One of the first and last things you might see at Lake Conestee Nature Preserve is the big metal pedestrian bridge that crosses high over the Reedy River. It offers access to the main body of the park. The structure of the bridge is a heavy metal, with wooden slats to walk on. But on either end are wooden structures that connect the metal portion to the ground.

On this day, as I headed back toward my car at the end of my hike, on the far end of the bridge, on that wooden part that leads down to the paved trail, there perched a magnificent hawk. Something on the ground had its full attention. Perhaps a squirrel or a mouse, but certainly some tasty prey was down there.

This metal pedestrian bridge, built around ten years ago, with its wooden slats for hiking feet, its orange patina of rusting steel, it's commanding view above the Reedy River ... this bridge has seen a lot of nature's transformations.

The weeds and bushes along the banks come and go with the seasons. The trees on either side go stark and bare in winter, bright and green in spring and summer, and spectacularly colorful in early fall. The river is sometimes calm, sometimes clear, sometimes muddy, sometimes high, sometimes low, and sometimes raging, flooding, destructive.

There are a multitude of special little scenes inside Lake Conestee Nature Preserve. Back before the floods destroyed an important wooden footbridge that connected my favorite trail loop, this little footbridge was one of those special places for me. I've taken a number of photographs here, none of them particularly spectacular, but all meaningful to me in one way or another. That favorite trail loop I mentioned takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours to walk for an old guy like me. Seeing this footbridge is the signal that I'm just about at the end of my hike.