Mostly Mossy

 The weather was wonderful again. I couldn't stay inside!

Went for a walk on the North Country Trail. South of where it crosses the Pere Marquette River. Look at sun and reflections on December 30!

All the mosses were glowing in the sun. I really just haven't worked at learning the mosses.

This one seemed odd, but very cute. It's growing up around the bases of these two saplings in a helical manner. It makes them look like little Christmas trees.

This patch may have two different kinds.

And is this the same as one of the ones in the picture above, only a bright yellow green instead of darker green?

This is mostly a lichen, but it's growing on top of a patch of moss!

I did some editing and made some phone calls, but then I went for my walk.

Miles hiked in 2024: 547.7. NCT miles hiked in 2024: 168.5

North Country Trail. Lake Co, MI. Upper Branch Bridge to 40th St and back. 3 miles

See Promises of Green

Old Engine Club Grounds

  I was out and about today, so I decided to take a short walk at the West Michigan Old Engine Club grounds in Scottville, thinking the footing would be better on the gravel roads. Ha! It was oozy-slimy. But I went around the loop anyway.

I like how they repurposed an old gas station sign.

The big attraction at the park to me is the Pere Marquette River. I've showed you this same view numerous times over the years, but I never get tired of it.

Sometimes the trees against the sky are attractive, even without leaves.

In other news: I worked a little bit on all my current projects, went to the library and the bank, and did grocery shopping. I'm calling this a highly productive day.

See Summer Morning at the Park

A Little Walk, A Little Work

  Cathy and I did a short walk on the North Country Trail today, but she also again helped me with some trail work. We hiked about 3 miles on the section that includes the Pere Marquette River. I never seem to get tired of this view.

We saw this nice patch of Indian Pipes, Monotropa uniflora. They are a parasitic plant (not a fungus) that has no chlorophyl. I guess I've most recently shown them to you after they have gone to seed. These are the flowers. I've seen quite a few this year, but most patches weren't this pretty.

The Northern Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum pedatum, grows thickly on the banks of the small creek with no name. It's not super rare, but it always seems like such a treat to me to find it.

The creek was flowing, although low. I like the patterns in the mud.

I liked the effect after I digitally played with it even more.

Cathy found a Minion rock! We hid it in a new place.

And we saw some little orange mushrooms. I haven't even tried to ID these.

We spent almost as much time messing around with Carsonite posts as we did hiking. First we dug out one that was overkill since there is also a 4x4 marker post at that corner. Then we installed one brand new one at another road crossing. Finally, we dug out a damaged and badly marked one and then dug up the good one which was at that same road crossing, but in a hidden location, and moved it to where the other post had been. All stickers on these posts are now correct. Good accomplishment. If you care, this is where the NCT leaves South Branch Road, and you can now see this post.

In other news: I edited all morning. Since I got home, I've been working on getting the record-keeping up to date on all this work I've been doing with the posts. That has filled the whole day.

My NCT miles for 2021 is at 346, Cathy is at 49.5 for her Hike 100.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, S. Branch Road to 40th St and back. 3 miles total

See Berry Nice Hike

Summer Morning at the Park

  Another boiling hot day here. The best thing I accomplished was meeting the Scottville City Manager at Scottville Riverside Park to talk about trail restoration and to look at one section together.

It was already standing-still-sweating hot at 9:30, but the river was very pretty. The new City Manager is a hometown boy who has come back to the area. He's excited about the park, and although he's being pulled in a hundred directions at once, he's planned an initial work day already. We had a good walk and talk.

There is a wide stretch of wetland in back of the beginning part of the trail. Naturally, it's wetter in the early part of the season. Lots of beautiful blue flag, Iris versicolor, there. This is a native wild iris. Good plant to have. It's not unusual, but very pretty. Bad news is there is a ton of poison ivy.

Got a couple of poor pictures of another new dragonfly. I think this is a Gray Petaltail. It's the only large one in my book that is so uniformly dark with no markings on the wings. They are completely clear. That said, I'm a total amateur on the dragonfly ID.

To help confirm that, look at this picture. You can't even see the wings against the asphalt! The shadow of its body looks unobstructed.

Best find of the day? A whole patch of Indian Cucumber Root which I also showed you last week. You may recall this is a high-quality plant. And... got a nice picture of the tiny flower!

I had lots of plans, and most of them didn't happen. But I didn't just blow the day off, despite the heat. I edited. I did a couple of errands, I worked on the data book. I'm posting early in hopes that after my Zoom event this evening, I'll feel cool enough to get outside and do a couple of things. It could happen. It's certainly not happening in the middle of the 90-degree days.

See Lopping, No Loping

Miscellaneous

  If yesterday was congested, today was miscellaneous and as flighty as the phoebes on my deck. I worked on a lot of different projects. I took pictures of a lot of different things.

We'll start with some new flamingoes in the lawn just down the road from me. There is quite a collection now, but you haven't seen these ones yet. I'm pretty sure they are getting ready to open a dance studio for their neighborhood.

While out doing errands, I had to wait for the train at a grade crossing with gates. That was neat- I got to see more of the train at one time than when it passes behind my house. They have one of the engines with the new paint scheme on this line now, but it's not the lead engine.

