An Orangely Success

As everyone in the northeast knows, the air quality is terrible due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. It is unpleasant, but it affects my ability to function much less than the heat and humidity.

Next topic. Some of you know I signed up for the Onekama 30-day Challenge. This is just to help motivate me to get into shape for the longish hike I hope to do this fall. At 78, I can't just "wing it" the way I used to be able to do without conditioning.

So I set my goal for the challenge to hike 100 miles in those 30 days. That's 25 miles a week. Today is the end of the first week, and I needed 6+ miles. I could NOT make myself to get up and hike early- besides, it was already hot in the morning. Then it got hotter. Then the air quality went bonkers due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. But the smoke blotted out the sun enough that the temperature declined to 82°. Still not great, but better than it was all day.

So... I headed out at 6 pm to get my 6 miles.

What the heck? Someone's been using spray paint in the woods?

Then I saw spots like this all over. Then I realized there were also stripes on the trees. It's the sunlight from the very orange sun through the haze!

Just for fun, I saw little orange mushrooms.

And other little orange mushrooms.

And the evening sun trying to shine through the haze.

A great horned owl flew across the trail in front of me, but no picture.

How'd I do? Got my first 25 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 213.1
Miles walked for the Onekama Challenge: 25
Miles walked for Hike 100 Challenge: 76

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, from Timber Creek to 8th St and back and a little more.

In other news: I stayed inside and edited a lot.

See The Small of Orange

My First GeoArt

This is going to be the topic of one of my columns this month- not sure which paper yet, but I'll give you a sneak peek.

Did you know there are some geocaches that are "multi-caches." They can be arranged to draw out a picture. Maybe. More on that in a minute.

So, who do I know that knows how to geocache, and is willing to drive terrible back roads, and would think it's all great fun? Sue! That's who!

Notice that she is holding a little tube that was hung in a tree. A geocache container can be pretty much anything that is waterproof. Quite a few of these were this size, but a few were bigger. There is a little log paper inside where you sign your Geochache Name and the date.

You also record on the official Geocache app map if you found it or not. We eventually did find all of the sites, although we had to go back to 4 of them a second time. I'll talk more about this in the article, but what I didn't know is that the actual locations of the geocaches do not make a picture. It's just that there is a cache associated with each dot. Yellow means we found it, and you can see they are all yellow.

The ones we could not find had the hint "PMD." Even though Sue is experienced with over 4000 cache finds, she did not know until we were able to look it up that meant "Pull Me Down." The cache is high in a young tree that had to be pulled over. See the painted bottle up there?

The last one of the day was way up high. I'm holding the tree down. Sue signed the log and we let it snap back up.

The name of this GeoArt is "Cider Apples" and it's in northeast Mason County. Each of the 33 locations is named for a different kind of apple. We started at 8 am and finished around 3 pm. It was 92° when we got done, but we were determined to find the four that we missed the first time.

Most interesting coincidence? 15 years ago Ellen and I went exploring and found Black Lake, a tiny puddle. We ate a picnic lunch in the freezing cold. Today, Sue and I came in from the other side- I didn't realize it was Black Lake until we were almost there. Today was totally the opposite of freezing. (Link below)

Nothing else happened today, but I am all set to write my columns for this month.

P.S. Doing 33 geocaches in one day is a lot.

See Brrr- Lunch at Black Lake

Moon Garden Plants

I'm not quite done with the Moon Nook, but I managed to get the other Brunnera in the ground, so I'll share pictures.

This is the one that was totally root bound. I actually dug it up again, broke up the roots even more and replanted it. Now it's not wilting at the end of every day like it was. This one is called 'Alexander's Great.' The root bound condition is probably why I got it marked down, but that's OK, it should be fine in a while.

The surface of the Moon Nook still needs one more block, but enough is done that I could get the placement of the Brunnera at the other end. This one is 'Alexandria.' As I think you can see, the leaves are more solid white. I've really fallen in love with Brunnera, and the deer hate them because the leaves are as rough as sandpaper.

I picked up some end-of-season Artemesia 'Silver Mound' for $3 each. They look all scraggly now, but should be fine next year. At that price, I couldn't pass them up. They are in the foreground of this shot. You've seen the other plants here previously. This is such a tiny beginning, but it counts! I'm still watering these every day, but they didn't seem as wilty this afternoon, which is amazing because it's SO hot outside. I think they are getting established.

I do need to move that grass yet this year, but there is plenty of time yet.

