Day One- We Did It!

Officially, we only hiked 7.5 miles today, but it was closer to 9. There was some backtracking and side trails, and then we had to walk back to our campsite.

Bill signs us into a trail register.

We made it to one of my favorite places for lunch- Bear Lake. The hill has no name, but I really like this spot.

There is a boat there- no oars, but it made good seating for lunch.

And guess what! I got my 2025 Hike 100 there.

We even saw a pair of loons

I think this birch "hand" was reaching down to grab the mossy knoll.

OK, this is hard work to collect all this data. Tomorrow we have 10 miles to do. Maybe we got some of the kinks out.

Gull Lake parking to McKeever. I'll update these mileages etc later. Barely enough service to blog.

See Bear Lake Trail Adventure

Home, Sweet Adirondack Campsite

We have landed, and right now things could not be better!

We stopped in Forestport for a few minutes. It's always been considered the last jumping off spot in NY before the Adirondacks. For proof of the "always", see this trail sign. The NCTA logo was changed from this in 2006, so this sign predates that by at least several years.

We are actually hiking northeast of here but Forestport is close to the "blue line" (the Adirondack Park border). And it has some awesome geology that I wanted to show Bill. The Black River runs through town, and it is where you can definitively see the volcanic geology of the Adirondacks. This is just below the dam. It's obvious New York has had significant rain recently.

This is the third time I've been here, and I really love this spot. Here's a view a little farther down the river.

Then we went to find a campsite. There are a number of free sites along back roads in the Adirondacks. We found ourselves a preemo one, close to the trail. High ground, level, large. Two tents all set up.

Ready for an evening out of the bugs.

We even have a little potty tent for privacy.

Here's the frosting on the cake. The site has a decorative rock entrance.

BONUS SECTION: I got to visit with Irene for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow we begin the hiking and the reason we are here- to track the trail. Weather looks good for a few days. Can't beat that! We are eating in Old Forge. Much less certain I'll be able to blog tomorrow. See you when I can.

See Famous Forestport

On the Road- Day 2

Missed the Ohio sign, but I got PA- with the appropriate addition for what it was like most of the way through Ohio.

Then NY.

To Sarah's house where we are spending the night. Another great meal with no picture. Meat on the grill, salad, asparagus, ice cream!

Then we got out the maps. Sarah is very familiar with the area where she will be spotting us beginning Thursday so we aren't likely to have snafus with meeting up. Of course we had to discuss the whole Adirondacks, loudly and with passion. These are the National Geographic maps spread out and lined up. The little yellow papers are stuck on along the NCT route.

Sarah, Bill, and Sarah's husband Jim.

One more travel day, but we will be setting up camp tomorrow and may or may not be able to blog. If you don't hear from me until 17th (when we have a motel for one night), don't worry. May be able to post occasionally on Facebook, and we may go into Old Forge for dinner tomorrow where there will be service. I'm just saying, it's the Adirondacks, and we can't count on having internet.

Our first hiking day is Thursday.

See On the Road- Day 1

On the Road, Day 1

Once again, I did not get all the appropriate pictures. I'll start at the end point. Tonight I'm at Bill's house.

His wife Anne fixed a yummy dinner. Bill and I, of course, spent our time yakking about maps, testing (again) electronic maps, and telling trail stories.

But on the way I stopped to see blogger buddies, Chuck and Sylvia. Again, it's been two years since I visited them. Hard to believe. And I forgot to take a picture of them, or of the nice lunch they fed me.

But I did get pictures of some of Sylvia's flowers. She's embarrassed about the weeds. Ha. She's 82, and hasn't had time to get to the flowers beds yet because she's been putting in their vegetable garden.

Peonies and iris.

The rhododendron bush is spectacular.

We had a great visit, although it really seemed too short. Better than nothing.

The car is packed. Bill and I head east in the morning. I'll be able to blog tomorrow night, not sure about after that. See you then.

See Letting You In on the Plan

Rock Garden (mostly) Report- June 2025

June is bustin' out all over!

This is going to get too long, but it will be the last garden post for three weeks. First, to keep the same reference views going for comparison, here are the top and bottom of the rock garden. The far side of the bottom section has more rocks and fewer plants for two reasons. Some of that is as new as last summer. Also, when I built the first part, I didn't put in enough rocks. I've been contemplating if I should try to fix that. Not a priority.

Sure has filled in from last year! Of course a lot of that is the Bloody Geranium which I rip out by the shovelful when I get something better to put in its place.

Before you get bored and leave, I want to show you the Lewisia again. The lower clump has never stopped blooming since April 25 when I planted it. The upper clump is reblooming. The dark patch in the middle is Sempervivum 'Black,' and I hope the Wandering Jew above it (not hardy) starts to get larger soon. Sedums and Vinca in the foreground.

