The Road Beckons - June 22

 


OK, so it's corny, but I think it's fascinating to find a road with this name. As you can guess from the background we were back in the damp. Although the plan was to hike 15.5 miles, due to incorrect mileages on the map (that were corrected on the signs at trailheads- and had to be accurate based on the time it took to hike), we actually walked 17 miles. Since over 6 of them were on roads, we still made good time, and there was no dearth of interesting sights.



One of the first things we saw after we hit the trail was this little wet bunny. He was watching us carefully, but he seemed to not mind the wet grass. We were still in "convincing mode." That means that we were still trying to convince ourselves that we were going to enjoy another day of being wet. It had rained hard all night and the grass and ferns were sharing their buckets of collected rainwater with us.



One of the prettiest landscapes was Wycamp Lake, which we passed in the afternoon.



Within one mile of reaching the car I found another wonderful botany surprise, pipsissewa. Chimaphila umbellata is another wintergreen relative, like the pyrolas. I've seen the plants with dried seed pods in Minnesota, but I'd never seen the plant in Michigan, and I'd never seen the blossoms. Well, ok, I still haven't. But I got to see the buds, anyway. It's small, maybe 5 or 6 inches tall. Here are both buds and last year's dried pods.





So how did the day end? With all those miles done, but feet that feel like they are permanently wet. I had decided to wear shorts for the day. That was a good choice because the bugs weren't too bad, and it's really hard to walk in completely wet long pants all day because they drag on your legs. The shorts helped a lot!