To Blacksmith Bayou and Beyond

 I took a little NCT hike today with a side walk down into Blacksmith Bayou. The bayou itself is a backwater of the Manistee River. Someone was actually fishing there today.

But you can see the actual river from a bit deeper into the campground.

The piece of NCT I hiked is mostly along the bank on the south side of the river. Today, these tall pines looked nice in the late afternoon light.

This blue-stemmed goldenrod, Solidago caesia, grows along the trail. Most of the time, the stems are darker purpleish, thus the name. Gray goldenrod also has flowers along the stem like this, but the leaves are different.

This is fun. It's the fruit of a mapleleaf viburnum, Viburnum acerifolium. Supposedly you can eat these, but they are better (like many fall berries) after the first frost. I guess I need to find some then and try them. But since they are popular with wildlife, I may have a hard time finding any!

Here's another nice picture of the Manistee River. You can tell that fall is on the way.

The reason I was up that way was to meet with a fellow Michigan Outdoor Writer Association member, Dave Foley and his wife Cyndy. He's doing a feature on me for the Cadillac paper before I speak at the Cadillac Area Land Conservancy in October.

In other news: I managed a little editing in the morning before leaving for this adventure.

Miles hiked in 2024: 436.5. NCT miles in 2024: 130.8

North Country Trail, Manistee Co, MI, from Highbridge to Chicago Rd and back with a side trip to Blacksmith Bayou. 3.6 miles NCT, + 1.2 side trip miles

See Old Trail Section, New Season

Got My 100 with Randall and Tanya

  Randall gets around, as many of you know. He's working on the NCT in NY and MI now, having finished OH and PA. Today, Tanya and I hiked with him along the Manistee River. Here we are at the one marker on the Cadillac-Traverse City Old Indian Trail that is also on the NCT.

Most of the hike is on the high bluffs above the Manistee River with great views of the river oxbows. I guess the last few times I've hiked this were in spring or fall when there were fewer leaves and you could see more of the river. Very lush today!

However, the trail also dipped down to some places of deeper woods, like the crossing of Anderson Creek.

Nice little bridge for a dry passage.

The big news of the day for me is that I completed my Hike 100 Challenge for the year. I forgot to check what my actual mileage was before leaving home, but was sure that I'd have passed 100 miles after doing 8. That took us to the Indian Trail marker, which seemed like a perfect place. Now that I'm home and have checked, I actually completed it two miles before this, so closer to Anderson Creek, but who cares? I got it. Year 9 for me (and anyone else who's done it since the challenge began).

New plant sighting for this year is Maple-Leaf Viburnum, a shrub. This is a very tiny one.

We hiked 10.1 miles. Not the longest since last year, but only the 3rd time I've done more than 10 miles in a day. I wasn't sure I'd be able to work up to 10-mile days again. It doesn't feel great, but I'm not incapacitated. I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 259.3. NCT miles hiked 104.4.

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI. Highbanks Rollway to Harvey Bridge. 10.1 miles

See Still Along the Manistee

It Doesn't Get Much Better

  It doesn't get much better than today, folks! I hiked 14 miles and finished collecting data for Newaygo County on the North Country Trail. The weather was beautiful. It was sunny and the high was 83, but there was a slight breeze that kept it from feeling too hot. And the humidity was low.

There are too many pictures in this post, but what should I leave out?

First of all, lets talk about a little geology. Most of the hills in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan are remnants of a huge glacial moraine that has eroded away in interesting patterns. There is a surviving ridge that runs somewhat N-S throughout Newaygo County. Just east of this ridge, and sometimes cutting through it are holes and channels that have become a series of lakes and wetlands. The NCT threads it's way along that ridge. Today, the southernmost lake in the series that I passed was Nichols Lake. It's also one of the largest.

Next one north that you can see from the trail is Leaf Lake. I think it gets its name from the odd shape.

That lake transitions into a long, long strip of wetlands that follow one of the eroded valleys. If this was Ohio or Pennsylvania, I'd suspect they were old mining pits. But I think these are just natural.

Condon Lake is a long, thin teardrop. You climb a hump in the ridge after a mile-long strip of wetlands, and it suddenly appears.

