Hodenpyl Dam Pond in Winter

  Loren and I hiked today along Hodenpyl Dam Pond, which is a really lovely stretch of the North Country Trail. I hadn't ever hiked it in winter. Of course, Koa was there too. She loves the snow!

Warning: This is a picture-heavy post. Just to prove we were happy, here's another goofie selfie. The temperature stayed right around 20 degrees, but both of us had overdressed and had to shed a layer before we'd been out very long.

This bridge crosses an arm of the lake that isn't really a creek, it's more of a bayou.

Here's the view out toward the lake from the bridge

There was light snow falling almost all the time we were out. However, on our way back it started coming down a little heavier. This picture makes it look like a real white-out! That's kind of funny because the flakes never got really heavy, and it wasn't windy, but it sure softened the view.

Now for the tree "damage" section of this post.

An energetic beaver has been hard at work here. I've seen them try to take down even bigger trees, but this one is certainly a long-term project.

We found this hemlock tree striped with yellow-bellied sapsucker holes. And here's where I learned something new. After I got home I looked up hemlocks and sapsuckers because I haven't noticed them drilling their lines of holes in hemlock before. Guess I just wasn't paying attention! They love hemlock. Sapsuckers, as beautiful as they are, do a lot of damage to trees. I found a table with the mortality rates for live trees drilled by sapsuckers. It's as high as 67% for gray birch and 51% for white birch (more common here). They also like red maple, red spruce and hemlock. But the mortality for hemlock is only 1%. The hemlock seem to tolerate it better. This tree was completely riddled with their holes, but seemed healthy.

And we saw another interesting burl. With the swirling snowflakes, it almost looks like it has white Christmas lights strung on it!

Now for the extended hike section of this hike!

So, we got back to the car after doing 6 miles. I wanted to do a little more. I wondered if I could make it to 10. I looked at the map, and I'd have to go beyond Eddington Bridge and back. Think DOWN to the creek, UP the other side, then ditto on the return. Decided I'd see how I felt. It was neat to look down and see Eddington Creek winding along the bottom of the valley (the wavy dark line in the middle). You can't really see the creek that well in the summer.

Then up the other side, with a look back at the bridge. (But this is only the very start of the climb.)

I had to go all the way to the top of the hill to get to the turnaround point! But I did it. I walked 10 miles in snow and don't even feel too beat. Yeah!

Hike 100 Challenge 2021 is at 46.5 miles.

North Country Trail, Wexford and Manistee Counties, MI, South of Eddington Creek to middle of Northern Exposure Campground and back. 10 miles

Believe me, there is no other news. I'm not whipped, but it was enough. Made a grilled cheese sandwich when I got home. Yum!

See Teeny's First Overnight

Teeny's First Overnight - Day 1

 
Yesterday, Teeny and I left Sawdust Hole, headed for Eddington Creek. Dispersed camping is still allowed in the Manistee National Forest, so our trip was completely legal.

It was cloudy all day (and never warmed up, either). The gray skies made this reflection in Leitch Bayou more of a monotone study.


Eddington Creek is 14 miles from the parking at Sawdust Hole. And those are the 14 hilliest miles in all of the Manistee NF on the North Country Trail. So this was another challenge- to do that many miles for two days in a row, and have them be tough miles. But I love how the trail tracks along the edges of the hills. The trail is on the far left of this picture, benched into the hillside. The farthest blue line of horizon on the right is on the other side of the river.



It was so gray this picture is hardly worth showing you, but you can see the Manistee River down in the valley, and the line of blue hills on the other side.



There were a few neat details. Last year's turkey tail fungus.



And some patches of moss are almost fluorescent green.



This was my destination, Eddington Creek Bridge. That's because it's the only water source in that entire stretch of trail. I arrived there a couple of minutes before 6 pm. That was perfect. I didn't want to get there very early because I knew it wasn't going to be a pleasant evening to be sitting outside.



Set up camp, cooked dinner, hung my food bag, filtered water. Not only was it cold, it started raining! Not very much but enough to send me scurrying into the tent. I read a book until it got too dark to see. Didn't get very much sleep. I am not very happy with my "new" (1 year old) sleeping bag. More on that in another post. I had a lot of trouble staying warm.



Teeny did her job well. I'm getting used to the pockets and what to keep where. The biggest glitch was that I didn't get one snack bar in the food cache. It was hiding in a pocket and spent the night in the tent with me. But I had no midnight visitors.

And now, we'll jump ahead to tonight. Obviously, I made it home safely, and we had Birthday Pizza! Thanks, Om!



I think early bed is going to be a thing. 28 miles in 2 days with little sleep is giving me the nods. Tomorrow I'll show you day two. Sure it was a return over the same miles, but it was a different day, and I saw different things.

See Birthday Shenanigans