Late Summer Colors in the Woods

I did take a hike yesterday, but wanted to share about the quilt show then, so I saved these pictures for tonight.

First of all, green is a color. And I love it when the woods are green. I've been hiking a lot in the brown months over the last few years, so I want to be adamant about how much I love the green woods.

Not by planning, but it just happened that I got an array of primary-colored mushrooms.

Red is the Apple Bolete, or Frost's Bolete, Exsudoporus frostii. I looked back in the blog and I last saw a bunch of these in 2015. "Apple" should be easy enough to remember. They sure look like someone dropped an apple in the leaves.

If you uncover the stem, you can see that the underside of the cap is convex. It has pores not gills. That easily tells you it's a bolete. And the stem is striped/striated. It will get downright grooved as it ages.

Moving along to yellow, these are Honey Mushrooms, Armillaria mellea. They are supposedly very edible, but I have not tried them. I should... there's not much you can mistake for them.

Blue is iffy. Maybe it's purple. You'd think something that looks so distinctive would be easy to identify. Nope- there are lots of choices. Well, it may be Laccaria ochrepurpurea, Purple Laccaria. That word "ochre-purpurea" should tell you it can vary in color from a yellow-brown to purple.

I did remember to take a picture of the gills. Still not enough info, although it allowed me to eliminate a few possibilities.

For real blue, believe it or not there were a few late-blooming harebells, Campanula rotundifolia. Why "round-leaved" you ask, when the leaves are clearly narrow straps? The first true leaves that appear near the ground in spring are round. That was a nice colorful surprise.

I reported these miles yesterday.

I tried hard to stay on track with getting things done today. Did pretty well. I need to make a master list for September and then stick with it. Several deadlines coming right up. For some reason, I have a sore hip. Hope that shapes up soon!

See Frost's Bolete 2015

Ice Age Trail

We mainly wanted to put a good number of miles under our tires today. But I had one planned wish, and that was to at least put my feet on the Ice Age Trail. We chose Janesville, Wisconsin, because it was on the way to where we were staying for the night.

I did a total of 0.7 mile. But my 20 minutes had just about everything a trail adventure can provide. Some was dirt, some was paved. A turn wasn't marked and I ended up at a dead end in a golf course. I needed a bathroom (but did find a porta-potty- Lon's Jons, actually). Once I went back and found the turn, I saw this. The Ice Age Trail has yellow blazes.

I followed the blazes down some beautifully made rock steps to the Rock River.

So now I have at least put a foot on 4 national scenic trails. Am I trying for all 11? Probably not; my chances of getting out west are low. But if the opportunity arises, I'll take it.

The day started with a fast look at a place called End-O-Line Railroad Park. We were not there when it was really open. That's probably good, or Diane and I would have seriously wanted to take the tour. It was much more than a village park with an engine. Basically, they are recreating a small village from the past. As far as I'm concerned, the key feature is an old turntable. I've seen some old ones, but never one that still has the rail down in the pit that allows the table to turn.

Here are some of the buildings in their historic village.

I was sadly thinking I was not going to see white pelicans on this trip. But we found some!

And just a quick shot out the window as we crossed to the east side of the Mississippi "where we belong."

Staying with friends for the night. Didn't have to set up the tents!

Hiked 0.7 miles, some of it on the Ice Age Trail.

Miles hiked in 2025: 350.3

See Dignity of Earth and Sky

Western Terminus

Last day of the Hike Fest. We are all worn out, but it's sad anyway. This is a beautiful laser-cut metal sign support on the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge. This was a gift to the trail by Kathy Beal who has worked at Audubon her whole career and is a great advocate for the NCT. She recently retired.

The trail through Audubon used to be restricted to the road, but before I did my big hike, they decided we could have our own mowed trail.

There is a beautiful visitor's center with nice displays and interpretation of the wildlife. Lake Audubon is an arm of Lake Sakakawea, but it is hydrologically separate because the water level in Audubon is kept the same all year.

The afternoon hikes were staged to end at the western terminus of the entire trail. The one I chose began at the arch which welcomes hikers to Lake Sakakawea State Park (the westernmost land manager for the trail). There is a bell you can ring to celebrate beginning or ending.

And... here are the three muskateers at the actual terminus. My third time here. Marie's second, and Diane's first. The weather was dull when I was here in 2022, so I'm glad to have a picture in nice light.

This was followed by a nice dinner with pulled pork and corn on the cob served by the ladies of Riverdale (the local community). After that was a good presentation on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The speaker clarified that the reason there are so many pronunciations of Sacajawea's name is because each tribal language had it's own nuances. In the Lewis and Clark journals it's usually Sacajawea or Sacagawea, but in North Dakota, one says Sakakawea!