Let me show you the Lewisia up close. It is stunning! You may recall I tried one of these long ago, and it didn't live. I sure hope these decide they are happy because right now they are my favorite rock garden purchase of this year.

Here's another success and survival story from the original rock garden. This is Sedum kamtschaticum 'Weihenstephaner Gold.' It was almost as robust when I recovered the garden in 2023 as it was originally, but it didn't bloom that year or last year. It's going to this year!

I'll miss the full bloom, but I'm just happy to know it's happy again. In fact, I even split off a chunk and put it in a second location last year. Look at those nifty flowers.

Dianthus has continued to be one of my best-blooming genera. Here are two that also looked good last year. This one is 'Kahori' which tolerated my disturbing it a lot to remove grape hyacinth bulbs that were under it. Still a couple more to dig out, as you can see.

And this one is 'Eastern Star' with foliage friends

Not everything is a success story. Two years ago I bought a 'Coral Reef' Dianthus. It got chewed severely that fall. Looked like it might recover last year. All gone this year. I never even took a picture of it. Oh well. A couple of weeks ago 'Olivia Wild' was half price, so I've added that to the mix. I like the dark bands on the petals. Shown here with 'Dream Dazzler' sedum and some of the Bloody Geranium.

Speaking of the geraniums, here's some of the Bloody one with the pink one which may be cinereum. They do look nice together.

The pink one really has nice detail seen up close. And it's not nearly so invasive. It's also shorter which is good.

The creeping thyme is also blooming. It looks nice with the 'Oddity' Sempervivum. It's another plant that you have to rip out by the handful or it will take over. But I'm getting good at ripping.

Thought I was going to miss these blooming. Nope! They started today. This is the 'Siskiyu' primrose. This is another plant that goes nuts spreading everywhere. But it's easy to rip out where you don't want it. This was one of last year's favorite purchases. 'Lime Twister' sedum behind it.

I can't stop until I show proof that the two Ice Plants that overwintered are starting to bloom. This is 'Red Mountain Flame.'

And this Ice Plant I bought at the Garden Club sale last fall, and I wasn't sure it was going to make it. But here is 'Granita' orange. It's surrounded by Sedum sexangulare, another plant that I really regret. It's only redeeming factor is that it fills in around other plants well. It's getting ready to have yellow flowers which are nice. I will miss those. But its ability to fill in means that you have to keep ripping it out all the time. And after it blooms the long stems are ugly and have to be cut. (Not as bad as Sedum acre- I removed all of that one!)

I have to throw in one picture that isn't the rock garden. For several years now, I've either had the salmon poppy bloom or the red-orange poppy bloom, but never in the same year. Look what happened! I thought they wouldn't open for me to see before I leave, but here they are. And that dumb pink fleeceflower just keeps looking good for weeks while the poppies only last a couple of days.

Speaking of leaving... I have just a few little packing things to do and wash the dishes. Better get at it. Tomorrow morning, I'm on my way east! This is really going to happen.

See What's In Full Bloom?

National Trails Day Event

The first Saturday of June is always National Trails Day. Our NCTA chapter had a hike, a potluck lunch and a meeting with election of officers.

I didn't do a good job of getting pictures of anything except the hike. I didn't do a really good job of leading the hike. Anyway, I believe we had 25 hikers and a dog.

We met at Marilla Trailhead and took the long spur down to the main NCT. Then we went to Eddington Bridge, a nice destination, but I didn't take pictures there either (you've seen it here quite often).

There is a really nice view of the Manistee River Valley from that spur

There had been a request to go to the Suspension Bridge, called "Little Mac." The Forest Service recently reopened the bridge after a lengthy time of repairs. And we hadn't been there on a group hike for quite a while.

Oops... I got off the main trail and took us down a well-travelled fisherman's path. It was very scenic along the river. No one was really mad, but it added about a mile to our hike.

We finally looped back around to the connector trail and made it to the bridge. The Forest Service says it's the second-largest suspension bridge in Michigan.

The bridge isn't actually on the NCT. It's on the connector trail between the NCT and the Manistee River Trail. This is the most popular loop trail in Michigan and on a nice summer weekend it's always very busy. Lots of hikers, anglers, paddlers, campers.

Then we returned to Marilla TH and went to Big Bear Sportsman's Club building for a nice potluck lunch and elections.

Did I take a picture of the new officers? No. I got talking and forgot.
President: Dan Driesinga
Vice-President: Glen VanAntwerp
Secretary: Monica Hatch
Treasurer: Laura Acton

We really thank these people for stepping up!

