Every evening, I drive to the park near our home for an evening stroll.

The school buses would be returning to their depots after dropping children home.  The yellow coloured bus merges with the yellow coloured trees along the Road.

After parking my car, I get on to the trail.

The trail runs along Credit River which drains into Lake Ontario.

You are sure to meet some waterfowls, ducks etc enroute.

Fall offers a kaleidoscope of colours.

Woods are really, colourful and deep

And I have miles to go before I end my walk.

The green leaf colour comes from pigments of chlorophyll, used by the trees to make food with the help of sunlight. There are other pigments namely carotenoids and anthocyanins present in the leaves, but are overshadowed by the chlorophyll in spring and summer.

Carotenoids create bright yellows and oranges like in corn, carrots, and bananas.

In fall, trees break down the green pigments and nutrients stored in the leaves. The nutrients are shuttled into the roots for reuse in spring.

Some tree leaves turn mostly brown, indicating that all pigments are gone.

Trees respond to the decreasing amount of sunlight by producing less and less chlorophyll and eventually stops producing chlorophyll.

Now the carotenoid in the leaves show through and the leaves become a bright cascade of various shades of glowing yellows.
Anthocyanins impart red colour to fruits like cranberries, red apples, cherries, strawberries, etc.

The fall season being characterised by short days and longer and cooler nights. When a number of warm, sunny autumn days and cool but not freezing nights come one after the other, Maple leaves produce lots of sugar, but the cool night temperatures prevent the sugar sap from flowing through the leaf veins and down into the branches and trunk.

Anthocyanins are now produced by the leaves for protection. They allow the plant to move down the nutrients in the leaves to the roots, before they fall off. The nutrients stored in the roots help the trees to sprout out new leaves in coming spring. During this time, anthocyanins give leaves their bright, brilliant shades of red, purple and crimson.

Information boards and garbage cans are placed all along the trail.

You are never alone on the trail.

The 5 km trail ends with a flight of stairs to the parking lot.