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

Spirit of the Woods Hike- April 2025

 It seems to be one of our standard chapter hikes, to start at the Udell Trailhead on M-55, hike south 3 miles, and then do the short bushwhack across to the Udell Fire Tower. Today we had 19 people and a dog. Several new-to-us hikers!

Once you cut across a short swath of woods, you are on the Fire Tower Road and can see the tower ahead of you.

The day started chilly and damp after the overnight rain, but by the time we got to the tower there was sun and blue sky. Still in the 40s, but that is nice for hiking. Just a view up the tower.

This is a nice find, even though it's not the right season to see when it's most pretty. This is violet-toothed polypore, last year's. When it gets old, it fades to cream and brown. top side:

And the underside. I should have taken a close-up of the teeth on the underside. I could see them enough when I blew the picture up to make the ID, but it's not good enough to bother to show you. I wonder if I go back later in the year if the same log will have it in full color.

Just a glacial erratic that's quite pretty.

And, you know how I'm always saying it's hard to show the hilliness of the area in photos? This one does a pretty good job because of the tree shadows streaming down the hill. But you can also see that there is not even a hint of green showing up yet.

I hiked 6 miles with a 15-pound pack. I left it at the turnoff to the bushwhack and picked it up on the way back. It was another half-mile to get to the tower and back.

Miles hiked in 2025: 104. NCT Hike 100: 38.5.

North Country Trail, Udell TH, Manistee County, MI. South 3 miles, then bushwhack to Udell Fire Tower and back. Total 6.5 miles

See SPW Hike- Nov 2023

Violet-Toothed Polypore

  There was one other nice treat from yesterday. This is at least the third time I've seen Violet-toothed polypore, Trichaptum biforme, which seems like a contradiction in terms. It truly is a polypore (characterized by having lots of pores on the underside. But it appears to have teeth. It's also supposed to be quite common, but not in my experience. Anyway, this is the one we saw yesterday.

This is the most spectcular-looking one I've seen.

And as it fades it looks more brown

In other news: I worked on things I was supposed to almost all day. Lots of frustration. I did find the master files for the project I needed, but they were somewhat outdated. Worked on getting that sorted out. I'm waiting for responses from a few people for other projects. I walked to the post office.

Miles walked in 2024: 460.8

See True Blue Gumby II

Sleepwalking? - Day 272

  I seemed unable to wake up all day. Walked anyway, of course. The mosquitoes were horrible, but there's only one more day in the woods for a while. Not sure I've ever anticipated paved trail quite so much.

These stands of red pine from the 1930s have been recognized as not a best forestry practice, but they are always picturesque.


This is Crown Lake, which seems to be turning into Crown Wetland. There is a campsite here, but I sure can't recommend it during mosquito season!


Here is the Boy River, which the trail crosses on a road bridge. The lazy, broad rivers of this area are so different from the rocky, jumbled and swift rivers of some of NY and PA.


Another new-to-me plant day! American Spikenard, Aralia racemosa. I thought it was a shrub because of the size, but it's actually herbaceous (not a woody stem). One of the largest herbaceous plants. The fruits will ripen to deep purple. Apparently this is also found where I live, but I've not seen it before.


Near the end of the day, the trail popped out on a road again. I wondered why. Well, duh- another river to cross. Oddly, this is named the Swift River. Is that like calling the fat guy "Slim?"


And I'll leave you with a pretty purple mushroom. Closest we can ID is probably to the genus Cortinarius. Mushroom identification is a minefield, and I will almost always defer to someone who knows them better than I. For more purple mushrooms, see Purple mushroom/fungus


Slept all afternoon after I got back to the trailer, so hopefully I'll be more alert tomorrow.

Miles today: 14.3. Total miles so far: 3214.5.

See Theoretically Two-Thirds

Manistee National Forest Challenge Hike #5

 
Today was the fifth hike in the series to walk the entire Manistee National Forest this season. Ten hikers this time.



We started at Nichols Lake. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking. Mid 60's temperature, mostly cloudy, but with some blue sky showing through. The mosquitoes weren't bad at all.



For the first few miles north of Nichols Lake the trail winds between a series of small lakes. Leaf Lake is my favorite because it has so many little bays and wetland areas.



Every bit of the hike today is included in what I backpacked, solo, last fall. But this time the travel was south to north, and of course this is summer. It looked so different! The first time I ever hiked this piece, it was winter.

We have one sub-group that moves really fast down the trail. As I said last week, I'm happy enough to stay in the rear. Stopping to take pictures of the little joys I find is one of the best parts of hiking for me.

This week I found a hawk feather. I also heard a scarlet tanager, but couldn't find the bird to go with the song.


Cedar Creek is always a favorite spot. It never seems to change the way it looks; the water level and color always seem about the same.



Here's one of the mysterious purple mushrooms. I'm pretty sure this is Blewit, but there was only the one, and I didn't want to pull it up to look at the gills. That doesn't kill the mushrooom (most of the organism is underground), but it would ruin it for other hikers to see.



We've seen Indian Pipes on almost every one of these hikes, but most of the clumps haven't really been photo worthy. This one isn't bad.



Eleven miles. The leaders did it in 3 hours and 25 minutes. I was sweep, bringing up the rear, and my time was 4 hours 15 minutes (inclusive of 3 rest stops). I don't know why I'm even telling you this. These hikes are not supposed to be races. We have several people who just want to do them fast, and they seem to be driving the group only because they don't like to wait for us to get to the cars at the end. Unfortunately, both of the vehicles at the end belonged to the "slower" hikers. At least the two people who like waiting the least got their car in place at the end, so they could leave as soon as they finished.

Anyway, I did one of my favorite activities on the way home. Pick a dirt road going in the right direction and follow it till I have to take another. Made it to within 2 miles of my house by this method (not all dirt, but quite a lot) before having to get on the highway (river crossings on bridges are recommended in vehicles).



Food, shower, jammies. A little rain outside to end the evening. A really nice day.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Nichols Lake north to 96th St

	See MNF Challenge Hike #4
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North Country Color Wheel

 
Had a chance to take a quick 6-mile walk on the North Country Trail today. Everyone is posting pictures of mushrooms because it's been so wet those are this year's flowers. Me too! Here you go.

Red- I'm not going out of my way to ID any of these but these are red Russula sp. Past their prime, but still very red.



For orange you get these cuties.



Yellow fingers- an apt name.



Green- a stump turned into a terrarium with moss and mushrooms.



Blue- sorry, no blue fungus, but a blue blaze to mark "my" trail.



And a nice light purple polypore. (Not violet-toothed because it doesn't have teeth)



It was a great day for a walk in the woods- in the sixties, most of the bugs are gone.

I'm way behind on the NCT 100-Mile Challenge, but this gets me up to 48 miles.

	See Flower Show Color Wheel
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Lilac Fairy Helmet?

 
Here's another of the mysterious purple mushrooms. I think it may be Lilac Fairy Helmet, Mycena pura. EDITED 2022- probably a Cortinarius



For sure, I know a couple of purple mushrooms that it's not, now. Not the Blue Spine that I showed you in 2010, or the Violet Toothed Polypore. Those don't have gills. The Blewit has gills, but a much fatter stalk.



I did get a picture of the gills on this one, but the focus isn't very good. This shows some features of the cap that fit for this one. Slightly incurved margin, thicker in center of top, wet.



I didn't check to see if the stem was hollow, or if it smelled like radishes. I don't know if there are veins that cross over between the gills. I'll never be a good mycologist because I don't like to pull them up to cut them up and examine them (unless there are just LOTS). I'd rather leave them for someone else to see.

If my ID is correct, this is a poisonous one.

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