Photos of our ‘Families in Nature’ April Outing: Early Spring on Carp Ridge

Daybreak on the way to Carp.

Once a month on a Sunday, Carp Ridge Learning Centre hosts a popular wilderness walk called “Families in Nature.” Walks are organized by Angela Teske, the Centre’s Leader in Sustainable Education, and lead by Martha Webber, a botanist and ecology educator from Ottawa’s South March Highlands area.

Carp Ridge is part of the Highlands —  the rocky outcrops are the roots of an ancient mountain chain and also contain old-growth forest. When beavers were introduced to the area many years ago, they built dams and created an extensive watershed and aquifer.

The Highlands are under intense development pressure, as they run directly into Kanata. You can read more about them here.

It was a great afternoon, and we did all sorts of things on our hike including: a quick frog-calling course, crow bothering, mica finding, wintergreen berry eating, beaver spying, maple sap listening, animal poop study, heron watching, maple sap tea drinking, dandelion jam eating, flute playing. . . (Photos also include one participant’s after-walk adventure which included Canadian geese watching, sap collecting and chip-eating.)

PS: Our youngest member of the expedition was a two-month-old swaddled in pink blankets.

Our next walk is Sunday, May 1st.

Meet at the Carp Ridge Ecowellness Centre at 1pm to register.
For more info call Angela Teske at 613-839-1179 ext 1, or email: camp@ecowellness.com