Foggy Mornings

Today I'm just sharing a couple of pictures from paper-route mornings after the hike.



This first one is where the highway drops into the flats to cross the Pere Marquette River. I just like how the road disappears into the fog. This was taken June 30 at 6:17 in the morning.



This is the morning mist rising from Pentwater Lake. Taken June 29 at 6:06 in the morning.

Kayaking on November 21 !

My good buddy Ellen called me yesterday afternoon. See, another good thing from yesterday, but I was still smarting from the not so good part. I'm losing my best web site client. I knew it was coming, but I had just received the official notice. OK, enough of that, but I didn't want you to wonder if it was something worse. So, Ellen called and said, "Come, tomorrow, and we'll kayak. I'll fix breakfast."

Did she ever! We had waffles with blueberry syrup, and an omelet. I took a persimmon to share. The day had started cold and foggy, but by the time we ate and she looked at some pix from my summer hikes, the sun had burned off most of the fog.



"Have a paddle!" We headed down her road for the access to Bass Lake and her kayaks.



As we paddled across the lake a huge flock of trumpeter swans stretched nearly across the neck of the lake. They took to the skies as we approached and the sound was amazing. It was like hundreds of huge canvas tarps flapping in the wind.


After paddling through the outlet we reached Lake Michigan, and hiked up the beach for a ways, just to use different muscles.



The sun was actually warm. Who would believe that one could walk the Lake Michigan beach on November 21 in sandals, with feet in the water and not freeze? We were wearing sweatshirts and wind pants, but seriously, it was warm! You can see that the distance was still hazy, but it was a lovely day. The final picture is the best... one of those lucky shots- and it's much better if you click to enlarge it. This is Ellen in the outlet creek.


And just so you can have a laugh... I managed to sit down in the water, not once but twice! (Good thing it was warm!) And I didn't get the camera wet, so we can all laugh.

Even better, Ellen and I have decided to overcome the way that life seems to get in the way of adventures. We are going to do something on the first Friday of every month over the winter. Stay tuned!

See I Never Would Have Seen These If..."for a picture of a mute swan See On the Beach - Part 1 for Lake Michigan a week ago, at a different location See Beginning the Border Route for a song with a verse about canoeing

Fire Grilled Burgers

 


Today was not a great day. 'Nuff said. But I had that hamburger in the fridge, and although it was gray and damp outside, it wasn't actually raining. So, I told you I was going to use some of my nice new woodpile and have a little fire.

They were yummy! Enough for tomorrow too.

See A Day On the Trail - Base Camping

One Job Done...

This is a big file. It was a big job. Nothing too exciting. I just want to celebrate its completion! I actually started Oct 28, and have been doing one wheelbarrow of wood almost every nice day.



Stay tuned, now that I have a nice woodpile of hardwood I think I smell grilled hamburgers in my near future!

P.S. What's up (down) with my Alexa rank? It keeps dropping. Big frowny face. I know it's a 3-month average, but we should be getting past the time I was gone by now...

See Monthly Winners for when this job began

Moonsong in A

Does this need any explanation? It just made me smile.

After the Big Snow

Went to Crystal Valley with Ellen today, and we skied for two hours. The woods was beautiful, and the snow so deep and fresh that all the sounds were muffled. And it was so cold that the shutter on my camera didn't open all the way. Made an interesting picture in a strange way.

Red and White

 

Yesterday was a day of horizontal snow and biting wind. A good day to curl up with a mystery. But today was beautiful outside. Here are four different smatterings of red on the white landscape. I'm not saying these are high quality plants... just pretty splashes. Starting top left, clockwise:

• Staghorn Sumac
• Autumn Olive
• Highbush Cranberry
• Deadly Nightshade

	See Pink, Blue (and Red)
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Carrotwood and Madeira

Reading another book, this one set in California the carrotwood tree was mentioned. Whew... two new tree names in one week! It seems that carrotwood is a serious invasive in Florida, but just a benign ornamental in California. It's a broadleaf evergreen, Cupaniopsis anacardioides, in the Soapberry family. It was a day with several points of interest... One of my on line writing assignments was travel information about the island of Madeira. I am ashamed to say that I wouldn't have been able to even tell you where it was before that. Now I want to go there! It's in the Atlantic, part of Macaronesia, an autonomous state of Portugal. It has mountains, deserts, and ocean beaches. It has a World Heritage Site- the laurisilva, which is the largest remnant in the world of a prehistoric laurel forest with many unique plants and animals. It has miles of hiking trails which were built as paths beside the canal system that brings water down from the mountains. Some are quite tame. Others have cliffside paths and tunnels. There are two nature refuges on the small islands and one of the few remaining colonies of monk seals, several indigenous birds, a bat, and unique land snails. It has one of the highest sea cliffs in the world. The main island is only 13 miles wide, yet the mountains go from sea level to 6107 feet and then back down again! I want to go. And then there were the sparkling weeds in the morning. The day warmed up to nearly 40 degrees in the afternoon, but it began with frosty sparkles.