I managed to do a couple of things after I got home, but hadn't planned on doing a lot. I figured I'd be tired. I'm not very tired from the hiking, but the problem is, I'm so excited about this upcoming Adirondack adventure that I didn't fall asleep until 4:30 and had to get up at 6:30. So I think I'm about done now. I should be able to finish the final prep tomorrow without any trouble.

Miles hiked in 2025: 212.8. Hike 100 Challenge (only a short piece of what we did today was actual NCT): 94.6. I'll reach my 100 the first day in the Adirondacks!

Manistee County, MI, Marilla TH to Eddington Bridge, back to Manistee River Trail connector, to the Little Mac, and back to Marilla, with a detour, about 6 miles

See Electronic Maps Training

Gear, Food, New Gear

I'm just about organized for this hike. The gear shuffle is a little challenging because there is going to be both basecamping and backpacking, and we are only taking one car to NY. Here is part of the small gear and food.

That paper under the scissors is my spreadsheet. I've been using it for decades, updating as necessary. It has every piece of camping gear I own on it. There are also pages for clothes, first aid, biking gear (I did a few bikepack trips back when), and dog gear (also used to have a hiker dog). So every time I pack for a trip, I have to consider every single item. I rarely make any big mistakes, because I either check that I'm taking it or write NO if I decide it's not needed.

Some of the gear is not shown because it's already packed in Teeny. I never unpacked it after the backpacking trip in May.

My small backpacking tarp hasn't been deployed since I don't know when, so I waterproofed it. We'll probably be in a shelter one of our nights, but a couple of our nights don't have shelters at good spacing for us, so a tarp may be needed.

The food is 100% ready to go. I didn't have to buy much at all. I had some dehydrated meals in the freezer, still some stuff left over from the big hike. It's getting a little stale, but I'll eat it. This is putting a good dent in it. In the mesh bag is all the food for the 3-day backpack. In front of that in the ziploc is for the 2-day backpack. The other two trays are basecamp and day hike food.

I got two new pieces of gear that were more pricey. The first is something I considered for the big hike but decided I really didn't need it then because everyone let me connect to electric at the places I parked my trailer. I think I only spent one night without electric on the whole trip (well, except when backpacking).

This is a 300-watt power pack (often ridiculously called a solar generator). This is a perfect size for my needs. Can charge phones, camera batteries, small power packs, power the computer, or anything under 300 watts. By not needing it on the spur of the moment I was able to get a good sale price. I've been fooling with it for a couple of weeks to get used to how it works. It can be charged via solar panels (not pictured, but they work- I did charge it up that way), 120V outlet, or 12V outlet. Output options are standard plug, 12V plug, or USB ports.

It's about half the size I expected. Very portable. So far, I'm really happy with this. And if you know the percentage of times I'm really happy with a new purchase, you understand that this is a big deal.

I suspect this would drain it rather quickly, but it has a really bright light (including blink option) if you need to seriously see something after dark, or signal someone.

The other new purchase needs explanation. Last year at the NCTA conference, Marie and I were lying in our basecamping tent (more room than a backpacking tent, but also heavier which doesn't matter if you get to the campsite by car.) that we've had for 30+ years. We looked up at the nylon and were seeing numerous pinholes. Oh, oh. That spells death for a tent. The nylon eventually gives up. So we knew we needed a new tent. Marie seriously wanted a tent she could stand up in. That has always been a major complaint of hers while tenting, and age dictates more conveniences. But we didn't want a tent that was as big as a house.

So I started looking at options. One had bad reviews (poor ventilation and leaking corners), two had no rainfly (seriously?), another had a really goofy rainfly.

Backtrack to that same NCTA conference. We shared a tent site with my new-old friend Diane (who has easily become the third member of our gang- she just fits right in!). She had just purchased a Core tent that she really liked. She had purchased it for the same reason- she wanted to be able to stand inside it.

I had never heard of Core Equipment, but she's really happy with hers. She has a blue-green one. We now have an orange one. Easy to tell them apart for when we are camped together, as we will be a couple of times this summer.

It was a test, but I checked for all the pieces, and set it up today. By not following the directions, I managed to do it solo. Next time will be better because I won't struggle to do it their way!

It seems HUGE to me, but looks like good ventilation, has gear loft, storage pockets, electric cord port. The rainfly seems barely adequate, but it's better than the other options I looked at. One really good thing is that people can easily sit inside in the evenings out of the bugs and/or rain without being cramped at all.

It probably won't last 30 years, but then... I probably won't be camping for 30 more years. Haha! (If I'm still camping at 107 call the Guiness Book.)

I made a huge dent in my almost final to-do list today. SPW hike and meeting tomorrow. Sunday for last-minute items. Monday this all starts to be real.

See Letting You In on the Plan