Dumaw Nature Preserve

I never did tell you the other place that Ellen and I went on November 7. This is a fairly new Nature Preserve just east of Pentwater. It was created in 2023.

There is about one mile of trail in the form of two loops connected in the middle by this bridge over Dumaw Creek which flows to the North Branch of the Pentwater River. The loops sort of look like butterfly wings with the creek as the body. At the very south end of the preserve, there is a curve of the river that passes through it, but this is not seen from the trails.

The north loop is about 0.4 mile and it stays down in the low area beside the creek.

This cedar trunk pleased me artistically.

Once you cross the bridge, the southern loop climbs and you are up on a bluff. This is the longer loop and about 0.6 mile.

Different vegetation there, of course. We enjoyed this Diphasiastrum digitatum which has so many common names it's ridiculous. Fan clubmoss, ground cedar, northern ground cedar, running cedar... All these plants used to be in one genus, Lycopodium, but some have been changed to Diphasiastrum. Generally, they are all club mosses. The ones that have been moved to this new genus have a different number of chromosomes.

I did learn a fun fact while I was checking what this is currently called. See the little tubes on stalks? These are strobili, which are the spore cases. That I knew. But the spores were traditionally collected and dried to make theatrical flash powder!

I'll feature this area on the Get Off The Couch blog soon, and get it added to the GOTC website. For now, just enjoy pretty pix. If you want to go there, take Hogan Rd east off 66h Avenue out of Pentwater (Park St past the school becomes 66th). There is a sign to the preserve about a half mile after you get on Hogan.

It was a semi-productive day. I worked on projects, but probably not enough. I went shopping- big mistake going on Friday. 4 of the 5 bottle return stations at Meijer were out of order for a while, and the place was packed. Anyway... it was a longer than usual shopping trip.

It was beautiful outside. Would have been a great day for a hike. But I did not do that, I'm sorry to tell you.

See An Excellent Day with the Original Adventure Buddy

An Excellent Day with the Original Adventure Buddy

Over the years... and it has been quite a few years... I've done a lot of adventuring with friend Ellen. I don't think we coined the term, but we called ourselves Adventure Buddies. We managed to get outside and do something together (hike, bicycle, ski, kayak) about once a month for a number of years. Then she got a granddaughter. Well. That threw in a major monkeywrench since the girl lives several hours away.

Anyway, she doesn't let me take her picture very often, so I'll just share this one that is one of my favorites from 15 (yes fifteen!) years ago. And you can see that Maggie was still alive. This was taken at Gales Pond. The last hike we did together was a year ago in the spring. We really need to get back into some kind of rhythm.



Today we explored the Pentwater Wagon Road. Ellen introduced me to this pathway, again, 15 years ago. It is the (very) old road into Pentwater. In fact, it's not really a road any more. But it's still supposed to be a public right-of-way.

But Ellen had discovered that someone has placed a fence across it. She called the township, and they said "public." So we thought we'd see what the status is.

It starts out looking just fine. Would this condition remain?

The morning was sunny and cool. I can never decide, but this might be my favorite picture from this fall. Wagon Road still fine.

Lots of blueberries along the pathway. They turn a nice red in the fall.

Oops. Yup, about a mile in, there is not only fence, but a serious barrier. We took pictures and the location. Ellen will contact the township once again. It's kind of annoying, because you used to be able to walk all the way into town on this.

On the way back, we found one little blob of yellow Witches' Butter fungus.

Since that hike was shorter than we had hoped, she took me to two small, newish nature preserves that I had not yet been to. I'll share those in the days ahead. All together, we managed to hike 3.6 miles. Then we headed back to her house.

Ellen has a long history of treating me with wonderful meals. Today was no exception. She made us sandwiches of some yummy brown bread (toasted), turkey, apple, goat cheese, strawberry jam, and greens. Wowzer!

Needless to say, not a lot of serious work happened today. But that's OK. I'm gloriously happy at the wonderful adventures.

Miles hiked in 2025 (I've added all 3.6 on here) 433

Pentwater Wagon Road, out and back 2.2. Pine Forest Loop 0.4. Dumaw Woodland 1.0 miles

See my first hike on the Wagon Road

Back to the Dragon

 There were so many things that were awesome about today, it's hard to decide which to start with. I choose to first show you who I was adventuring with. This is my long-time adventure buddy Ellen. That said, we haven't managed to do anything together since 2016, although she did make the effort to come to my final day of the big hike. For a lot of years, we did something together about once a month. We don't know if we can manage that schedule, but we hope to at least not wait eight more years before getting together again. We aren't getting any younger.

You may or may not remember that we've done things including hiking, biking, kayaking, skiing (she's the one who got me started on cross-country skis) and sometimes just back road exploring. She also dragged me to the Ludington Writer's Group when I first began writing mysteries.

