Leave Nothing But Footprints – #1 Battle Creek Cypress Swamp
I will be participating in Pepper’s Heaven’s Sunshine new “One Step at a Time” weekly challenge, to share a photo(s) of one of my trails I’ve hiked. I plan to end each post with a bonus wildlife captured along that trail.
So come along and hike down this trail with me, one step at a time!
Battle Creek Cypress Swamp, Prince Frederick, Maryland
Boardwalk Trail, 0.4 miles swamp loop
Northern Cardinal (male)
Take a hike, short or long, one step at a time.
Mother Nature promises to reward you.
And please remember~~
Leave nothing but footprints.
Kill nothing but time.
Bay Photos by Donna 
Ah, I will enjoy this. Beautiful place. Thank you!
Thank you, Sandy! I know you have an appreciation for following paths and trails, happy to take you down some I’ve traveled each week!
It looks like a lovely place to walk. The Northern Cardinal is beautiful. Thanks for taking us along!
Thank you, Deborah, I’m happy to share this cool Maryland boardwalk trail and cardinal with you!
Looks like a great trail. I appreciate having a boardwalk to get across the areas that tend to get super muddy. Love how the cardinal stands out against the background. Thanks for linking to the challenge, Donna.
Thank you, Pepper! I love boardwalk trails because they are getting you somewhere you wouldn’t most likely be able get to on your own. And yes, our feet stay super clean! 😉
Delightful trail
Thank you, Sheree, I love boardwalk trails!
It looks like a lovely spot, I like the sentiment as well!
Thank you, Belinda! With this boardwalk trail, you leave with clean shoes/boots too! 😉
A good message! Lovely place, Donna!
Thank you, Indira! This is a wonderful Nature Conservation Center, lots of programs for children and even another trail over the meadows.
That is an absolute pleasure
Gwen.
Thank you, Gwen!
I love boardwalks, esp. through bogs… a chance to see what would be otherwise inaccessible.
We are like two peas in a pod, Eliza! If it’s a one-way boardwalk, I get disappointed I cannot keep going lol, ‘cuz I can usually see something new ahead. I do better on loops! 🤣
Great photos, Donna.
Thank you, Egidio!
I like the little verse at the end of the post Donna. It’s very true. I’ve seen the phrase “pack it in – pack it out” at different parks over the years. Everything is so green and that’s a nice, slatted walkway to keep your feet dry. I like the Cardinal, one of the prettiest birds around in my opinion, whether it is in a green woods setting or in the snow.
Thank you, Linda! I love boardwalk trails, I know they are leading me somewhere I wouldn’t be able to get to otherwise. I love remoteness!!
I love those boardwalk trails too Donna – remoteness too. Once, at Crosswinds Marsh (not near where I live), it was my first time there and I got horribly lost. It was a hot August day on top of it. I was following behind a guy and gal – her first time there, he had been there many times and was giving her a tutorial and telling her which of the many trails was the best and they’d go on. I pegged her as unenthused from the get-go. She was not the outdoorsy type, whined a little and they left. I quipped I was sorry because I was learning a lot from him and asked him the best trail and for directions … he gave me directions, but I got lost for hours. A kind dog walker took me with her to the main entrance … I am not too proud to ask but I admit I’ve not been back again. 🙂 I really only saw a bee hotel and some butterflies in the flowers around the base of the bee hotel and that was at the entranceway.
I have been lost a few times myself, once on a boardwalk, mostly on dirt trails. It gets a little worrisome for sure, because then we cannot focus on the nature. I started printing out the maps on websites of the trails to try to keep me straight, then I started putting them on my phone, since I’ve had times I had no cell coverage.
I did not have a smartphone and several people I stopped showed me a map on their phone … I think I walked seven miles that day and then I got to the car and something was wrong with the A/C – it had a leak and I had an hour’s drive home. It was a very long day.
Oh my…..thank goodness our better days outweigh a long, uncomfortable day.
That’s for sure Donna!
Very nice trail and cardinal is a nice finish to this post. (Suzanne)
Thank you, Suzanne! I’m a big fan of boardwalks leading into remote areas! I know you and Pierre are too!
Yes, you’ll always find something to photograph on a walk! And that definitely looks swampy! 👍👍😊
Thank you, Mike! I hope you’ve been on some recently great walks yourself!
Yes, but mainly ‘boring’ dog walks (tho’ I may yet post some pictures of my recent walk along the Roman walls around York).
HOWEVER, next week I’ll be doing the 37 mile Wychwood Way with 2 of my usual walking pals, Liam and Tim. So I will almost certainly be positing pictures of that. 👍👍😊
Best of luck on your walk with your pals, enjoy the evening’s commaradie too! 🍻