8, with Day Pack

  I looked at the weather for the rest of the week and decided today was the day for a hike to stretch my endurance. I have to be up to 10 miles with a real pack by June.

Where should I go? I'm generally tired of the closest section of NCT to me. However, I chose it, and managed to find something new to do.

Went to Timber Creek and hiked north. One thing I knew for sure, there is more elevation change there than it seems like, if you go beyond 8th St, so it's a pretty good workout. A little sun makes even the brown woods look good. Mostly, it was cloudy.

This is a really common type of moss here. Maybe I've now identified it. Red-stemmed feathermoss, or Schreber's big red stem moss, Pleurozium schreberi. Wikipedia makes it sound like it's only found in the far north, but the Forest Service website puts it almost everywhere in the NE US.

This is another I see a lot of, and it's getting all sexy for spring showing off its sporophytes. Juniper Haircap Moss, Polytrichum juniperus. It has another funky stage in the reproductive cycle. I'll have to start watching for that.

This was fun. It's some polypore fungus of the shelf/bracket type, but I can't tell which one. From the top, it looks like horse hooves, or shelves. The log was fallen, so the "top" of the fungus is from the lower right.

So, how do I know it's a polypore? The underside has many (poly) pores!

I walked 4 miles out, and started back just a few yards so I could find somewhere nice to sit and eat my lunch. Not only was this stump the right height, it had artistic character!

My little project of interest was to try to track the elevation change better on this section. Previously, all I'd done is subtract the low point from the high. That is 1122-791 feet = 331 feet. But that doesn't take into account the ups and downs along the way. Today, I tried to mark in Avenza the tops of all the ridges. I had previously counted 8, but today I marked 7. I guess one has to make choices as to what are just undulations, and what are really ridges.

Anyway, where I turned around is 92 feet lower than the high point. Then the trail drops from the high point to 921 which is 201 feet lower than the high point. Then it wanders up and down over small ridges till it's back to the 791 feet at Timber Creek.

I think I can safely say I climbed and descended a total of about 600 feet. Maybe next time, I'll track it in FarOut which will do an elevation profile. Thing is, it's not too accurate because it doesn't sample often enough.

I'll close with one of my most often pictured scenes from this section, but I always think it' cool. The light is always oddly filtered through this red pine plantation so that it almost always looks red and hazy.

I did a little bit of work, but the hike took the biggest chunk of the day.

Miles hiked in 2025: 73.9. NCT Hike 100: 22.5

North Country Trail, Lake County, Michigan, US 10 (Timber Creek) north to Forest Road 6419 and back. 8 miles

See Familiar- Endurance Edition

Croton to Coolbough and a Squirt

  I totally played hookey today. I wasn't letting the fantastic weather go to waste. You may recall that I'm working on a data book project for the North Country Trail in the Lower Peninsula. Today, I started Newaygo County. The southernmot part is still on roads. So all I had to do for those is drive them and make notes of any particular features (like check creeks for water access), convenience stores, etc.

There was one tiny piece about a quarter mile long that eliminates a half mile of road, so I walked that. Nice hardwood forest over a little ridge. Very pretty.

Then I continued driving the roads to Croton Dam. I've featured it before, and will show you some more later this week. Today, I only stopped to take some pictures and eat my lunch. Then I drove to the next road crossing because I had already made notes on the first three miles of trail (south end of the Manistee National Forest, from the Dam to Croton Rd). So, I entered the woods at the Croton Road/Pear Rd corner. The section I hiked today alternated between mixed forest and open areas like this one. Although the forecast said it was going to be cloudy, you can see that was not true part of the day. 70+ degrees!

The young white pine are, of course, lovely, but there were some venerable grandfather pines along the way. The trail goes along this row of them.

I think this one is the size winner for today!

I loved the colors of moss and lichen and bark at the base of it.

This is a group of red pines still standing at the edge of an area that had previously been clearcut. They are vulnerable to winds, but haven't toppled yet. Somehow, I found this arrangement appealing.

I walked 5.3 miles to a trail junction in the Coolbough Natural Area, had a snack and returned. With the other little piece, that's a total of 11.1 miles.

Both Sunday and today I saw mourning cloak butterflies, and some smaller orange one today too. Spring is coming!

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 138.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Pear Rd to Locust and back, 0.5 miles. Croton Road to Coolbough Natural Area Prairie Trail and back, 10.6 miles

In other news: There is no other news. I'm beat, but it was a great day!

See A Little Hike, a Little History