It’s just another no name ditch that feeds into the Fox River.
Not far from my house and I walk over if fairly often.
I’ve stopped in the past to take shots of reflections, but it’s not an easy ditch to explore.
A bike path, a relatively busy 2 lane road and an old railroad bridge all cross the ditch at the same point. The ditch is forced to flow under the road through a concrete pipe.
From here to the river is private property and based on the growth along and over the ditch, walking it would be a challenge.
Something I had never done was see what the ditch looked like as it came from the east.
So, over a guard rail, across the road and over another guard rail.
East was almost as intimidating as west. I settled for a couple of shots of reflections off water. The darkness of the ditch made one come out a bit blurry, but reflections are a bit blurry to begin with.
With a lull in the traffic just behind me, I could hear the tinkling of water over rock.
I hunched down and moved some brush. The sun was setting, the brush along the sides and arching over the steep little canyon walls made the ditch dark. About 50 feet away and through all the foliage I could barely make out a limestone wall about 5 feet tall and what little light was reaching it was reflecting off the water trickling down.
It was a little waterfall.
I sized up the ditch about eight feet below me. I sized up how to get down to it.
There’s a twisted ankle, there’s a slide down into the ditch.
My back wasn’t up for the small adventure today. Practically crawling up another no name ditch probably would not have gone well.
Next week perhaps. Weather’s not supposed to be too bad. Calling for sunny.
Do some stretches, limber up a bit and hope I don’t break an ankle when I hit the bottom.
Sounds like a plan.
Howard Levett
18 Nov 2015Interesting what catches out eye when we’re out exploring.
Ken G
19 Nov 2015Luckily I have one good ear left Howard. If I wouldn’t have heard it first I’m not sure I would have noticed. It’s pretty well covered. Snow on Saturday, not sure going back into this ditch will be a good idea. The rocks were bad enough, but snow covered rocks?…
Justin Carf
19 Nov 2015With the prediction of the weekend weather, I think you’re right about not going back to give it a go. Especially, by yourself.
Ken G
20 Nov 2015I do pretty much everything by myself Justin. Drives the wife nuts, but she always has a general idea of where I am. She rolls her eyes alot.
Gravity, snow and ice is a bigger deal in my advancing age. I don’t bounce back like I used to.
The snow can make it look pretty good, I’ll have to weigh my options when I get there.
And not do anything stupid, as the wife likes to tell me.