Four Bridges to Home

Yes, I am safely home. And I want to say a definite thanks to God that I managed to miss driving in any bad storms either coming or going. Mostly clear roads, and only a little rain to drive in. That said, it was a long time in the car today. The longest driving day in a couple of years- 10.5 hours. I'd like to quit doing that, but I need to develop a friend near Port Huron to break it up.

Anyway, here's where I was last night- with Dan and Ruth in Canandaigua, NY. They are two of the few people who have walked the entire North Country Trail and I love spending time with them. We have much in common.

I show you three of these bridges that define my route home pretty regularly. But I got pix of all of them today! First up is the Peace Bridge from Buffalo, NY, to Fort Erie, Ontario.

Then when you leave Canada at Sarnia/Port Huron, you cross the Blue Water Bridge into Michigan.

When I take the northern route home it puts me over the Zilwaukee Bridge.

And I'm adding this one in. This is a causeway type brigde over Sanford Lake. This was in the news in 2020 when the dam that created it failed. No one died, but it was pretty dramatic. Repairs have been made and the lake is beginning to refill. So I included this picture because you can see the ice surface beyond the guardrail.

I think I have a touch of Marie's cold. And I have to get up and go to a meeting in the morning which is why I had to get home today. I'm going to bed early. No walking occurred except to and from the car. I'm pretty stiff, but not as bad as I expected.

What a wonderful trip!

See Travel Adventures

Travel Day

The main project for everyone on Friday was to travel from the east side of the state to Lake Sakakawea in time for an evening hike.

There were clues to gather for the Scavenger Hunt, and we also had an agenda of our own. Of course I wanted to show Diane everything, but that wasn't going to work. She did want to see the two big railroad bridges across the Sheyenne. This is the Hi-Line Bridge in Valley City. It's double track up there!.

Then we went farther up the Sheyenne where it has been dammed to form Lake Ashtabula to see the Karnak Bridge. This one is single track. This bridge was there before they created the lake, because of course the valley was there and had to be spanned whether there was water in it or not. I loved seeing this bridge from a different perspective. The trail goes beneath both of these.

By then it was lunchtime. We stopped at a little cafe and had really good wraps or burgers. Acress the street was an unusually well-planned and attractive little park filled with flowers. The butterflies love the Joe-Pye Weed. Note both a Tiger Swallowtail and a Monarch.

This picture doesn't look like much, but it was the big "wow moment" of the day to me. This is a shot of the McClusky Canal from up above. The trail follows the canal for miles. While you are down there on the service road, the canal is your whole world. You just keep hiking with only the next bridge as your next goal. See McClusky Canal

From above, and this is a very busy place, it's just a thin wet line through the landscape. Here the canal is in a culvert under the state highway and the curved line is the service road that switchbacks up to cross the highway. The canal looks incredibly insignificant. I find this amazing, because it's such a huge part of the NCT North Dakota experience.

We arrived at Lake Sakakawea. This is the third-largest man-made lake in the US. It is created by damming the Missouri River.

We set up camp, wolfed down a fast dinner and arrived just in time for the ribbon cutting for a brand new segment of trail.

This is so new, I hadn't seen it. It's a three-mile secgment around the city of Riverdale, instead of following a street. It's closer to the lake with several views which is quite nice. Hikers in the hazy evening with the lake behind them.

This was followed by a campfire and s'mores which we took a pass on. It had been a long day.

Miles hiked- 3 North Country Trail around Riverdale ND.

See Sheyenne River State Forest

Manistee Riverwalk Reopens

 The Manistee Riverwalk is one of the nicest urban, water-side pathways anywhere. It's almost like a gamescape with varying surfaces, levels, views, etc. A part of it has been closed for repairs, but for once, my luck was fantastic. I had to go to Manistee today, and they just re-opened that section.

A lot of it is in sun, with pavement and flower beds. Lots of flower beds. You may see more of that tomorrow. Even this late, there were still nice things to see

Other parts are like shaded secret entrances to other worlds.

The primary business street, River Street, is a level above the walk. Many of the buildings are old. I love this section near the Cypress St Bridge. With the shadow of a railing from the upper level and the old stone and brick, it looks like a castle.

When you get out at the west end, the Manistee River empties into Lake Michigan. This is the Manistee Lighthouse.

On the walk back, there is this really nice view of the river. This is also a shipping channel as boats come in to Manistee Lake, so it has to be kept open and clear. In fact, it was a dredging operation that caused part of the walk to be closed for most of the summer. But this shows how there is a great variety of landscapes along the route.

Almost back to the beginning. This is the Cypress Street Bridge. It's a drawbridge and has been closed for repairs most of the last two years. I know everyone is happy to see it open again. You can just barely see the railroad swing bridge beyond in its open position. I know I did a post on that, but I can't find it to link. Another time.

Finally for today, another artsy shot. This is nothing but the reflection of a post. But I like it a lot.

Most of the day was spent finishing up the necessary stuff I've been working on and then getting it delivered. This walk was my reward.

