TRAIL TALK 391

It seems that winter has arrived. We had a good snowfall on Monday night Nov 10^th and Sunday night Nov 16^th.

Although snow can make the trails slippery, one advantage is the ability to see what creatures are around by the tracks left in the snow. Opossums are mainly nocturnal so are not often seen, but they have a distinctive track, with very splayed toes.   Although I did not see any opossum tracks, I did see an opossum on a camera set up at a bird feeder. It arrived at 12.25 am and returned at 3 am to eat some bread crumbs.

Some fungi are still growing at this time of year. A colourful one was a stinking orange oyster (aka a mock oyster). It was growing on a log in the woods on the new section of the Maitland Trail East of Sharpes Creek Line.  Saturday Nov15th was one of the milder days a good sized Maitland Trail Association work crew tackled part of a large grove of European bucktorn in the Maitland Woods. There is so much buckthorn in that area, that it will take several years work to control it. You can see large piles of the stacked buckthorn branches to the West of the trail.

On Wednesday November 19^th  fifteen of us hiked in the Morris Tract, where much of the trail was free of snow. Not surprisingly there was one windfall across the trail , which fortunately was easy to step over.

The Menesetung bridge across the Maitland River at Goderich is closed to pedestrians and cyclist until December, with a probable opening on Saturday December 13^th.

Deer gun hunting December 1^st-7^th when the majority of the Maitland Trail will be closed. The Maitland Woods, Millennium Trail and the G2G trails will all stay open as hunting is not allowed on them.

Saturday November 29^th 11 am Mindfulness walk Meet at the Millennium Trail in Goderich, Nelson Street East entrance. Designed for those who want the benefits of meditation but prefer to move.  For more information and to confirm your attendance, please contact Tanya at redroofrecovery@gmail.com or text 519-616-3636.

These walks are at 11am on the last Saturday of every month.

Sunday December 7^th 1pm the Bayfield River Trail Association is holding a candy cane hunt on the Varna trail

Tuesday Trompers meet at 9 a.m. on Tuesday to hike for about an hour. If you wish to be on this email list, send an email to mta@maitlandtrail.ca

Midweek hikers meet at 9 a.m. and hike for 1 ½ to 2 hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact Patrick Capper at pcapper99@gmail.com

LIFE hikers meet every Friday for a hike of about 1 1 /2 hours, with a choice of of pace, striders moving a little faster than te strollers.  The hikes now start at 9a.m. and can be joined through One Care.