Fall Color Tour 2026

 Om and I went out for a few hours today to try to catch some fall colors. And we did find some, but not as many as we had hoped. I think it's been too dry. Anyway, we did find a few colorful spots.

This is along E. Hawley Rd.

North of the village of Fountain.

We popped into Walhalla Bridge on the Pere Marquette River. Nothing spectacular, but this view is OK.

Of course, we checked out Conrad Road. The section with my favorite trees has already dropped their leaves, but this isn't shabby.

Just because it's so bright red, I'm including a Burning Bush- the alien, ornamental Euonymous alatus

However, there are two native Euonymus that are attractive in the fall. They may or may not get as consistently red leaves, but the fruits are very cool. I saw this one in Kentucky. These are the seed pods. This is E. americanus, sometimes called American Strawberry Bush.

Also, E. atropurpureous, American wahoo, turns fairly consistently red in fall. The seed pods are almost as interesting, with a little less texture and all reddish-pink- not the orange seeds.

In other news: I did some bookwork things, but couldn't complete them due to an inability to log in to a website (eyeroll). I did some dishes. I had a Zoom meeting.

See Color Tour 2025- Part 1

Color on the Methodist Trails

 Getting back to some of the routine. Today I went shopping, did errands, and then went to bell choir practice. That meant I made time to take a little hike on the Methodist Church Trails.

The colors are pretty good right now. And that might not last, because we are supposed to get rain at the end of the week. That will probably bring many of the leaves down. After all, it's almost November.

One of the pieces of infrastructure the church has is a campfire circle, back near their picnic pavilion. I just liked the way it looked with the orange trees.

Since I last walked these trails (probably last spring before bells was over for the summer), they have added 14 benches. (I may have missed a couple since I didn't hike every piece of every trail today, but I saw 14). Most of the benches are in memory of someone, and each one has a cross that you would be looking at if you sat there, or sometimes just beside it. And I like the design of the benches. The seats are not so wide that they are uncomfortable for smaller people like me.

For a final spot of color, one of the planters at the church hasn't been killed by the frost yet.

Tomorrow, Om and I are going to take a color drive. I don't think I'll get pictures as nice as last year, but it's something we are willing to do together. We'll see what we find!

Miles walked in 2026: 662.8

Methodist Church Trails, various loops. 2.0 miles

See Not Peak Yet

Two Plants from the South

 I saw several new-to-me plants on this hike, and I don't have them all identified yet. One of the two I'll share today I've seen before, but not very often. This is a fern- American Climbing Fern- Lygodium palmatum The last time I saw it was in January of 2024 in southern Ohio. This trip, I saw a lot of it in both Kentucky and Tennessee. This is native. There are a bunch of other climbing ferns that are not.

Next up is a vine. I saw a lot of this climbing up trees, and didn't know what it was at all. It's Crossvine, Bignonia capreolata. It turns out that this has a very distinctive and pretty tubular flower in the spring. I guess I'll just have to go back! If you cut across the stem, it has the shape of a cross.

In other news: I took care of some more things, did some errands, and read some more. I need to get myself out of the books soon and really get busy. But this is what happens when I become reading-time deprived. My brain insists on making that up.

See NiKki and Bill

Eighteeen Years of My Quality Day

 The blogoversery (Oct 26, 2008) is tomorrow, which means that this post completes my 18th year of blogging on My Quality Day. Blogger tells me that there are 6327 posts. Not quite one a day- I've missed occasionally, and sometimes haven't filled back in when I've been off hiking. It's become something of a journal except that the point of this blog was to stick to positive things that have happened.

My life is just like yours- there are some negative things that have happened, even a few major ones, but the point has always been to find something good. One year, I got pretty depressed for a few weeks and quit blogging, but I perked up again.

When I started blogging, Maggie Millicent was still alive and well.