Miles hiked in 2024: 473.9 Manistee Riverwalk, both directions. 3.5 miles

See Manistee Riverwalk

Travel Adventures

 First things first. I am safely home.

I spent more time in the car today than I have in a long, long time. What is usually an 8-hour drive took 11+. I'm pretty tired, but my back is not screaming too much, just a bit stiff. Can't complain about that.

This is the most heartwarming thing of the day. This car was ahead of me in line to cross from Canada to the USA. Notice the Ontario license plate. Also notice the M-22 sticker. M-22 is the scenic highway that goes up the northwest shore of Michigan. It has its own fan club, and these Ontarians are members!

The very worst thing about the day was that after an easy passage into Canada, and cool temps with a bit of rain across Ontario, the sky cleared, it got hot, and the line of cars and trucks waiting to get back to the US was 4 lanes wide and 1.5 miles long. It took more than 1.5 hours, and I have no air conditioning. Finally got back across the Blue Water Bridge. The water was beautifully blue, but I could not manage a picture.

Once I was back in Michigan, my priorities were a cup of ice, salt, and a restroom in that order. I was soaking wet with sweat. But again, I can't complain. The car did not overheat, I had plenty of gas, I was sweating out all the waste products instead of crossing my legs, I had a book on CD, and I had a cooler full of food thanks to Diane.

Another fortuitous event was that while I was still on I-69, the traffic in the opposite direction was a parking lot, but those traveling west were moving. Hooray! I'd had enough of "parking lot."

While cutting north on I-75 to US 10 I crossed the Zilwaukee Bridge over the Saginaw River. I thought I had blogged about this once long ago, but apparently not. If you are from Michigan, you know this is a rather infamous span. Construction was begun in 1979, but it wasn't completed until 1988. You can read all about its problems on Wikipedia, so I'll just tell you the most famous part of the story. One span of the concrete bridge hung out into space, supported only on one end for several years before construction was resumed. Supposedly, when it was finally finished, only one truck driver was brave enough to drive across it to test it out. There are still a lot of people who will not cross it, due to continued structural issues. It has been plagued with problems throughout its existence. However, it is beautiful. The best pictures can be taken from the river level, but I was NOT stopping once I actually got moving again.

I got home at about 7 pm. The house was closed and stuffy (of course), but I got fans going. The flower beds are in terrible need of cleaning (not today), and remember the bees? Well, some are still finding their way into the house and dying.

I'm giving myself one crash day tomorrow before I get busy. Life is good! Wonderful trip.

See Canalway Trail Again

Saugerties Lighthouse

  There are 8 remaining lighthouses along the Hudson River. More than 24 were built from 1826 to 1921, coinciding with the rise in night use of passenger steamboats. This is Saugerties Lighthouse, built in 1869 to replace an earlier light at this location from 1835.

This is looking down the Hudson River toward New York. I'm not sure I've ever taken a hike before where you had to check the tide table before setting out. The Hudson River is actually a tidal estuary, affected by the tides as far north as Albany. At the trailhead to this short walk, the tide table is posted with the days and times that the trail is underwater!

There are two items of note here. First is the bouy with something on top. It's an osprey nest. If you look closely, you'll see a baby's head.

Squint even harder, and you'll see a bridge just to the right of center. That's the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge that Marie and I walked across in March 2023.

I learned a new plant, but it's a bad one. This is Water Chestnut, Trapa natans. It was brought to the US in 1884 by a plant collector. Of course it escaped into the Hudson River. It forms large mats that clog waterways. Animals do eat the large seed pods.

This is a fun plant, but I haven't seen it for a while. It's Dodder, Cuscuta sp., a parasitic plant that looks like someone draped orange silly string over other plants. It has to tap into the vasuclar system of another plant for nourishment. It will sometimes bloom, and I have pictures of that from back when my pix were 35mm.

Also, we saw what appeared to be an ordinary squirrel. However, on closer inspection it appears to have been crosed with a lemur. Just kidding, but I don't think I've ever seen one with stripes on its legs like this.

In other news: We sent for our FLT 50 and FLT Branch Trail patches. We bought paint. If it ever stops raining (not constant, but enough to keep things wet), we have a DIY project to do.

The reason I'm blogging late is that one of Ed and Marie's very shy kitties (two rescue cats) decided to sit on my lap for a long time. Previously, (like for several years previously) she has not even let me touch her. The other cat won't let anyone touch him. I mean, when a shy cat parks on your lap, you just can't get up and blog.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 351.1.

Trail to Saugerties (NY) Lighthouse and back, 1 mile

See Sort of a Foodie Day

Conservation Trail - Niagara River

  We started in Tonawanda, and discovered that the CanalFest was in full swing. However, it wasn't open for the day yet, so we got a parking place.

I have to brag that in order to get there early, we got up at 5 am. And I'll tell you the end of the story too. We did not get rained on when we were hiking. But we did drive "home" in some serious rain.

Of course, this is all along the Erie Canal, and it's history is entwined with the trail and the villages along the way.