Splish Splash

The sun came out for a little while today. It was just above freezing and water was dripping off the edge of the deck into little pools below. When the drops hit the water they splashed in heavy drops, with the sun on them, like little bouncing diamonds. I couldn't catch a picture.

Skiing

 

A lot of things didn't go so well today. Nothing major, but many annoyances. However, the snow was good for skiing this morning. Now that doesn't mean that I'm a good skier, but I like to try. Give me a few more days of good snow and I'll get more comfortable with it again!

First Snowshoeing

      Anyone who knows me already knows that this is probably a standard yearly quality item. But it's true! I love the first day that there is enough snow to bother to put on the snowshoes! I confess to being pretty much a Walter Mitty type. I push through the snow and pretend that I'm one of the survivors of the Donner's Pass group who trudged out to rescue making barely 5 miles a day in their weakened condition. I pat myself on the back thinking about being savvy enough to fashion crude snowshoes from fir boughs and be smarter than the man who tried to hike from his stuck vehicle, stumbled through snow 10 miles in a circle and perished a mile from returning to his car. His wife and child were rescued from the vehicle. Or perhaps I'm just some early explorer of the eastern woodlands when they were the wild west... Oh well, it was also the first day to run the snowblower. Perhaps I'm just an old lady who now smells like exhaust... ...but then again... there's Natty Bumpo, or...

One Last Blaze for Fall

 
Maggie and I took our walk on the roads today. We've had snow for 4 days now, not enough to ski on really, but it sure begins to look like winter. And yet at the entrance to a mobile home park just down the road a smoke tree, and multiple suckers growing beneath it, just insist on one last colorful hurrah!

	See Maroon Smoke Tree
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Happy Dog

This morning was all about a happy dog bouncing through the lightly snow-covered fields. I tried to get a good picture of her ears flapping, but didn't quite succeed. For more about the little fox I saw Thursday night, see Gray Fox Seen in Mason, Manistee Counties

Cradle of Twilight

 


First of all, I lied. Well, I didn't know that it would be a lie... Earlier I said that Saturday's hike would be the last one before gun deer season. But when I said that, it was forecast to rain pretty much all week. And indeed, it is raining now.

But earlier in the day it was dry and relatively warm. So Maggie and I hiked the Nature Trail at Orchard Beach State Park before the Trail Chapter meeting in the evening. That was ok... there were a couple of interesting sections of spruce and hemlock that I hadn't seen before.

But the best part, the quality part of the day, was sitting in the car waiting for the meeting location building to be opened. The twilight deepened, and the wind was rising. The branches of the evergreens were beginning to sway and be tossed. A squirrel made a wild leap from one tree to the next and then scurried down the main trunk. Several different species of conifers were planted where I was parked and each one moved with its own rhythm born of branch shape, sap content, and location. Yet, the dissonance of motion was not disturbing.

To my left, the bare boughs of maples stood stolid above two firs whose motion was greater. They presented more surface for the wind to catch. A small gray fox followed a careful path across the lawn, pausing for a moment in the circle of light by a lamp post. It crested the low hill, and was gone. My eyes half-closed, and the motion of the trees and the swaying of my thoughts became one.

I used to spend hours letting the patterns of natural lights on water, or motions of waves, seep into my brain until all was one. It has been a long time since I've taken time to allow that to happen. A wasted hour before the meeting? No way.

	See Crosshatched
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First Snow and Last Hike

 

Woke to the first snow of the season this morning, but since I overslept, I was rushing to make it to the trail club hike on time and didn't take a picture. It was wet and fluffy, about two inches, covering all the bushes and trees. It was melted before I returned home.


Farther east at the hike location it had not snowed hardly at all. One other hiker braved the suddenly cold and damp weather. Maggie wasn't too happy about those conditions! But we hiked the outer loop at Sheep Ranch Pathway, about 4.5 miles, and finished just before the serious rain began. The picture is of Wayne, the other hiker, and Maggie, at the closest approach to the Baldwin River. Last hike? Oh... not REALLY, but it might be the last one before gun deer season begins on Nov 15. I pretty much stay out of the woods for those two weeks of the year.

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Sempervivum!

 

Doesn't the name "Sempervivum" just sound like a march? Today wasn't too exciting. Computer work all morning. In the afternoon I did manage to get the hoses put away, some garden ornaments taken in, a few perennials planted, and the dog walked before the sky darkened and the summer weather ended. But look what was blooming in the flower garden! This is the strangest little sempervivum (live forever!), also known as Hen and Chicks. All the other varieties that I have bloom with various pink, aster-like flowers. This one has a cluster of little yellow bottles. It's hardy and it grows like wildfire. And here we are, after two hard frosts already, with a gorgeous flower head on the 6th of November. March on to your own drummer, little sempervivum!