Now, for the super exciting one (to me, anyway). I paid full price for this. I hunted up the palest blue hosta I could find that was actually available to buy anywhere. (Yes I know 'White Feather' is almost pure white, but it can also be tricky to keep happy, and it's not white all season.) Anyway, I LOVE this. It's called 'Steal the Spotlight.' The undersides of the leaves are extremely pale. I'm leaving it in the pot for a while to develop some better roots, and I don't have the space where it will go dug up yet.

The deer are partial to hosta. So, except when I'm showing it off, it's currently in prison.

I ordered another plant today too. About 60% off and shipping wasn't outrageous. This is a good time of year to get cheaper plants if you aren't too impatient for a "finished" garden.

In other news: I did my little summer job in the morning. Thankfully the laundromat is air conditioned. The afternoon was pretty much a bust. It's 85° here with 70% humidity. I managed to keep breathing and read a bit. That's about it. Went to the library and the senior center briefly. Qualifying seniors can get $25 of free produce, so I signed up.

See Moon Garden Beginnings

Gifts from Bud

One of the guys who stayed here last weekend was Bud. We stayed in touch with him and his family even after they all moved away. We went to North Carolina to visit them and Bud took us rapelling.

But then Bud got married and moved to the Pactific Northwest. Actually, Om got to visit him a couple of times, but I hadn't seen him for probably 45 years. He brought me three gifts! First of all, I did not know that we have a mutual love of gardening, and particularly for playing with succulents. He makes these planters out of old records and then fills them with random goodies. (He also has a greenhouse and I am trying not to be jealous.) They are not hardy, but can stay outside for the summer. His wife Annie painted the little rock for me.

He also brought me this garden decoration. Since it's mostly white, it may end up in the Moon Garden. We'll see.

But probably the most meaningful is that he gave me one of his carved birds. These are made from a single block of wood. (Trail friend Glen also makes them- I've showed you some of his.)

I tried to get a lot done today. Did fairly well although it got pretty hot this afternoon. Edited, shopped (but forgot to take the pop cans, so they are still in the middle of the floor :/ ), worked in the Moon Garden, but didn't get as much done as I had hoped. Should go do some more now that it's cooler, but the nasty gnats are out, so I'm probably just going to give up and take a shower. Gave one of the gardens a long drink. I'm watering things in the Moon Garden pretty much every day until they get established. Took a road walk in the morning before it got too hot.

Miles walked in 2026: 205.5. Just a couple of road miles.

See 50 Year Reunion

Spirit of the Woods Hike- July 2026

Today's hike was on a section of trail that, somehow, the group has not hiked recently. It's hilly but very pretty.

Here's the group- 19 in the picture, one more showed up. Several people we hadn't seen for a while, and one person who took her very first North Country Trail hike today!

This section is mostly on the bluff high above the Manistee River. There aren't many view spots in the summer with all the leaves. And it's too hazy for the far bluff to show in the picture, but it's over there in the bright spot.

Not much blooming as far as flowers. Some tick trefoil, but my picture isn't in focus.

Several nice puddles of northern maidenhair fern- always one of my favorites. Adiantum pedatum

Parasitic plants were represented. Here is indian pipe, Monotropa uniflora. A small patch, but always interesting to find.

We also saw bear corn, Conipholis americana, and I thought I took a picture, but it's not on the SD card, so who knows what happened. Sort of looks like cream-colored pinecones growing out of the ground.

We did see a beautiful patch of one of the Clavaria fungi. Basically a coral fungus. The names have changed like crazy. I used to call this one Crowned clavaria because the ends of the stalks are divided into little "crowns," and its name then was Clavaria coronata. It seems to have changed more than once, and is now Artomyces pyxidatus.

Most everyone walked 6 miles total, and a few did shorter distances as they were able. Five of us went farther and did 7 NCT miles plus the little bit extra to get to the cars.

Miles walked in 2026: 203.5
Hike 100 challenge 2026: 69.75

North Country Trail, Manistee County, from Coates Highway south 3.5 miles and back plus roadwalk to cars. 7.4 miles.

Not a lot else happened today. We started early and got most of the hike done before the air heated up. My temperature/humidity internal sensors started giving off warning signals about a mile before I finished, but it wasn't too bad.

Here's a news flash! Despite the fact that we live on a major highway, Google can not seem to understand where we live. I had tried 7 times to get them to change it, including sending a picture of my driveway and mailbox on request, but they basically said that I don't know where I live.

I tried again a few days ago. Try #8. I got notice that my correction has been accepted! Amazing! Now we'll find out if that is real.

Some of the proof of my claim that they wouldn't change it. And at the bottom, this week, it was accepted. This has irked me to no end, and has resulted in several lost packages, so I'll be very happy if it's fixed.

See Spirit of the Woods- June 2026