My hike today only took me a little north from here. But Highbank Lake, that you've seen a few other times, is in this same line. Then the trail veers west and leaves this geologic feature.

One very cool thing I found is one of the very few remaining Manistee Trail markers. That trail pre-dated the North Country Trail. And it looks like the porcupines don't care anything about history.

Best flower finds of the day are Frostweed, Helianthemum canadense,

And a Maple-leaf Viburmun, now with the flower fully open. But this picture wins because the sun helped make it a little artsy. I love the shadow on the leaf.

It was a great dragonfly day, especially along Nichols Lake, where I was "wading" through hundreds of zooming and flitting dragonflies. Getting any pictures at all was really hard. But I think most of them were Chalk-fronted Corporels. You can't see the distinguishing marks in this picture, but I did see a lot of them from better angles. I just couldn't get any pictures. There were other kinds as well. Notably some small blue ones, but no certain ID on those.

I just was trying to get lucky with a picture of this one perched on the grass. Couldn't tell what it was at all until I got home. I'm pretty sure it's the Calico Pennant, which I learned a couple of years ago.

And finally, I just like this picture. This was the edge of a wetland that wasn't terribly attractive, but the twisted shrubs and the lighting transformed it into something mysterious.

I met another long-distance hiker on the trail! Liz Jones is hiking from Croton Dam to Munising. Good luck, Liz! It's amazing that I actually encounter hikers multiple times a year, now. This is a relatively new phenomenon for the NCT!

It was also a good day for bullfrogs and mosquitoes and gypsy moths. The only negative for the whole day is that the gypsy caterpillars are hanging on their threads everywhere. I had "silk" threads touching my face all day long. I really could have done without that. But I prefer to emphasize how perfect the day was!

The only other news is that there was a Reading Regatta Zoom event in the evening.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 335.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Michigan, FR 5633 almost to Tank Creek and back for a total of 14 miles

See MNF Challenge Hike #5

Day Four on the Knobstone

 
Day four was the worst. I questioned what I was doing. I wondered if I'd outgrown my need for hiking. All I wanted to do was get home and sit down with my computer game and a glass of iced tea. I wondered who this new person was. It's not like I was out there doing something unprecedented for me.

I did see the second vista of the trip, at a power line crossing.



I found another new plant. I knew it was a Viburnum because of the opposite leaves, but I did not know which one. I'm pretty sure it's Viburnum dentatum, Arrow-wood. Yes, there are varieties grown as ornamentals. This one was quite ornamental, as it was growing from a fallen log at eye level.



The biggest disappointment of the day was passing by Elk Creek Lake. On a trail that has a severe water problem, the trail never went down to the water edge so you could access it. What? You were only teased by glimpses through the trees. On the east end, I think if the water were higher you could reach it, but in mid June it was just a muddy plain that looked iffy to walk across (wade in mud).

When I reached the trail junction at the west end I asked a hiker how far to the water access (down a side trail to the trailhead). Half a mile. Nope. I walked back a quarter mile to the last puddle I'd seen to fill my water.



The temperature hit 91 degrees. I lay on the damp stones in one of the dry creek beds for half an hour before I thought I could go any farther. I crossed a busy highway and climbed to the top of a ridge. There was a small campsite, and it was a little sooner than I wanted to stop. But there was a slight breeze and I had no assurance there was either water or a space clear of poison ivy at the next stream crossing where I had thought to hike to. So I stopped. The tradeoff was that the traffic noise came right up the hill. But I decided that the breeze more than made up for that. I'd given up on the ideal hike long before this point.



I had no signal at all on my phone, so did not blog from the trail that night. However, after a few hours of rest, I decided I might be able to eat, so I cooked up "Pizza Bowl," a yummy dinner.



As the afternoon light shifted, it highlighted some moss sporangia. I did not even have to get up. I reached for my camera and zoomed in for a few pictures.



I knew I had 8 more miles to go, which was more than I'd managed either Friday or today (6.5 each of those, plus the extra half mile for water on this day), but I could tell from the map that there would be fewer hills on the morrow, and I had the car- meaning cold drinks and multiple options- at the end to look forward to.

