Crystal Valley Outer Loop

 I had not been out to Crystal Valley for a long time. But I'm wanting to ramp up the miles I can hike in a day, and the outer loop of their ski trails is about 7.5. Cathy went with me. She didn't want to go that far, but with multiple loops, she could cut back to the car earlier.

It was a nice day to be out. No green yet except for moss and conifers, but that's OK.

Except for the bottom loop, the rest of the area is pretty hilly. This is out on Loop 5, the most difficult. I'd never even walked that because it was still in development the last time I hiked there. My favorite piece today was a connecting trail between Loops 4 and 5 that follows the top of a ridge.

My former adventure buddy, Ellen, is really involved with the group that maintains these trails, OCCSA (Oceana Cross Country Ski Association). Here's one serious piece of work they did.

I found a few little goodies. This is a jelly fungus, probably Exidia recisa, which can be black, brown or amber colored. It's sometimes called witches butter. I've showed you this in the past. It's really common.

This one is common too, but I may have an ID on it now. I think it's coral spot, Nectria cinnabarina. That said, I am NOT a fungus expert.

There are a few glacial erratic boulders out there. This was the biggest one I saw.

There are brand new ski trail blazes! I've never seen this style before. Pretty classy.

But the very best find of all was a bunch of these scattered on the trail. These are chestnuts! Now, I want to get really excited, but I can't tell if they are American (which would be a phenomenal find), or a hybrid (but how would one have gotten out there in the forest?). I don't know how to tell the seed pods apart, or if you even can tell them apart on the outside. I looked around for the tree, but didn't spot any bark that looked right. Later, I realized the tree might have been farther uphill and the "balls" had rolled down the trail. I also looked for leaves on the ground, but I think what I found were just large beech leaves. They didn't have pronounced enough spines. Anyway, I think I'm going to try to let someone know about this. The area is within the Manistee National Forest.

So, I pushed myself to do longer mileage. The loop was 7.9 miles, but I did extra and got 9.2 miles. I feel OK, just tired, and I did bang up a toe. I'll live.

Not much else got done. I decided that was OK for today.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 151.8 of which 45.4 is North Country Trail (none of today is NCT).

See Skiing at Crystal Valley

Snowshoe Trail, No Snow

 Mostly, I worked on THE project today. But mid afternoon, Cathy and I took a walk at the Ludington Pumped Storage Project Trails and to the Mason County Campground.

It turns out I guess I haven't been out there for nine years! Well, I got discouraged because they turned the area into a huge disc golf venue with four courses. I'm not against disc golf, but it totally obliterated the trail. A few years ago, a friend of mine re-established it as a snowshoe trail.

It's really a wonderful trail. There is a LOT of topography in a short distance. I didn't take many pictures because everything is brown. There's no snow, and there are no leaves. After hiking so much in the last two years, much of it in the winter months, I'm particularly tired of brown.

Anyway, here is one of my favorite features of the area- one of the biggest glacial erratics we have around here.

We did a loop by going back to the car on the access road. Total of 3.2 miles. On the road we passed some interesting white birch.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 85.6 of which 7.7 is North Country Trail.

Ludington Pumped Storage Project and Mason County Campground. Connecting trail and additional roads. 3.2 miles

See Pepper and Salt

54 Weeks Later

  I did this same hike (plus a little more) 54 weeks ago. Today, Cathy hiked with me, and we did 9 miles. I loved the spring colors beginning to show along the Manistee River.

This view at the power line is always nice because it's unobstructed.

You can really see the trees coloring up in this one.

One of the neatest features along here is the glacial esker the trail follows for about a quarter mile. Very pointed and steep-sided.

Growing right on the side of it is Hoary Puccoon, Lithospermum canescens. (It might be Hairy Puccoon, but I think I can now tell them apart.) Had to do something of a gymnastic act to get this picture.

A little farther and we were at the beaver pond. It's pretty, but the beavers are playing havoc with the trail, of course.

Then into Leitch Bayou, still along the Manistee River, but now down closer to the water. It was a windy, windy day. Oddly enough the hike 54 weeks ago was also very windy. Sometimes, we really had to struggle against the wind, and in other places we hardly felt it. But the day warmed enough that I was hiking in shirt sleeves by the end.

A really big tree that had fallen across the trail had these interesting beetle galleries.

All together, we saw about 10 different wild flowers. Here is one more. Gaywings, Polygala paucifolia.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 246. Cathy is at 45 miles.

North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI, Highbridge Rd. to Sawdust Hole and back, 9 miles.

In other news: I had a zoom meeting before we left, but haven't done anything significant after I got home.

See A Test Along the Manistee

Only 10.3 Miles?

  I thought my total was going to be more like 11 or 12 miles, so I'm a little disappointed in that, but 10.3 isn't shabby. Loren and I started at the North Country Trail Udell Trailhead on M-55 and went north. There was the April Fool snow on the ground. After a mile in the woods, the trail comes out on Cedar Creek Road (which isn't very road-like on the west end so it makes a nice easy piece of trail).

The best feature of this section of trail is Pine Creek.

The sun came out, and with a sandy bed the creek looked golden.

A fallen tree with roots washed bare seemed artistic.

A lovely bed of Norhern Ground Cedar accented with Reindeer Moss.

We returned to Udell and ate lunch. Loren had enough, but I went in the other direction. By now, almost all the snow was melted away. The air was crisp and the temperature stayed in the 30s, but it was nice for walking.

This section is much hillier. These are called the Udell Hills, and that's where the trailhead gets its name. My plan was to go outbound on the NCT until the place where it is closest to the Shanty Boy trail that is part of the Big M system. Here's where I bushwhacked across. I'm standing on the NCT looking north. I think the far line of hills is on the north side of the Manistee River. But all I had to do was drop down the hill- you can see the edge practically at my feet- (carefully) to reach Shanty Boy at the bottom.

Easily found the other trail and headed back to the junction with the NCT that I had passed earlier. One very very cool thing is that this is a piece of local trail I've never seen before. The outer loop at Big M is about 25 miles long. It's primarily for mountain bikes, although hiking is allowed. I need to get out there and do an overnight to see all of that loop! Anyway, Here is part of the Shanty Boy Trail

One interesting feature was a big glacial erratic boulder. These are not very common here. We mostly jut have sand, and this one is huge for our area.

Anyway, my afternoon hike would make a nice loop for a group as long as they didn't mind the steep descent from the NCT to Shanty Boy. Fun stuff! My total for the day, 10.3 miles.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 155.

In other news: I'm doing a little work on a web site, but the hiking took most of the day.

See MNF Challenge Hike #11