Today we went to check out one of the new sections of the Dragon Trail at Hardy Dam Pond. The link below is when Monica, Keira and I hiked about 13 miles of that, which was nearly all that was built at the time. The trail will be over 40 miles long, completely circling Hardy Dam Pond. When I learned that some more sections have been completed since 2021, we chose to go see some of that today.

We didn't have time to do all of one completed segment, and some of the partial segments weren't long enough. Doesn't matter. We chose to start at Newaygo State Park and hike north until we were tired and then turn around. The segments are distinguished by a color and number. We were on Segment 3- Tan.

The water could not have been more stunning. We sort of chose today for the sunshine, hoping for blue water. We got it! Where we hiked was largely along the edge of the pond.

The water is still lowered for winter, but this makes a sandy edge, and we saw quite a few people taking advantage of that.

We hiked until the trail curved down around the inlet of Rosy Run.

We went until we had hiked three miles. There was a lovely bench with a view and a real breeze off the water. That was awesome too, because the temperature was about 70 degrees by then. We are sure not used to that yet. You can see how the wind is lifting my hair.

There we ate our lunches and then headed back. The views remained spectacular.

We were really hoping to find some wildflowers. They were not in profusion, but we at least got our wish. First hepatica of the year. Round-lobed. Hepatica americana. They can be blue, pink or white.

This was the other great find of the day. I believe this is fire moss, or redshank moss, Ceratodon purpureus, pretty amazing in the sun.

The other great find was a lovely skeletonized leaf, but my pictures are all useless. Anyway, we had a wonderful day. I talked way too much, telling Ellen funny stories, but I think she forgave me.

Oh, and talk about timing. There was a huge tree we had to climb over on the way out. By the time we returned it had been cut out!

Total miles hiked in 2024: 199.6 of which 69.6 is North Country Trail.

This trail is not the NCT. However, there is supposedly a trail called The Edge that connects Hardy Dam with Croton Dam where the NCT exits the Manistee National Forest. I think it's actually a road route, or a paved multi-use path. I might have to explore this. It would be fun to connect them even if it's paved. About 6 miles.

See Dragon Trail Beginnings

Tea with Cindy

 
Did something today I haven't done for probably 20 years. I was invited to an afternoon tea with a bunch of ladies, and I actually went. This is because it was to have a chance to visit with a member of our writer's critique group, West Side Gang, whom we have not seen for quite a while.

Cindy (on the right) has been battling a serious health issue, and agreed to come to a tea at Seema's house after a therapy session. She told me it was all right to take her picture, and we all think she looks great after all the months of treatments.



We did all the things you would expect. We chatted, we chatted some more. We shared other health stories (never sure this is helpful to someone who is ill, but Cindy seemed to be OK with it). We talked about the arts in general. We talked about writing.

We ate delightful sandwiches and treats provided by Seema (whose picture I did not get, unfortunately), with some really good tea (in my opinion).



Cindy read us a humorous, but true, story she had recently written and we laughed a lot. That's always a good thing.

We probably tired her out too much before her husband picked her up, but hopefully it will be worth it to her for the memories of time with friends.

In other news: I wrote a chapter and maybe, maybe, maybe came up with the missing plot piece that DMS Mistletoe needs to complete the story line. That should make the writing go better.

	See West Side Gang
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Forgive Us our Trespasses

 
Today's adventure was interesting in light of yesterday's. Today I went trespassing on purpose. Ellen went with me and condoned the activity.

First of all, the important stuff. She gave me an early birthday party!



Then we went off to learn more "on the ground" info about the Three Sisters, which are directly across Bass Lake from her house.



I'm going to write my monthly newspaper column about them. I still don't know much history or geology. Hoping to get that from the local historical society. Meanwhile, back to the ground. They are all privately owned, which is a big local political mess. Not going to get into THAT in the column. Here, I will say that it's a shame they were sold because they are rather unique.

In the picture above, which is looking west, you can see Bass Lake, and Lake Michigan is on the far side of the sisters. On the right (north) is Eagle Crest. The middle one is Baldy, and the south one is Camelback (or Scarface according to a man we talked to).

There is a smaller unnamed bump between Eagle Crest and Baldy. We managed to climb two of them and the bump. We even got permission for one of those treks. I think I'll leave the description right there. If you are going to trespass along the big lake it's best to do it before the summer people arrive at their expensive "cottages."

Trust me, maybe they don't look so big, but climbing straight up a sand dune is a really good workout.

This is the view of the Pentwater shoreline from atop... one of them.



Here is Baldy, looking up its Lake Michigan side face.



We could see sketchy views of Bass Lake through the trees from all the tops. Pictures aren't any great shakes... just a little water through branches. But we knew what we were looking at.

With a little photo magic, we took a picture of ourselves.



We have both become very busy- me with work and Ellen with family and volunteer commitments. We don't find time for many adventures any more. Today was a LOT of fun.

