Neighborhood Walk 2025 10

This week after doing an oil change and some plumbing fixes, I decided to do one of our more common hikes. A hike around the neighborhood.

Luckily we live in a city with a river valley running through it. And we live close enough to the river for a nice afternoon walk.

So after we finished with the tasks we had for the day, my wife and I headed out for a nice fall walk through the neighborhood.

We chose to go south from our house along our road to the main street through our corner of the city. Hiking down the left side of our road due to the lack of sidewalks. Flocks of birds chirped as we walk.

Taking a left off our road we started walking on the sidewalk until our next turn. This was a brief section as we soon crossed the street to walk down another side road. This road would eventually lead us to Alicia Park.

As we walked, we enjoyed the different colors of fall leaves. Squirrels were everywhere hunting for nuts to store for winter. Birds flitted from tree to tree as we travel.

Eventually we got to Alicia Park, but as we entered the park we heard a call from a Silver Maple. Looking up in the tree I could see a Northern Flicker flying from branch to branch.

Patiently we slowly moved around the tree trying to get a clear picture of the bird. Which is how we found out what the Flicker was looking for in the tree. A squirrel cowered in the crook of a tree branch. Moments later I caught a picture of the Flicker with a nut in its beak.

We continued on our way walking through the park on a paved walking path. Dozens of squirrels foraged in the park. Eventually we got to the other side of the park and the road down the river valley to Lutz Park.

Walking down the hill I took some more pictures of House Sparrows and Chickadees. As we reached the bottom of the hill we entered Lutz park.

Lutz Park has a couple of paved trails, one that follows the road and another that follows the river’s edge. At the mid point of the park though is a walking bridge out to a pier built on one of the rocky islands in the middle of the river. We walked across the bridge to visit the pier.

Out on the pier was a guy fishing. We give him space to cast and go to the other end of the pier. Looking around we took the time to observe the fall colors from the center of the river.

We started walking again and headed back across the bridge. Continuing along the river path we saw cormorants flying up and down the river. My wife spotted a deer coming down the hill in the wooded area leading down to the road.

We reached the end of Lutz Park and made a decision. We could continue following the road back up the hill along the east side of Pierce Park. Or we could take a short cut through a small gorge which lines up with the road back to our house.

We looked at the time and decided to take the short cut to head home. And the decision to hike through the gorge was a good one as we end up seeing an eight point buck flushed out of Pierce Park.

We like hikes like this as they take almost no planning. Its just a leisurely walk through our neighborhood. And as I said before we are lucky enough to live in a beautiful city with an amazing river valley.

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