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Monday, April 5, 2010

Maggie Says- Let's Hike


dog on trail

Maggie hasn't had much chance to tell you what she thinks lately. She likes the nice weather and going for more walks. Today we went to two trails in Manistee. One is a nature trail that I hike about once a year, and the other was brand new to me. It's shorter, but has a lot of variety. I really like new hiking spots!

I had a hard time picking the pictures for today, so it's just a mix of stuff I liked.

dog on trail

I love the light coming through the hole in this old fence post.

ridge trail sign

This is a sign on the new trail. It's a short loop on lower ground, with a cross trail in the middle that follows, take a guess, a ridge.

white tree trunks

This was a surprise of tone. As I came to the top of the ridge and just before the trail turned to follow it, this mix of white birch and maples with the light blue sky behind was just so bright that it seemed memorable.

white birch bark

One really large white birch tree had such interesting patterns on the bark that I had to take its picture.

Tomorrow, large trees!


See The Blindness of Familiarity


10 comments:

Julia said...

I need a good hike like that about now! And the early spring plants are blooming too. Time to motivate!!

My favorite is your last pic of the tree bark. :)

The Oceanside Animals said...

The closeup of the birch bark looks almost like water.

Duxbury Ramblers said...

Sharkie - the white birch is beautiful very like our downy birch Betula pubescens are they the same tree?
Our Silver Birch (P. pendula) is the most common with the downy following, the yarrow valley & burgh meadow infact this area is also known as Birkacre a corruption of Birch. I must blog about that one day.
Carol.

RNSANE said...

I have always loved the white bark on birch trees! What a beautiful photograph that made. Looks like a great day you had for a hike and Maggie must have enjoyed it, too!

Naturegirl said...

Hello there fellow "nature trail" blazer! I thoroughly enjoyed this walk with you and Maggie this early morning..such serenity to be one with Nature!I so enjoy hiking..as a snow bird that spends winters in AZ I have hiked many desert mountains..now that the snow has melted here in my world I enjoy the quiet and peace trailing the woodlands nearby.
I saw you listed on Natureblog network as am I. Nice to meet you!

VanillaSeven said...

Interesting patterns on the tree. So graphic!

Ann said...

Maggie has some great ideas. I bet Duke would enjoy that trail a lot, he gets tired of the same old route

Rick (Ratty) said...

I just love new trails! I was finding new trails today too. I can tell you had a good time because I have a hard time picking pictures and stories when I have a fun time finding so many new things.

Lin said...

Good eye, Sharky! I like the fence post best I think.

Sharkbytes said...

Hi everyone- sorry I didn't answer your comments last night, but we had to shut down the router quick when the thunder started.

Julia- I would hike with you for sure if we weren't REALLY far apart!

Dennis- I really should have done a video and scanned up the trunk.

Carol- we only have one really white one here, Betula papyrifera- paper birch, or sometimes called canoe birch, as it is the one used by Native Americans for their canoes.

Carmen- it's really a "northwoods" kind of thing. The white birch are pretty special to us.

Hi Naturegirl- glad you stopped by. Your garden pictures are really beautiful!

Vanilla- they almost make one want to start trying to figure out if they are letters and words

Ann- Duke would love it! Of course, they are supposed to be leashed. I forgot that when I showed her pictures there!

Ratty- yeah, it's hard to focus on something when there is a huge pile of good stuff.

Lin- I liked that post a lot. I tried a bunch of different shots, and none of them did what I really wanted. I couldn't get both the light through the hole and the scene that I wanted in the background.