The trail is a crystalline symphony.

Down the hill at Swan Pond, the Des Plaines River turns east near the library and off toward Lockport. But right at the bend the river pools and calms off the main channel and the water, up after Christmas rains, laps at the bank in quiet, chiming splats of overlaid chords. 

The trail is cold and misty and ends at the wood chipper. 

The trail is still verdant green. 

September is when the reverse migrating birds begin arriving in earnest, and already the trees across the alley are filling with black birds. 

The trail is sun-dappled. 

It begins in the gravel parking lot of Callahan Grove at Cermak and Desplaines and winds invisibly south through dew-wet grass.