Before My Very Eyes

Walk Location: Sakatah Singing Hills Trail (near Eagle Lake, MN)
Walk Time: Early Morning
Temperature: 48 degrees
Skies: Clear, becoming sunny
Steps: 8,000

The Sakatah Singing Hills Trail begins in Mankato, MN, and winds it way another 39 miles before ending near Fairbault, MN. My walking experience on the Sakatah Trail has been limited to the beginning of the trail in Mankato, and the next two segments which are near Eagle Lake, MN. Eventually I plan to walk most of the Trail, although it will be in small chunks here and there.

I exited my car to step onto the paved walkway and wondered if I was underdressed for this late summer morning. Glancing at my car's instrument panel I noted the temperature to be 48 degrees, and I could see the breezes rustling leaves on the trees and the fronds of maturing corn stalks. The Sakatah Singing Hills Trail (at this end of the trail, anyway) is a marvelous melange that includes city dwellers, farms, hardwood forests and verdant greenery.

The portion of the trail I walked today is beyond the city limits of Mankato. It has a decidedly rural feel to it. Buttressed by trees and farm fields, the lake was resplendent as the early morning rays of sun glimmered off the gently rippling surface. Cattails are at the peak of their season and fill the swampy edges of the lake in question.

As I began my walk I shivered in the early morning dew, knowing that within minutes I would create enough energy to enjoy the brisk coolness against my face and legs. There is something about a dew-drenched early morning with the beckoning warmth of sunlight that refreshes the soul. As I walk I can see my breath in the air. I hear the songbirds, witness the deft movements of a hawk careening down the tree-covered arches of the path and watch a skittering squirrel hide in the leaves.

There are few other pedestrians or bikers on the path this morning. I encounter two middle-aged women who provide a friendly "good morning," and several bikers intent upon their destinations. For much of my walk I am alone, and I revel is the transformation of nature before my very eyes.



By the time I return to my vehicle a little more than hour later the leaves which had been dripping with dew are drying in the morning sun and nature's bounty has awakened. Birds and squirrels embrace the day. Days like these are unique, no two alike, kind of like these Rudbeckia hirta, "Black-Eyed Susan," a perennial whose season is summer into the fall.