Life is Good in Color

Just thinking this morning that Life is Good! I was in my chair with a cup of coffee, doing my wake-up computer tasks. The deck door is open. The sun is shining, but it's cool yet with a light breeze ruffling the quaking aspen. House finches with their bright red-purple heads are enjoying the bird bath. I took my morning "walk" to visit the gardens and see what flowers might begin blooming today.

The rock garden is beginning to explode with the yellows of so many sedums, but this picture I took today has to be the color winner. This is a Red-spotted Purple Admiral on the Creeping Thyme

But back to the yellows. The taller stuff is the Sedum Sexangulare, but there are bursts of the still-blooming Sedum 'Weihenstephaner Gold' to the right and one Ice Plant 'Granita' to the left.

This is the Bloody Cranesbill with Dianthus 'Kahori.'

This one has a whole lot of plants. The purple is Creeping Thyme, Sedum sexangulare to the left, the 'Kahori' is beyond that. Just in front of the thyme is the patch of Sedum 'Atlantis' that is slowing getting bigger. A small patch of dark 'Dream Dazzler' Sedum and more Bloody Cranesbill is on the right.

This one was from last week. The variegated Vinca was still blooming. Now it's trying to spread runners to take over the world. I've been giving it severe haircuts. More Bloody Cranesbill to the right. It is also getting shaved on this pass through the garden.

I haven't mentioned this pink flower yet this year. This is the 'Siskiyou' Primrose. It is fairly nifty, although it, too, is willing to spread everywhere. I've currently let it take over two spaces until I get something else to put in the second space. More Sedum sexangulare. And just starting to bloom on the far left is the Sedum elecambeanum.

Finally, color in the sky last night. Very intense, and making even the clouds in the east turn pink.

In other news: I did all the usual things, plus laundry, and put a piece of decor back on the wall that keeps falling off. Yeah, me. Josh stopped by. He's looking good.

See Mostly Current Colors

Loda Lake- Spirit of the Woods Hike- June

It was a multi-purpose hike day for National Trails Day- the first Saturday in June!

The Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA started with a 3.2-mile hike, some of which was on the NCT, and some was on a spur.

The spur took us to Loda Lake.

Some of you will know that Loda Lake is a wildflower sanctuary- the only one in the entire National Forest system in the country.

We were treated to a tour by the Forest Service Botanist, Carolyn Henne. This isn't a great picture, but it does show us looking at plants beside the trail while she talks about them.

I always learn things when I'm there because the plants are always in slightly different stages of their life cycles.

One of the best pictures of the day is poison sumac. You can see the bundles of leaves and the unripe berries forming on separate stems.

The Prairie Smoke is looking great. They have planted a variety of native plants in a sort of showcase garden.

Also blooming in that garden was a lot of Hairy Beardtongue, Penstemon hirsutus. I believe the butterfly is a Pipestone Swallowtail.

Best personal find of the day was some round-leaved sundew, a carniverous plant. There were also pitcher plants on site.

After that tour, we all went to Pete and Julie's cottage where they fixed burgers and brats, and we all chipped in with a potluck. This was followed by our annual meeting.

I saw lots more plants, but these are the best pictures. Long day, but all great.

Miles walked in 2026: 180.3
NCT Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 59.8

NCT in Newaygo County 1.8 miles. Birch Grove Trail 1.4 miles, Loda Lake 1.7 miles

See Practically Perfect in Every Way

Little Critters

I've never gotten a picture of one of these butterflies before. This is the American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis. It's on the moss phlox in my rock garden. At the link below there is a Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, also enjoying the rock garden. The Red Admiral is also a Vanessa, Vanessa atalanta. I just learned that the White Admiral is not in the same genus! Huh. It is in the same family, but not that close a relative. Common names are so problematic!

I'm still fighting the bees- I'd love to have them except not in the house. But I caught one with its pollen baskets full, so that is fun.

And, no pic, but I looked up from my chair this morning to find a squirrel staring in the door at me. I'm glad the door was shut. Last year, a chipmunk kept coming under the flexible screen and running in the house. Not sure I care to have a squirrel doing that!

And I saw my first Monarch butterfly of the year this week, too.

Did the usual stuff, and went shopping, and did errands. Went to four garden centers. I bought one plant. You'll see it soon. Found another one I would like, but they wanted $20 for it. We'll see. I have to think about that.

More weeding, more discovered casualties. C'est la vie.

See A Couple of Critters

A Couple of Critters

Although I often find other evidences of skunks in the neighborhood (winter tracks, dead in the road, nighttime release of their delightful scent), I hardly ever see the real thing just calmly wandering around the yard.

I do have a good skunk story though. Long ago our dog Hezekiah, who was not a killer, but he loved to play with little furry friends, brought me a snub-nosed black baby with a white nose stripe- alive. It was about the size of a chipmunk and actually looked a lot like a puppy. It did take me a few minutes to figure out what on earth it was. He'd gotten into a den of baby skunks underneath a shed and somehow avoided tangling with mom. Since the babies don't have the scent glands, the characteristic odor didn't help me with the ID. I put the babies back, but things probably did not go well for them. I really don't know. But that was my first experience with baby skunks. Really cute!

This one is full grown and I did not feel the need to approach it.

Not such a good picture of this. It's a very common butterfly called a Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui. However a search of my blog says I've never gotten a picture of one before. And it was determined to stay on the other side of the flower, but it was sure enjoying this sedum in bloom.

Worked on all my projects today. Planted some asters a friend brought me and potted some cuttings. Did a little bit on plant records. I'd like to get those caught up! Probably didn't work hard enough on things with real deadlines.