One of the most fun railroad and bridge "artifacts" is this swing bridge that allowed railroad access to Goose Island, across Tonawanda Creek. It still sits in the river in a perpetualy "open" position.

Believe it or not, it was hand operated. I liked that the mechanism is so visible. There were several of these used on the Miami-Erie Canal, but none are still standing. I only saw interpretive signs.

Our trail all day was paved urban route. But it was attractive. You can see the river beyond the trees.

There were even gardens to be seen along the way.

Early in the day, we turned to follow the Niagara River. If you squint into the distance, you can see the blue arc of the south Grand Island Bridge.

Soon we were even closer.

Yup, we walked across it.

A couple more miles and we finished for the day before 10:30 in the morning.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 321.1. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 52.9

Conservation Trail, Western NY., Main St, Tonawanda to Oakfield Ave. 7.8 miles

In the afternoon I had time to finish getting the book file uploaded and accepted. Now I'm waiting for the e-proof, but if it looks good, then I'll be ordering books. We played Quiddler again in the evening.

See Tonawanda

The Bridges of Historic Bridge Park

 Today, I'm going to show you the part of my hike on Tuesday that I didn't want to miss. It's at least my third time there, but this time, I made a particular effort to get better pictures of the various bridges. This is a county park, and they have moved 5 obsolete bridges to the area which is adjacent to a railroad culvert/bridge which is also part of the display. This is a wonderful engineering "museum" you walk through on the North Country Trail. I wanted to take time to look up more information about the various bridges. Don't think I know all this stuff without looking it up. I am getting a little better at recognizing the bridge styles, but only really know a few of the oddball ones by heart.

First up is the Charlotte Highway Bridge, built in 1886 by the Buckeye Bridge Works of Cleveland, OH. It is a metal 11 Panel Pin-Connected Whipple (Double-Intersection Pratt) Through Truss Bridge. Basically, that means there are 11 quadrilateral panels of the deck, and that the metal superstructure with various designs of the uprights and diagonals completely surrounds the deck (through truss). Whipple is the name of the arrangement of the diagonal supports. In this case, you can see that they basically go from the outer top corners of each panel to the inner lower corners of the NEXT panel, not the same one. This was a common design for long bridges in the 19th century. Historic Bridges organization rates this bridge as 10 in local significance, and an 8 on the national level.

Here is the underside of that bridge. This one has been reinstalled as a pedestrian bridge over the park road, so you can really see it. Each of the large squares is one panel.

Next, we'll do the 133rd Avenue bridge from Allegan, built in 1897. This is a half-hip pony truss bridge with four panels. "Pony" because the trusses are above the decking, but not over the top of the decking. You can count for yourself that there are four panels in this one. It's a "half hip" because there is no vertical brace where the angle of the top rail meets the horizontal part of the top rail. This used to be a very common bridge type, but now there aren't many left. It got a local rating of 8 and national of 6.

This is the bridge that spanned 20-Mile Rd in Calhoun County. It was built in 1906. It's a metal five-panel Rivet-Connected Pratt Full-Slope Pony Truss. I don't know what the full-slope part means, but you can see that it's different from the one above because there is a vertical support from that top angle. It's local and national significance are both 6. It's connected with rivets, not pins.

The Gale Road Bridge from Ingham county was built in 1897. It is a metal 7-Panel Pin-Connected Pratt Through Truss. This was a very common kind. "Pinned" means that the corner pieces all fit together and were held in place by a threaded pin that was slipped through when the holes were aligned, and then nuts were screwed on the ends. These were easy to assemble in the field. The diagonals go from the outer top corner of each panel to the inner lower corner of the same panel. It was built by the Lafayette Bridge Company of Lafayette, Indiana. It gets a local significance of 8 and national of 7.

This is the Bauer Road Bridge from Clinton County, built in 1886. It's a metal 6-Panel Pin-Connected Pratt Through Truss. So now you know that it has diagonals that go from one corner to the other of the same panel, that the structure makes a "covering" over the decking, and that the corners are held together with pins not rivets! This has a local significance of 8 and national of 7. It was built by the Penn Bridge Company of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

I like that it has some decorative elements as well.

Finally, there is the railroad bridge. The train line is active, and carries a regular Amtrak run from Detroit to Chicago, and occasionally freight.

This is called Dixon's Bridge. Although it is very unusual, it only got a local rating of 6 and a national rating of 4. It was built in 1892. It's a semicircular stone arch bridge. The larger arch was for the road (which is now the bike path/trail), and the smaller arch carries Dickinson Creek.

One really odd feature is that half is stone, and then it was apparently expanded with the other half being concrete, possibly to carry a double-track railroad. An historic postcard from 1909 shows both parts.

I really should have taken a picture of the facing on the stone side. Next time!

You can find out about many old bridges at HistoricBridges.org

Don't know what that little bug was I had yesterday. I slept 14 hours, ate soup and juice all day. I'm fine now. Maybe not ready to take a hike, but all is well. I edited and wrote.

See Calhoun County Trailway