In current news: Today was pretty much a waste. After the power outage last night which was fixed at midnight, I did not wake up as early this morning. and I could not get my head in gear. It's going to be tough because I have much to do in the next two weeks and we're supposed to hit sustained high temps through this whole time. So I'm trying to get moving early. It did not happen today. I worked on the trailer a little bit and then went to get some supplies, none of which I was able to find. I got a hankering for a cold macaroni salad, so I bought the stuff for that and made it. My one success of the day! Developed a headache after lunch, so I've mostly sat still with a good book and an iced tea! My hot day ideal. But it's not going to get my tasks done. I made some calls and think I've now located my two items locally, so will try again tomorrow. And once again tomorrow, I'm going to try to buck my natural rhythms and get up early to take advantage of the cooler morning. We shall see.

See Day Three

More Red Berries

 
The afternoon light was nice and intense when I took a walk this afternoon. The sun was most welcome!

You've seen all these plants before, but these are new pictures, taken today. First we have Japanese Barberry. Still planted as an ornamental but it can become invasive.



Rose hips were glowing brightly.



And although this isn't nearly the prettiest highbush cranberry near me, it was on the walk I took today, so it wins.



In other news: the house is as clean as it's going to get, but it's lots better than a week ago. I pick Steve up at the airport in the morning. Wrote a chapter. Went shopping (I HATE shopping), but have some fun (I hope) joke gifts under the Christmas tree that didn't cost TOO much.

	See More Barberry
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Color My World

 
I have a card reader! Actually I'm pretty happy with it-- we'll see if it lives up to expectations. At any rate, I can get the pictures from the last few days off my camera.

Just thought I'd bring you some color from my world.

I've been waiting for that begonia in my planter to kick into gear and bloom. Here you go! Now I have hot pink, purple and orange. Theoretically, these are my least favorite colors, but these are intense, not pastels, and I love the way it looks.



This month's full moon was known as a blood moon. But early in the evening the sky was the deep, deep blue I love so much.



As it got higher, the deep orange color of the moon showed through. I had to use a filter to get the camera to see it, but this was about how it looked to the naked eye.



This morning, the sunrise was peachy and glowing. Sorry about the wires, but I can't go unclip them when I want to take pictures.



On today's walk, I found the cut-leaf teasel in bloom.



And the highbush cranberry (really a viburnum) is just beginning to redden.



Hope you enjoyed the bright spots in life as much as I did!

In other news: rebuilding my files is going... s-l-o-w-l-y, but I didn't expect anything else. I'll need to take it in small doses-- it's making me nuts. I also wrote my monthly column for the newspaper.

	See How 'Bout that $6 Investment?
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Snowball Bush

 
I briefly mentioned snowball viburnum the other day. I don't have one of those now, but we did at the house where I grew up. I like this shrub a lot. This one is in the cemetery.



You can see why it's usually just called snowball bush!



When I was a child we usually took flowers to the cemetery on Memorial Day to put on my grandparents' graves. I remember huge bouquets of iris, spirea, snowball bush, lily of the valley, lilacs, and peonies.

The balls range from light green to pure white, with clusters of five-petaled flowers.



As an ornamental planting it is centuries old, although I couldn't find exactly when it was introduced. It probably was developed in Holland.

They are actually a cultivar of the same plant called highbush cranberry that I've mentioned several times. And here are the leaves, very typically viburnum.



The cultivar is Viburnum opulus 'Roseum', (or 'Sterilis' or 'Snowball'- they are all the same). The deal is that all of these flowers you see are sterile. If you look closely (the picture above is more clear) you can see there are no stamens or pistil in the middle of those blooms. Lots of show, but none of the working parts!

Here is a typical natural viburnum flower head. The outer flowers are sterile to attract pollinators, but those tiny inner ones (not open yet in this picture) do the reproductive work.



Some Dutch plant tinkerer figured out how to make the plant grow only sterile blossoms, and when they take up all the space the result is the globular flower head (corymb).

	See While Viburnums Are the Topic...
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