Always hard to say goodbye to such good friends who care about this trail. We have noted that quite few of the people who have been involved for years are aging out. I think we have some younger folks stepping up to fill in. But, you know, I've been a member since 1995. In that amount of time there is bound to be a serious attrition rate. There were about 90 people who participated, which seems pretty good for an event that wasn't an actual national conference, and was at one of the termini. Those always have lower attendance because of the travel burden. The North Dakota chapters did a tremendous job of putting this together. Major Kudos!

Hiked 4 miles on the NCT in Audubon Wildlife Refuge and Lake Sakakawea State Park.

Miles hiked in 2025: 349.6
Miles hiked on NCT in 2025: 220.6

See Travel Day

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

Sheyenne River State Forest

The hikes today were the most out of the ordinary for North Dakota. ND has five state forests (not very many), and the NCT goes through one of them. It is an atypical area of hills and trees. There are actually vistas.

Since I was last there in 2022, the NCTA has helped build a large parking area with a kiosk and latrine. The previous parking was only large enough for a few cars. The forester was telling us a bit about the area.

For over 200 miles, the trail is never far from the Sheyenne River. This was no exception. I did learn that the Shyenne is a perched river, meaning that the geology of the banks are higher than the surrounding ground, as natural levees formed when the river was created by the emptying of glacial Lake Souris.

The Sheyenne River State Forest is also home to North Dakota's only waterfall. It's not much to look at, but it's a huge destination just because it's the only one. One really unusual thing about this week is that ND is having a really bad mosquito week. We are about being carried away!

In the evening we had a great dinner.

Followed by some awards. Here Jerry receives the national Trail Builder of the Year Award from Deb. Jerry hosted me when we were here on my big hike.

These people are my tribe. We love recognizing those who do great service to the organization and the trail.

Hiked 5.4 miles on NCT in Sheyenne River State Forest

Miles hiked in 2025: 345.6
Miles hiked on NCT in 2025: 216.6

See North Dakota Eastern Edition

This Is North Dakota Eastern Edition

Today is day 1 of the Hike Fest.

I went on the 3.5 mile hike in the morning. Most blazes in ND are on posts.

People think North Dakota is flat. And it is in certain places, but there are many places where it is more like this-- rolling hills and some trees. These are mostly oaks along the Sheyenne River. This was our first view of the river (the brown stripe down in the valley)

This hike went from the Berg Trailhead across a section of private property that has been granted a trail easement.

The chapter has put in a number of new stiles (fence crossings). This design is super! There are steps that go through the fence and you walk up one side and down the other. Other designs work fine, but they are more like climbing the fence.

And why are there fences and stiles? Because there is large-scale grazing of beef on much of the land. This is a good thing because the prairie grasses evolved with the bison, and to keep the native plants healthy they need to be grazed.

The cows are extremely curious. They all ran over to see what we were. But when we climbed into their pasture they ran away like the wind.

The afternoon hike was 6.5 miles from Ekre Trailhead to Jorgen's Hollow Campground. This is within the National Grassland which is marked by posts with an angled top and the NCT emblem.

We arrived at Jorgen's Hollow in time for a yummy picnic dinner, and a few remarks, introductions of people, and the presentation of a few awards. Great fun. There are about 80 people who came to ND to participate.

The mosquitoes were pretty bad, but the worst was the heat. So I hiked 10 miles that were very hot. I know, I know... I should be used to that, but I don't seem to be.

There was really cold water available to drink at the end, so that was nice.

More hikes tomorrow.

Miles today: 10 miles on the NCT in North Dakota.

Miles hiked in 2025: 340.2
Miles hiked on NCT in 2025: 201.2

See North Dakota Here We Are

North Dakota, Here We Are

First stop this morning was to see a house in Minnesota that was built by Diane's grandmother's half brother. It's now on the National Register of Historic Places!

Believe it or not, I think we made more stops than we did yesterday, although many of them were short.

Minnesota is in love with large animal statues. Along the NCT you can find the world's largest loon, prairie chicken, and turkey. I have pictures of those. Now I've added an otter to the collection. But this one is metal.

It's holding down a fish with one paw.

Next stop was to do a short hike at Maplewood State Park so Diane could get some Minnesota NCT miles.

Then we needed lunch, which was topped off with pie. Pie is picture worthy.

Then we stopped in Pelican Rapids to see, well, the world's largest pelican!

Then it was off for the North Dakota border and Fort Abercrombie. They have recreated the blockhouses of the fort.

We made a couple of short stops to collect scavenger hunt game answers that is part of the Hike Fest. Then it was on to Dead Colt Creek Campground. There are several other people here who are attending Hike Fest.

This day is DONE! Tomorrow starts early enough with a hike, and I think we maxed out this day. We are beat, but happy. View from our campsite.

Hiked 1 mile of NCT in Maplewood State Park, Minnesota.

Miles hiked in 2025: 330.2
Miles hiked on NCT in 2025: 191.2

See People and Places