I've had a "big hike" every year:
2009- I was closing in on finishing my first NCT End-to-End hike. I did part of the Superior Hiking Trail, the Border Route and the Kek. Also, a lot of the Upper Peninsula.
2010- Finished the NCT in the Lower Peninsula and took my final hike on the property of my friends, Doug and Pam Boor. I received the then-offered NCT patch for finishing



2011- Worked on completing the non-NCT sections of the Buckeye Trail
2012- Worked on completing the non-NCT sections of the Buckeye Trail
2013- Worked on completing the non-NCT sections of the Finger Lakes Trail
2014- Completed non-NCT sectons of the FLT and did the NCT Vermont extension even though it wasn't official yet



2015- Worked on completing the non-NCT sections of the Buckeye Trail
2016- Worked on completing the non-NCT sections of the Buckeye Trail
2017- Completed the non-NCT sections of the Buckeye Trail
2018- Midland to Mackinaw Trail
2019- Trailer trip and hikes in Red River Gorge, KY
2020- Worked on Finger Lakes Branch Trails, Knobstone Trail, IN
2021- Worked on Finger Lakes Branch Trails, began 2nd NCT End-to-End in December
2022- Hiked all year on NCT
2023- Hiked on NCT until finish in June
2024- Finished the Finger Lakes Trail Branches
2025- Adirondack GPS mapping hike on NCT
2026- Sheltowee Trace, KY and TN

Over this time, I bought and refurbished my little fiberglass trailer, Sunny.



Started an official NCT Long-Distance Hiker Recognition program



I've had two "real jobs"- taking pictures for a risk management company, and working in the mail room at the newspaper. Now sort of officially "retired."

I have written and published about 15 books since I started blogging (two were written before 2008), and I'm now calling myself an author

I continue to write a column for the Ludington Daily News, and have added one for the Mason County Press

I've made several blogging friends who have become real-life friends.

And, ha ha, I've become 18 years older. But I'm still hanging in there, eh?



I've probably forgotten some other major things that I've done, but thanks for coming along for the ride! You've made it a lot more fun.

And what did I do today? I edited and turned in my column for LDN, put away some garden stuff, did a few other odds and ends, and read another book. I guess I'm starting to feel renewed after this last hike, but my motivation isn't up to par yet. However, of course, I'm dreaming up ideas for next year's adventure!

See What Is My Quality Day?

Comments About Sheltowee Trace

 It seems fitting to share a few thoughts about the Sheltowee Trace in general.

I'm going to divide it into the northern and southern halves. Officially that's at a place called Hazel Patch, but roughly speaking it's near I-75, and that's easy to find on a map.

Overall, the southern section is much more trail-like with significantly less road walking. I am pretty sure it gets hiked more as well. However, most of the time where there has been actual trail construction, it's been done well. A lot of the northern part is shared with ATV trails with bad footing- mostly loose rocks.

I think the trail is hiked more in winter. Summer would be just too hot. That suggests that their maintenance season is just starting, and I have heard of some work parties out cutting downed trees.

Just to get it over with, the worst section for me was the one just north of Cumberland Falls. That was mostly due to downed trees across the trail.

The best section was from the John Muir Trailhead to the John Muir Overlook, and most of the way down to No Business Creek. Here is a map of that section. See all those funky toothed lines? Someone or some group that really knew what they were doing planned, laid out and built these six miles of trail. The treadway stays almost exactly on the same grade for that entire distance, following the contour lines. Once past John Muir Overlook, there is a very steep drop down to No Business Creek. There is a little bit of rock scrambling at the very top of that, and a ladder. In fact, this is the location where we invented the word "twitchbacks" for too-short runs on switchbacks. However, after just a few of those, the runs lengthened and the descent down to the creek was smooth. The trail had to drop 400 feet in 1.1 miles of trail. Overall, they did a great job with that.

I do want to commend the trail builders for some excellent rock work. We saw a lot of hand-built stone steps like these. These are a lot of work, and they take time to do them correctly.

There were also a number of stone water channels. Here's a really nice one. The water stays in the channel and hikers just step over.

There were also some good retaining walls to hold benching in place.

The only rockwork that wasn't as good was water bars. Most of those were not overlapped correctly, which let water drain through them, not off the trail.

Overall, I have to say that the Sheltowee Trace is a fairly rugged hiking trail that has some challenges- as a National Recreation Trail, they have to accept more mixed use than some trails. Sharing with ATVs and horses is really hard on a treadway. As for the rock scrambling... mostly I thought it was fun, but a potential hiker should be aware that there are a few difficult places.

