Paynesville, Minnesota's

Crow River Trail Guards

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April, 2002 - Paynesville Press

The Crow River Nature Park is located along the river in Paynesville. The Crow River Trail Guards, a volunteer youth group, meets on Saturday mornings from spring to fall to maintain and improve the park.

• (April 24) Winter may be trying desperately to hang on, but spring is really here, and it is time for our eager young workers to get back into action. Trail Guards will resume our normal activities at the Crow River Nature Park this Saturday morning, April 27, at 9 a.m. Due to the success and popularity of the Trail Guards, we have been forced to address the good problem of too much interest. We have reluctantly decided to not take any new members until school is dismissed for the summer in June. In addition, also to help control our growth, we will not be meeting on May 4, the weekend of our mountain biking trip in Wisconsin. A slower start might help alleviate some of last year's problems associated with what you might call too much of a good thing. As in the past few years, we will be planting trees for the city of Paynesville on Saturday to commemorate Arbor Day. To honor Earth Day, we will be opening the park, cleaning the trails and picnic area of litter, and playing our annual game of Earth Day Kickball. This is a very exciting day for us, one that so many of our great kids have waited for patiently since patches of grass began to show through the melting snow. We are sorry to not be able to share this day with those of you who have inquired over the winter, but your day will come. In all fairness to our dedicated work force, it seems important to follow our new rule. PLANET WATCH: Mercury is moving higher into the great spring planet line-up. Directly west northwest at dusk find Mercury near the horizon. Move up and to the left for Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter, all in a line. Mercury will stay with us for a while, this time, as the planets do a little shuffle in the next few weeks. In one month they will be in almost the same exact straight line, except that Venus and Saturn will have switched places.
• (April 17) Our second annual indoor rock climbing trip to Prairie Woods ELC, between New London and Willmar, was another smashing success. Our climbing instructors, Dave and Chris, provided the kind of positive, safe, and esteem-building experience we seek in our rewards programs. Their routine included teamwork, personal accountability, and tons of positive reinforcement. The kids learned how to wear a climbing harness, tie themselves to a climbing rope with a retrace figure-eight knot, belay for a partner (keep their rope tight and secure from the floor in the event of a slip), and act as ballast for a belayer lighter than his or her climbing partner. It was my first time climbing, and an exciting and educational experience for me, as well. Twelve eager Trail Guard boys and girls climbed for two hours. These kids set a new world record for good behavior, and I just couldn't be prouder of the way they represented the Trail Guard organization, both in the climbing room, and on the round trip to and from Prairie Woods. Thank you for making my job so easy and fun! Thanks also to Shawn Granzo for his friendly help as co-pilot and back-up belayer, and to John Hartert, Paynesville Wood Products, for his special help. We have nine kids scheduled for our first ever bicycle/camping trip this May. Chequamegon National Forest, near Cable, Wis., will provide a superbly wild and scenic deep-woods backdrop for this two-nights-out adventure. Guided by our good friend Rick McFerrin, his wife Tanya, and a member of the Chequamegon National Forest Bike Patrol, this will be a very rewarding trip for this lucky group of Trail Guards. Thanks to REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.), Minneapolis, for donating use of bikes, tents, sleeping bags, rain gear, and other equipment for this trip.
• (April 10) Spring is finally here! The winter that came early, then all but disappeared, but then returned with a vengeance and refused to die, has moved on and let the warm, fragrant breezes of April move in. What a refreshing and long-awaited change of pace. This time of year always means high water in the Crow River, and we ask parents to please ask their kids to stay away until it drops to a safe level. Even though the water level is much lower than we often see in the spring, the current is still very swift, and the water very cold. The river is at a great level for canoeists with the skills and enthusiasm for a spirited ride. This is not a tranquil, leisurely float, but a quick pace requiring sharp maneuvering at times to avoid a cold swim. Have fun, but be safe, and leave the kids at home. ROCK CLIMBING: Saturday morning is our second annual spring rock climbing trip to Prairie Woods ELC. We may still have two or three openings for Trail Guard kids of any age. Call Sheri at 320-243-4327. For those going, we meet at H&L Express Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Parents need to come in to sign a standard release form. We will be back to H&L at 12:30 p.m. STARGAZING: Don't miss the great planet line-up this spring. Mercury moves into the picture this weekend, giving us all five planets visible with the naked eye all in a line, all out together. Sunday night will be particularly beautiful as a sliver of a crescent new moon joins the spectacle. Starting at the western horizon at twilight, then moving up and to the south, find Mercury, Venus, the moon, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. As the week progresses, Mercury will move farther away from the sun and be much more visible.
• (April 3) I took a stroll through the Nature Park last weekend and was happy to see that others have been on the trails as well this spring. We are just a few weeks from our Trail Guard start-up date, tentatively scheduled for April 27, and a quiet walk along the snowy banks of the fast flowing Crow River is a great way for me to start to think of the coming season. My visit didn't start out very peacefully. As soon as I got out of my vehicle at the top of the driveway I found myself on the receiving end of a red-tailed hawk's scolding, that made me smile. It meant that the nest in the park area is active again this year, and we are very happy to have a nesting pair back with us. Large birds of prey nest very early in our neck of the woods, and they are very likely sitting on eggs already. Please observe them from a distance during this important time. If you come to the park, listen for them early in your visit to get a bearing on the location. Justin George will be back with us this season for extra help on our Saturday morning work sessions. We are thrilled that he is available and willing, and look forward to a fun year with him at the park. STARGAZING: Comet Ikeya-Zhang. Returning to the inner solar system after a 341-year orbit around the sun, the brightest comet since Hale-Bopp in 1997, Ikeya-Zhang (pronounced "ee-KAY-uh JONG") was just discovered on Feb. 1. Faintly visible with the naked eye, just a pair of binoculars will give you a nice view of this heavenly wonder ­ if you can find it. Low in the northwest after sunset, just below and to the left of Cassiopeia is the location of the Andromeda Spiral Galaxy. Use a star map to find it. Ikeya-Zhang will pass just over the top of Andromeda tomorrow, April 4. By late next week it will be directly below Cassiopeia.

With binoculars or telescope, if you have access to one, you will be in for a real treat. Remember this as you gaze at the Andromeda Galaxy: the light entering your pupils has been traveling through space, at 186,000 miles per second, for 2.2 million years. What you are seeing is where and what it was over two million years ago.