Then I stopped for some quick shots at the Pere Marquette River Flats. This is where the river begins to open into Pere Marquette Lake (where the Badger car ferry is docked). It's a huge cattail marsh. You can see more of the open water at this time of year.

Finally, the first and last pictures of the day- the new and the old, both textural. The first is a sugar maple tree loaded with flowers. New life.

I'll end with the broken-down cattail stems and leaves from last year in the marsh. Past life.

In other news: It's really all other news- wow. Got my car, did laundry, did accounts, did volunteer stuff, did other stuff, went to UPS, ate too much. Didn't finish hardly anything, but hopefully the progress I did make will build up to completed tasks soon.

See Congested

Mrs. Phoebe Gets Cozy

  This year, Mrs. Phoebe did more than visit the deck.

Why does she keep looking up?

Because she built a nest on top of the light box. No peeps emanating yet.

There was also a trip to Riverside Park for an interview. Spring is coming along nicely now! Compare to the same view in March at the link below.

In other news: Marie left early in the morning, and I went back to bed for a while. The trailer door did not leak. I chained myself to my computer and edited all day.

See Phoebe Rules the Back Yard See Hello River, My Old Friend

Scottville Riverside Park- The Sad Truth

  I think maybe the last time I tried to hike this trail was in 2015, and it had been pretty much abandoned then. You can imagine it has not improved on its own. But the water is really low right now, and I thought maybe I could find my way through. A bridge on the far side washed out, and that has made it an impossible walk most of the year (unless one likes wading) ever since.

Meanwhile- a definite sign of spring. Skunk Cabbage.

I won't give you the full blow-by-blow, but a sampling. The trail near the campground is partly in decent shape. This bit of infrastructure was built by the city maybe 15 years ago. It's holding up OK, but the loop on the far side of this bridge can barely be found any more.

Once you get through that section, the trail goes along the edge of the Old Engine Club grounds. That is kept mowed, so that part of the trail is fine, although there is only one remaining marker post so that people would have a clue where to go.

The next section is where it gets really dicey. Yes, this is the trail. This would need a lot of solid work to clean up, but it could be done.

Because the water was so low, I was able to get beyond the missing bridge, and come to the edge of the Pere Marquette River. Not much green yet, but always peaceful in this stretch.

I almost always find some nice reflection picture along here. Today, it was a mossy log

There is a large bottomland hardwood swamp between the old water treatment pond locations and the river. I've never seen it this dry. This is usually covered with water. I hiked all through it today in places you can't usually access without wading in muck.

Long story shortish... I got back to the edge of one of the old treatment ponds (now dry) and then cut across to the Engine Club area. Managed to dunk my feet on that part of the adventure, but not my butt, so it was fine. Then I went to the other end and hiked around the other direction, skipping that really messed up area I worked my way through earlier. The thing is, there is another place that is almost always covered with water, preventing hikers from closing the loop. It was completely dry today. This section of the trail is badly obscured with Japanese Barberry. Invasive, thorny, miserable. Needs to be removed.

On my trip around in this direction, there were some observers in addition to me. The earth "wall" behind her is the berm for one of the treatment ponds.

Anyway, it was a fun adventure- maybe 2.5 miles. The original loop was 1.5. I did that and then an abbreviated second time around in the other direction.

I keep forgetting to tell you the signs of spring that I didn't get pictures of: peepers, chorus frogs, a muskrat, the pheobe came to my deck today, sandhill cranes, turkey vultures... they are all showing up!

In other news: I attended a couple of virtual Easter services, listened to my Easter music playlist, and did a bunch of editing.

See Trail Lost

Pere Marquette- New Perspectives

  Went out for a hike on the NCT, a familiar section (they all are, near me), but a nice one. Did 5 trail miles and a little bit of exploring.

I wandered around a bit off the trail and got a few new perspectives of the Pere Marquette River. This is one I've never seen before. I climbed the bluff on the north side of the river to get to the power line ROW, and this is looking down at the water.

Well, OK, this view is not so new. This is looking upstream from right on the trail, but at least we are trying to ease into a different season. I liked that there was some color with the pine tree and blue sky.

Last time I walked this (link below), I showed you the snow covered hill with steps that looked more like a ziggarat. This time, I made sure you could see a sliver of the river on the left of the hill. It's at the very edge, outside of the white cedars.

At the top of that hill, a little farther on, is a place that would make an absolutely lovely campsite. However, it's too close to the trail to be legal. But I discovered that if you push back a little farther, you could get out of sight and still have this nice view looking down to the river. The stairs take you quickly up to this level from the place where I was down at the river elevation.

And what was the condition of the trail? As I was hoping, most of the ice and snow is gone. There were intermittent patches, but the walking was good for the most part. It was really windy, and although the temperature hit 48 degrees, I kept my jacket on. Comfortable. No complaints.

I poked around in another spot too, and found a really nice place to camp sometime. These are so close to home that I would only camp there just for fun. There would certainly be no need to do so.

NCT Hike 100 Challenge for 2021 is at 87 miles.

In other news: I worked on some marketing things all morning, and hiked in the afternoon. Oh yeah, did errands too.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, Wingleton Road to North end of Bowman Semi-Primitive Area and back. 5 miles total

See Timber Creek South