Friday September 10th 10:00 AM

A noisy hike!

This hike was a musicianless one as my volunteer for the weekend Chris works during the day. Luckily, the first hike was a duo that did not relish going up the stairs so we stuck to the trout run creek trail as well heading all the way to the loop at the end.

Right off the bat I noticed how in just 3 short days the leaves had turned enough to change the overall character of the wind from a light thrush to a very high pitched hiss with an after effect of leaves falling from the trees and hitting the ground. The whole week long fall season has started here in Minnesota and the wind was very active so this element became a constant din in our ears and really filled out many of the large valleys nicely. You can also hear the more distant leaves on the bluffs much more clearly.

After several very nice moments where birds and water seemed to chatter in rhythm, we reached the loop at the end. A comment that Dave Palmquist had made in an earlier hike came to mind as the colors of the stream seemed more vibrant than before and we could see clear to the bottom as a school of trout hovered near the bottom of a calm pool.

On the way back we heard a solitary woodpecker and several passing prop airplanes passing overhead helped to fill the valley. We ended by listening to a cacophony of birds near the steps to inspiration point. When they stopped, so did we.

One of the two hikers was a park staffer who pointed out all the places where the flood of 2007 had changed to course of the creek and the river as well as left rock bed exposed in places it had not been before. I have that to thank for some of the really interesting sonic features in the park. I guess some good comes out of every disaster.