	See Joan and Ellen Climb Briar Hill
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Skiing at Crystal Valley

 
Today was the monthly outing for the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA. We went skiing at a nice area called Crystal Valley in the Manistee National Forest. My adventure buddy, Ellen, is heavily involved with the group of volunteers that built and maintains this five-loop system.

"Come on," she says. "What are you waiting for?" Skiing is her first love.



There were just four of us. Dave, Loren, and I have been to Crystal Valley before, but Ellen knows the trails best.



This was my view for most of the two hours we were out. I'm not that great a skier, and still don't have all my stamina back after the cold that has kicked my butt. Didn't realize how bad until today. I simply could not keep up. They had to wait for me a lot.



But they were nice about it, and we had a great time. And, Ellen invited us all to her house for tacos and talking afterwards. We spent the entire afternoon yakking about biking and kayaking and skiing and stuff! Great day.



Just FYI, in case you were wondering... no Flower Show trip this year. I'll have to get a fix of greenery some other way. (But not here, it's SNOWING AGAIN)

	See Spirit of the Woods at Big M 2014
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Can an Adventure be Calm?

 
Adventure buddy, Ellen, and I were bemoaning our lack of time to get together recently. She invited me to come to her place on Bass Lake tonight to do a little paddling, and then she would fix dinner.

I got there later than I wanted... just too much running around I had to do. But all the summer people are gone. The lake is quiet, and tonight as we made our way across the lake by kayak and into the outlet channel the water became smooth as glass. The sun was low in the sky making great shadows, even of the veins in the water lily leaves.



I stopped paddling at the pace my mind was still racing and just dipped the blades often enough to keep the kayak moving, trying to be as still as possible. We could still hear cars on the road in the distance, but there were no motor boats, no children yelling or splashing. Ducks quacked, and then exploded into the air in front of us. A late dragonfly hummed by. A leaf drifted down.



There were a few people where the outlet reaches Lake Michigan, come down to watch the sunset, but they were quiet too. Dune grass softens the vastness of big Lake Michigan beyond.



We walked out to the beach and were surprised that the big lake is still quite warm. Once it does warm up it takes a long while to cool down again.

Dock ornament or real bird? I wasn't sure until it picked up a foot! A few herons are still here. They tend to stick around until ponds begin to freeze and they can't find fish to eat.



We caught the last of the light paddling back. The sun at our backs lit the trees on the opposite shore. The colors are almost garish in intensity.



We arrived back at Ellen's just in time for sunset. She grilled some brats which we ate with roasted cabbage and waldorf salad. A wonderful calming adventure.



Too bad I have to be at work in 40 minutes!

	See The Launching of the Kayak for how crowded the outlet is in summer
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Briar Hill- Treasures

 
Today, I'll tell you some of the details that make a hike like yesterday's something special. Of course, start with a good friend! Having Ellen to share it with made it all even more fun.

Half the adventure was finding the right place, but I talked about that yesterday. Sort of! Most of the directions we had were good, but there were just a couple of missing pieces. So we wandered around back roads for a while, until we found an intersection that could be placed on the map, and then we got straightened out. This was accompanied by lots of laughing. O yes, and quite a lot of clearing tree limbs from the roads ahead of the car, including removing some with a saw. I think this was a pretty good clue that particular road hadn't been driven yet this year!

We wanted the hike to be longer than the short trip from the trailhead to the top. We did some of that on purpose, and some accidentally! Did not notice my warning about following the correct road down the hill. We learned that one the hard way! We followed that easy road quite a ways, just talking about this and that. Actually, I'll fess up. We were talking about times when we'd been "misplaced" and had to retrace steps, if you can believe it. And then we realized we were going west instead of south, and down a smooth road, not a moguled one, and down a gentle valley, not down a slightly steep hill. Oops! Back up we went to the other road.

The part we did on purpose was to wander the ridge in the other direction from the peak, look for views (not very good through the trees). We did find interesting valleys as the ridge encircles a bowl. Then we found a good log and ate our lunch.

We saw so many lovely things. Here are some of them. Too many pictures, but I can't resist.

The trout lily (dappled leaves), and Dicentra were up, but not in bloom yet. The Dicentra is either squirrel corn or dutchman's breeches, but there's no way to tell the leaves apart.



Here's a wonderful fungus, but I don't know what it is. Top side, and under side.





We saw a yellow-bellied sapsucker (a woodpecker), but couldn't get it's picture. We didn't see the porcupine, but there was clear evidence that one had been munching on bark high in this tree.



The spring beauty was mostly in bud. There will be huge patches carpeted with the pale pink blossoms in a couple of days. But we found a few blooming.



We found one lovely patch of hepatica!



And as a final treat, a bright scarlet cup fungus.



All in all, a wonderful adventure!

	See Briar Hill
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