Debris Field

   Yesterday, I went out and hiked the trails in Kains Woods, here in London.

Collection pond before the trail

   For the past two or three weeks, my right knee has been taped up as part of the plan offered up by Alison, my physiotherapist at CBI. The taping subtly slides my kneecap into a more natural tracking position and allows me to move about with increased comfort and confidence. This week, however, we have decided that it was worth going without the tape in the hopes that the knee may now be tracking a little better on its own. I have permission to head out and run trails with the proviso that I do shorter loops so that, should the knee break down, I am not then all that far from home.

   I would have tried that but we were hit with a bit of a

The wildlife have been taking
advantage of the wildlife tree!

blizzard two days ago and the trails in these parts are now once again covered in snow and ice. I didn't want to risk running on that but was happy to get out there for a hike instead, thinking that the uneven terrain would still give my knee a bit of a test. Kains Woods is near me so that's where I headed
   The temp was hovering just slightly above 0C, so I basically dressed for a winter hike and, with the wind blowing strongly, was happy I did. The trail itself was a mixture of pretty well everything---snow, ice, mud, and sand. 
   A long stretch of the trail runs along the edge of the Thames River. About a week and a half ago, the Thames flooded, due to a perfect storm of days of rainfall, temps in the teens, and a very deep winter snow base. As a matter of fact, the flooding was the worst since the early eighties. Because of this, I was rather curious to experience the terrain near the edge of the river.                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Fave part of the trail.

The part of the trail along the floodplain was dramatically altered. The river's raging current and high level had flattened much of the lower underbrush and debris was scattered everywhere. Garbage hung from the limbs of trees which overhang the river. Logs and tree limbs from somewhere upstream had been tossed onto the trail and had then become wedged between tree trunks. The trail itself, which is normally hard-packed, was covered in sand and silt which had been swept onto it. In many places, the current had exposed root systems. There are stretches of lower land on the other side of the trail from the river and  many of these were still flooded. One forty meter section of the trail itself was still underwater.

An example of a large log which had
been floated onto the trail and
then wedged between two trees.

 

   All in all, it was a different sort of a hike than it normally is. I also imagine that the effects of the recent flooding will be noticeable for quite some time. In the giant scheme of things, this is to be expected of a river valley. Rivers constantly work on the land they flow through, creating much change over time. Often this is from natural erosion. This time, it was the coming together of a bunch of different elements.
   I finally exited the trail just before it ended and had about a two and a half kilometer hike back to my car. Later on the evening, the knee acted up once or twice but nothing too serious. Likely Alison and I will talk about this and decide whether or not to tape it up again. In the meantime, I have sort of been trying to keep up with the new exercises she gave me, which now include resistance-band training and side planks. Fun, fun, fun.