See Butterflies

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

Associated Wildlife

Over the past few days I've seen a number of critters hanging out in the garden. One new to me, one ID surprise, and two that I love. There are lots of bees, cabbage butterflies, and small pollenators too.

This is a black swallowtail butterfly. It kept swooping from the flowers to the post and back. The best picture is on the post, and look at its body! This is the first time I've gotten a picture where you could see the spots on the body.

Here is the one that was new to me. These two moths hung out on the sea thrift for a couple of days. Turns out they are the Toadflax Brocade Moth. It is introduced in the United States to try to control common Toadflax, often called Butter-and-Eggs which is a wildflower that I really like, but it is invasive and can be a problem in pastures when it crowds out better grazing plants.

Here is the ID surprise posing on my jeans. I thought maybe this was a different kind of ladybug instead of the horrid Asian Ladybugs (beetles) that are everywhere now. Ha! It's just an Asian one without spots on its wings. I hate those stinky things.

And another welcome visitor. This one tried to commit suicide by jumping in a bucket of water from which it could not get out. I found it floating and looking quite dead, but as soon as I fished it out, it sat up all perky! It was a tiny Gray Tree Frog. I see these around here quite often. In fact, I blogged about one just last summer at Eviction!.

It was overcast in the morning, and was an excellent temperature to work outside. I did mega yard work, including finishing the first mowing (except for some edges where I need to trim bushes to get the mower close). I do have to do something serious about the mower seat, but I may have a plan figured out.

Also did my editing and went to bell choir practice. The last performance of this season is Sunday. Oh, and I stewed a big pot of rhubarb.

Tired, but satisfied with the day.

See Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Canalway Trail Again

 This morning I met up with Diane for a little walk on the Canalway Trail near where we were a couple of weeks ago. This piece of the canal system connected Seneca and Cayuga Lakes.

This is a structurally interesting location with the canal and a road and railroad over it, and the trail threading its way underneath the bridges.

Here's an attempt to be artsy- looking down through layers to the water,

We saw a red admiral- kind of beat up.

I'm always thinking the black willows look like giant bonsai. I guess that's a contradiction in terms.

I'm back at Irene's tonight, and hope to be home tomorrow by this time. I get to see what her other lilies are. They are Henry's Lily, with very recurved petals.

Interestingly, they vary from pale to dark orange, and have these weird bumps on the petals.

I'm starting to get generally tired. I think going home will be good.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 357.6.

See Canalway Trail Part 1 See Irene's Lilies

Land Protection Talking Points

 Today, the Land Protection Specialist for the NCTA came and met with people from our chapter. The Michigan Regional Trail Coordinator was there, and two people from the National Park Service.

Our chapter doesn't have a lot of places where we need to try to get off road through private property, but we have a few. This meeting included a field trip for most of us to the Vince Smith Bridge (Big Sable River). I'm starting with that picture because it's more interesting.

However, before we got to play in the woods, we met for several hours. Not only did we learn some basics of the process, we discussed a specific place where a landowner has already approached us about options to get the trail off a road for part of that roadwalk.

The great news is that this piece could be moved very soon. That will get 0.25 mile off road. Not huge, but it's a start. There are options to keep going, but they won't happen quickly. This first piece is easy. The next pieces, not so much.

The tamaracks are just getting their needles.

And I just liked this. Nothing special- a dandelion and a cabbage butterfly. But they are cheerful.

I didn't get one thing done that I wanted to. It was raining when I got home, so that will have to wait. However, I did get 108 miles of campsites logged.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 214.6, of which 71.6 is North Country Trail.

North Country Trail, near Vince Smith Bridge, 1 mile

See Planning A Re-Route

Back to Crystal Valley

 I went back out to Crystal Valley today, but still didn't hike every piece of every loop. I did walk 8.3 miles though.

It's still not really spring in the woods. Found more hilly trails. This is a really good area to get a workout around here. From the parking lot to the high point is about 300 feet difference, but the trails go up and down a lot. I definitely climbed and descended more than 300 feet. My tracker said my net elevation gain was 2.67 feet. Right. All that means is that I went in a loop which is good. Returning to the car is good.

I took several pictures that didn't come out at all. I took a picture of Sweetfern in bloom. Not in focus. It smells even more spicy than the leaves.

There was sun, so I was able to get a nice shadow of some emerging leaves on a rock.

The Shadbush is trying to show off. That's one of the very earliest blooms in the woods.

I was hoping for some wildflowers, but it's a very dry woods, so I didn't have big expectations. All I found was one small clump of common violets at the edge of a clearing.

A tattered Red Admiral butterfly was hanging around while I ate my lunch. I did also see a dragonfly.

It's really interesting that where the trees are getting sunlight they are starting to pop! This was a fencerow on the way home. I love this time of year.

Since I had to repeat some sections of some loops to get to "new" trail, I did stop at the chestnut balls and look around more carefully for the tree. Hmmm. I did not find anything that has the right bark. That said, I think chestnut bark can be rather variable, but I'm still mystified. I found more of the balls uphill in the woods, so I think my idea that they rolled downhill into the trail is true. And I found one ball that was broken open about a quarter mile from the others. I suspect a squirrel.

I've been trying to meet my 100 miles of campsites quota since I got home. I'm about at 40 miles. Will I make it before I give up for the day?

Total miles hiked in 2024: 208.9 of which 70.6 is North Country Trail.

Crystal Valley Ski loops, Oceana County, MI. Various loops, 8.3 miles

See Crystal Valley Outer Loop