starting at one end with a loop near the parking area at the other end. 

I would have rather gone during the week but you take the nice days when you get them so we went out on Saturday. This little conservation area is popular with families and dog walkers as the main trails are wide and level. Luckily, the woods are not really thick so I could get off the trail and onto a path through the woods whenever we saw other dogs. 

Conservation area trails

There are plenty of views of the river but not many places where you can actually access the shoreline. Near the dam, the shoreline is fenced off, good thing as Teddy tried to outbark the sound of the rushing water.

Falls at the Dam

Past the dam was a marsh area, I had hoped the trail would afford better views of the marsh but it actually just headed alongside the road that borders the park, coming out at the other end of the conservation area. We backtracked here, heading back to the parking lot and then did the other half of the loop that we hadn't done.

Marsh View

Church Street

On other half of the loop, we saw a small stream and had better access to river views.  I think it would be nice to have a riverside home as long as there's not too much flooding.

Little stream

Trail with Church Street ahead

River view

Castor River

We did find one place where I could get the dogs to the shoreline so of course there had to be a photo op.

This was a nice little park, if I lived closer I'm sure I would go there quite often. Hopefully we'll have some more nice days before winter really hits; I find it so hard to get out and about when we have a ton of snow and it's really cold outside.