	See Rainbow, No Rain
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I Could Do This For a Living!

 
Oh, wait! I am trying to do this for a living. Too bad I can't live on 5 cents a day!


Black Lake- partly in the Manistee National Forest
Today I went to check out the eastern end of this idea of mine. Drove down a dirt "road" to try to reach Black Lake. I think I could have made it all the way, but reached a corner of a loop I wanted to check out... one of the two branches was bound to go all the way through!

So I locked the car and hopped on my bike continuing down one of the forks through really deep sand ruts. But they only lasted a little while, and I kept making choices at Forest Roads (FR) with numbers that didn't match my map, but always working my way east. Pretty soon I got to Benson Road, a real county road (so far so good). Next I wanted to find another FR that headed east again to connect with the North Country Trail. Rode up and down Benson and finally took the only road going in the right direction. It ended at a logging site about 1/2 mile into the woods. And I'd had to walk the bike over a bunch of slash piles.

Let's see... turn around and walk the bike back, then ride around via roads, OR... walk on through the woods to get to Campbell Road. Well, the woods were pretty flat and fairly open. So I bushwhack-walked the bike through to the road! Found the other end of the road that I wanted and rode it back west... it dead ends at a cabin, so I guess that option won't work. Went back to Campbell Road and rode east on a FR till it crossed the NCT. What used to be dense woods here is now a clearcut due to salvage after big winds we had here last year. It's kinda sad, but there are now a couple of nice views. When it stops looking so raw, it might be something of a nice addition to the closed-in woods of most of the trail.

Then I needed to ride back to the car. So I rode back up to County Line and went west till I found FR 8367 and took it south. There were a LOT of junctions, but most of them had carsonite posts with FR numbers, so without much trouble I found Black Lake, and then back to the car.

Just one more out and back, after driving another 1/2 mile to connect to Koenig Road. This is starting to look like a viable route.

And what could be better than exploring on a warm fall day? The old 2-tracks are covered in brown crunchy leaves. I really like riding my bike down the old tracks. Only had to walk in a few places where the sand was too loose. Approximate distance: 14 miles! I am one happy, old, 10-year-old tonight.

	See Exploring Like a 10-Year-Old
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Exploring Like a 10-Year-Old

 
Click the picture and you can work the puzzle.
The day was hard to beat in so many ways! For starters we are having what may be the last really warm days of the season. It made 70 degrees in mid afternoon. And where was I? For once, NOT stuck inside on such a glorious day.

I have this dream of an adventure loop that encircles our county. Pieces of it are already in place and it has occurred to me that if I just figured out some connections that would work for the rest of it that it could be publicized.

So aided by maps and some suggestions from Ramona, my favorite Forest Service person, I headed to the woods with my bike. I wanted to explore a workable route to ride on forest roads in various stages of abandonment. Most of them have no marking.

I parked at a known intersection and followed what looked like a "nothing" path into the woods. It came out where I expected despite being a pathway not on either of the maps I had, and I just kept wiggling my way west on pathways, and I DID connect right up with a known trail system that I was looking for. Sweet!

Then I rode back and went the other way. I wasn't sure that this road went through at all. It got pretty faint, and came to a creek. I explored on the other side, and the road did continue so I carried the bike over and rode on. The road got better the farther I went till it was a nice sand forest road that came out right where I expected.

So I rode back to the car via better roads, moved the car, and continued to ride the "route" on more civilized roads (there is a section in the middle with no National Forest land so it will have to be just a road ride). Made it to US31, turned around and went back to the car.

Total time on the bike- about 3 hours, with more "off road" riding than I usually do. It was really great. What more can I say? I'm doing it again tomorrow on the next section, but there won't be quite so much serious exploring.

I have to say that I've rarely gone in search of forest connections with so few dead ends or curious twists that don't go where I expect them to. I did check out a few dead ends, but all my hopeful connections worked on the first try. Everyone needs a day like this once in a while, eh?

(Did you do the puzzle? Note the three big oaks.)

	See Ellen and Joan Sneak in an Adventure
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Hiking at Big M

 


I was good all morning... made phone calls, answered emails that have been backing up and did a load of laundry. But since today was supposed to be the nicest day of the next three, I decided to go for a hike in the afternoon. Big M is a XC ski and mountain bike area in the Manistee National Forest. I've been working on getting the info for it collected for my Get Off The Couch web site, but it's really big and is going to take multiple trips to walk all the trails. Today Maggie the dog and I walked about seven miles. We did the Double Bit and Catamount Trails.


Quiet trails on a warm autumn day are great! On one dirt two-track we found these tracks of a really big whitetail buck! We also saw a nuthatch, grouse, a great horned owl, and a sharp-shinned hawk.

	See Playtime at Big M
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