Reinstein Woods: Spring 2015

As you may recall, one of my goals for 2015 was to continue our project of hiking in one scenic place throughout the year – so we could see how an area changes from season to season. We had a wonderful time doing this project in 2014 at Tifft Nature Preserve in south Buffalo, and for 2015 we decided to replicate the experience at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve. We did our winter hike there back in January (which doubled as our January hike for our twelve months hiking project) and now that it’s May, it was time to head back to see the trails in their spring glory.

Our group was quite a lot bigger for this hike than it was in January. We were joined by Nugget on the outside, and by our favorite hiking companions – Zan and Paul! As we were leaving the preserve, Paul remarked that he has now hiked with our family more than with any other hiking buddies, which I took as a huge compliment. Hiking is not an activity that you can do with people you don’t much like, so the fact that we’re all still enthusiastic about hiking together (because indeed, our family enjoys hiking with Zan and Paul as much as they enjoy hiking with us) says a lot about how well we all get along. It’s great to have found such good friends here!

Anyway, we decided, much like hubby and I did in January, to simply meander on into the woods and see where we ended up.

One of my favorite things about Reinstein is that, even on the wooded portions of the trails, you’re never far from a water view. There are a few lovely ponds in the preserve and, now that the ice is melted, they were alive with wildlife. The whole preserve was a symphony of singing birds, scurrying chipmunks, and chirruping frogs.

(This ^ is one of my favorite pictures I’ve taken – Instagrammed – since moving to WNY.)

After about an hour of easy hiking through the woods and around two ponds, we headed back to make good on a promise made to Peanut: a visit to the Nature Play Area. Looks pretty different from the scene this winter!

Peanut was delighted and immediately started exploring.

She was pretty into the stick shelters and, to her credit, didn’t try to dismantle them like she did this winter. Instead she enjoyed clambering in and out of them, and visiting Zan, who found a comfortable seat inside one of the shelters.