Fall Color Tour 2026

 Om and I went out for a few hours today to try to catch some fall colors. And we did find some, but not as many as we had hoped. I think it's been too dry. Anyway, we did find a few colorful spots.

This is along E. Hawley Rd.

North of the village of Fountain.

We popped into Walhalla Bridge on the Pere Marquette River. Nothing spectacular, but this view is OK.

Of course, we checked out Conrad Road. The section with my favorite trees has already dropped their leaves, but this isn't shabby.

Just because it's so bright red, I'm including a Burning Bush- the alien, ornamental Euonymous alatus

However, there are two native Euonymus that are attractive in the fall. They may or may not get as consistently red leaves, but the fruits are very cool. I saw this one in Kentucky. These are the seed pods. This is E. americanus, sometimes called American Strawberry Bush.

Also, E. atropurpureous, American wahoo, turns fairly consistently red in fall. The seed pods are almost as interesting, with a little less texture and all reddish-pink- not the orange seeds.

In other news: I did some bookwork things, but couldn't complete them due to an inability to log in to a website (eyeroll). I did some dishes. I had a Zoom meeting.

See Color Tour 2025- Part 1

Color on the Methodist Trails

 Getting back to some of the routine. Today I went shopping, did errands, and then went to bell choir practice. That meant I made time to take a little hike on the Methodist Church Trails.

The colors are pretty good right now. And that might not last, because we are supposed to get rain at the end of the week. That will probably bring many of the leaves down. After all, it's almost November.

One of the pieces of infrastructure the church has is a campfire circle, back near their picnic pavilion. I just liked the way it looked with the orange trees.

Since I last walked these trails (probably last spring before bells was over for the summer), they have added 14 benches. (I may have missed a couple since I didn't hike every piece of every trail today, but I saw 14). Most of the benches are in memory of someone, and each one has a cross that you would be looking at if you sat there, or sometimes just beside it. And I like the design of the benches. The seats are not so wide that they are uncomfortable for smaller people like me.

For a final spot of color, one of the planters at the church hasn't been killed by the frost yet.

Tomorrow, Om and I are going to take a color drive. I don't think I'll get pictures as nice as last year, but it's something we are willing to do together. We'll see what we find!

Miles walked in 2026: 662.8

Methodist Church Trails, various loops. 2.0 miles

See Not Peak Yet

The Mystery of THE Blue Dot- Solved

You may not remember it from the blog post a year and a half ago, but if you've had to listen to my stories from the big hike, you know that a favorite has been of the trail that ended at the blue dot in the woods... followed by a mile of bushwhacking and then more bushwhacking the next morning when I lost the trail again. (see link below)

Both those mysteries were solved today. Voila- the blue dot.

My goal today was to hike in from the north, instead of the south, to see if I could find where the trail was supposed to be, in both places. The adventure was successful, and the trail was not anywhere near where I had expected it to be. As you can see, we found THE blue dot. The trail markers for this trail are blue disks like this, but there was only one that was mounted on a horizontal board, and we found it coming in from the other direction. We also found the car at the end of the day. Always a plus.

We crossed Bear Creek on rocks- a typical Adirondack stream crossing.

Bear Lake itself was looking beautiful, getting ready for fall.

The colors are really starting to pop, and there are lots of reds.

Most of the trail we followed today was very narrow and faint, but this section was looking appealing.

By far, the best find of the day (well, other than the trail itself), is thie huge yellow toad. I don't think I've ever seen one this color before.

The weather was about as perfect as it can get.

North Country Trail, McKeever TH to Gull Lake TH parking on Bear Creek Road. 6.1 miles.

Tonight we are with my friend Paul. It's been so much fun to hear from other trail friends who are making their ways to the Celebration. Rome, Ithaca, Canestota, one hiking in Vermont.

See Bear Lake Trail Adventure