In White Bear Lake (also White Bear Township), MN there is a large section of Ramsey County open space land between Otter Lake and Bald Eagle Lake. This parcel contains an interesting mosaic of lakes, ponds, islands, reed beds (cat tails), marshes, grassy fields and rolling wooded hills. Google Maps marks it as "Bald Eagle-Otter Lake Park" but the only signs I saw were the generic "open space" property markers along the roads. There are no maintained trails inside, but an extensive network of organic foot and bike worn paths will take you all over the park. There were many unsigned access points along Bald Eagle Boulevard and Ash Street (County Road J), and I just parked on Bald Eagle Boulevard and walked in where I saw an obvious path into the woods.
In February I only saw small numbers of the most common birds, such as crows, chickadees, cardinals, downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, and red-tailed hawks. However, its location between two substantial lakes and the tight mosaic of open water, wetlands, fields and forests suggests that it might be an interesting bird area in the warmer months. (Beware, this is also the most mosquito infested part of town.)
This is a neat hiking area in the winter, because you can simply walk across the frozen lakes, ponds and marshes, whereas in the warmer months you need to find dry-land trails to navigate through the complex landscape. In warm months rubber boots would help you cross the reed and marsh areas that separate the dry forested hills.
To the Southwest there is also another large section of this open space land surrounding Tamarack Lake, bounded by I-35E, Otter Lake Road, Hammond Road and County Road H2.
Content and images originally posted by bkrownd