I managed to do the entire trail as a series of day hikes with some 13+ mile days. And there are a couple of sections where you can't shorten that. We used the FarOut App and were very glad we had it, as some of the junctions were not marked very well.

It was quite dry when we hiked, but the trail would be a big challenge in the spring. There are hundreds of stream crossings with no bridges, and some of them would be impassible in the spring. In most instances of potentially dangerous crossings, there was an alternate high-water route, but not everywhere.

All-in-all, I had a blast! My knees did NOT like the 13+ mile days, but they survived. I was pleased at how well the body held up given its age and previous wear and tear. I did have a bail-out plan if I decided I couldn't do it all after the first half. But other than being pretty tired, I never even contemplated quitting.

In other news: I almost did a day's work today. Got the laundry done. The pile in the kitchen is very small now. I wrote one of my newspaper columns.

See Sheltowee Trace- Fini!

Not Peak Yet

 I haven't gotten out much since getting home to assess the color changes for this fall here. Some friends are saying it's not peak yet, and I tend to agree based on a short walk to town today, but a lot of leaves are dropping already. We may not get really good color. This was the best I could find on my little walk today. Sorry about the wires.

To compare, the trees were also just starting to turn in Kentucky. This is a nicer picture, but there were very few places where we saw this much color. This was at one of the overlooks on the Cumberland River.

Om and I are going to try to take a little color drive this coming week. Maybe we'll catch some good locations.

I managed to put away a few more things, but not everything yet. I walked to the post office and the library. Pretty much, I'm still a slug, although I had a little more energy today.

Miles walked in 2026: 660.8

To Scottville and back- 2.5 miles

See More Fall Finery

It's All I've Got

 Today has been a recovery and low-energy day. I've accomplished two things. But first, I'll show you how well Om took care of the Coleus I brought inside to root just before I left. They look great! It's very interesting that the 'Inferno' have developed green edges. Not sure what to make of that.

The two things I managed are to be sure I've signed up for a number of vendor events between now and Christmas. Here is my schedule:
Sat, Nov 14- Cedar Springs Library, 9:00 - 2:00
Sat & Sun, Nov 21-22- Onekama School, 10:00-3:00
Sat, Nov 28- Niles Library, 10:00-3:00
Sat, Dec 12- Kaleva, 11:00-3:00
MAYBE- Wed, Dec 16- Grand Rapids High Five Merry Little Market, Grand Rapids, 4:00-8:00

The other thing was to put away about half of the stuff I offloaded into the kitchen.

Mostly, I sat and read a book and didn't have to talk much to anyone. Just a little bit with Om.

See Home

Home

 Here we are- me and Ester- two buddies who have known each other since 1994 when we both worked at Matthaei Botanical Garden. We sure are older, but wrinkles don't define us.

She fed me a scrumptious breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy. Now I have to start dialing back the food intake to real life, not hiking life! I left there around 11 am for the final leg of the journey home.

Stopped at the grocery store on the way to get my salad fixings and some other things and arrived home at about 2:30. I promised myself that I only had to accomplish one thing. I emptied the car into the kitchen and took care of the perishable food items.

I enjoyed a bowl of my ice cream. Since leaving home 6 weeks ago, I've only had two ice cream sandwiches and that one serving of hot fudge cake that had a ice cream layer. Yum.

And I fixed my usual salad for dinner. I've had quite a few salads on this trip since we were traveling with a cooler, and many places now sell packaged salads. Nevertheless, it was good to have my own selection of ingredients and my favorite dressing. Yum.

I plunked down in my chair and finished the book I started on the hike that really was in the category of "too good to put down," except on a hike I was too tired to do that! I'm sure it will be on my end-of-year best books list.

I'm less enthused about being back in my own bed. It needs some work to be comfortable. I really liked sleeping on a mat on the FLAT ground. I need to stiffen up the bed. Maybe that will happen this fall. I've been impressed with how happy my back has been with the ground and just a mat.

Tomorrow, I'll begin trying to get back to "real" life.

See ADT- Dovou to Anderson Ferry

American Discovery Trail- Devou to Anderson Ferry

 I finished all the miles of the American Discovery Trail that are in Kentucky today. I started from Devou Park where I ended yesterday. Once again Pat spotted me.

Just thought this was a nice example of how the Kentucky hills get all jumbled together.

A train was going across the trestle just as I was walking beneath it! I think it's now Norfolk Southern, but it started life as Cincinnati Southern.

You know I have to take pictures of sharks! This was at the Ludlow-Bromley Yacht Club.

Today was mostly road walk, which was not unpleasant, but there were fewer things to take pictures of. The Ohio River is pretty industrial for quite a distance west of Cincinnati and Covington (the Cincinnati riverfront has been converted to recreational space). When it became more attractive, there weren't places to get good pictures. But my goal was something on the river- the Anderson Ferry.

The ferry has been in operation since 1817, and is a National Historic Landmark. It runs continually most of the year. It can carry 12 cars but it doesn't wait to fill up. It just takes however many are waiting, and bikes, and pedestrians. Fees are reasonable. The mecanism is very simple- there is a hinged ramp on both ends and as the ferry bumps into the paved ramp on the road it self-adjusts for a smooth transition on or off the boat. Here it is coming in to shore.

The crossing takes about 5 minutes! Here we are coming to the Ohio side. My car is waiting up on the left.

This was a very fun ending to the hike.

Then I hopped in the car and drove to Ester's house for tonight.

Miles walked in 2026: 658.3

American Discovery Trail, Kentucky, Devou Park to Anderson Ferry- Ohio side. 6.8 miles

See ADT- Eden to Devou

American Discovery Trail- Eden to Devou

 Today, I did half of a little section of the American Discovery Trail that will get me a little bit of swag and just make a fun connection. The ADT is a coast-to-coast route that was created out of a walk done by a group of people in 1976 called Hike-a-Nation. My friend Lyle was on that walk as was another acquaintence, Susan "Butch" Henley.

This trail doesn't particularly call to me, but a large part of the Ohio section is concurrent with the Buckeye Trail, and so I've done a big piece of it in Ohio. I'm not taking time right now to figure out how much of Ohio I've done and/or how much I haven't done. Kentucky has 8 little miles. The ADT website doesn't even give Kentucky it's own link; it's just lumped with Ohio. But Pat Long, featured yesterday, has made a patch if you complete the ADT in Ohio. Tomorrow I'll finish that. Today I made the connection with the Buckeye Trail at Eden Park in Cincinnati and crossed into Kentucky. I took a LOT of pictures, but I've narrowed it down to a few to share.

The first picture is actually taken from the ending point of the hike at Devou Park, Covington, KY. But it has a great view of Cincinnati.

This is just to prove that I connected to the Buckeye Trail. Link at the end of this post is of that hike.

A lot of the walk down to the Ohio River level is on the steps of the Immaculata Church, sometimes called the "Church of the Steps." This is only part of them.

The entrance to Centennial Park has columns made to look like riverboat smokestacks with flying pigs on them. These were designed for the city's bicentennial by Andrew Leicester. They were meant to be a humorous nod to the pork industry, and all the pigs who gave their lives to make the city great, which built Cincinnati. At one time its nickname was Porkopolis. At first people didn't like the pigs, but soon they embraced the symbol and now there is flying pig art all over.

Here is a statue of Cincinnatus, the Roman soldier-farmer for whom the city is named. He lived about 450 BC. There was a society of Colonial officers named for him which celebrated the volunteer military model which was the backbone of the Revolutionary period. George Washington was a member (and its first president) and General Arthur St. Clair who became governor of Ohio named the city for him in 1790. (Its previous name was Losantiville).

Crossing the Ohio River was a lot of fun. There are a bunch of bridges, but the trail uses the John A. Roebling bridge built in 1867. If the name is familiar, he also designed the Brooklyn Bridge, and used this design as the prototype. It originally cost $1.8 million, and was the largest suspension bridge in the world when built.

I only went a short way into Kentucky today, and due to construction, there wasn't as much of interest as on the Ohio side. Best picture is the view shown in the first photo above.

I'm staying in luxury in a motel thanks to someone's generosity, so after the hike and a little nap, I went and swam a few laps in the pool!

Tomorrow, I'll finish this little quest.

Miles walked in 2026: 651.5

American Discovery Trail, Eden Park, Cincinnati, OH, to Dovou Park, Covington, KY. 5.7 miles

See Buckeye Trail Cincinatti Spur