Exploring Old Grade

Today was pretty busy, but it was all good. In the afternoon, I stopped at the "Old Grade Campground" (Manistee National Forest). It's only the second time I've been there.

Can you guess how it got its name?

Yup! It was a railroad grade. But you know I can't be content with only knowing that. I had to know what railroad. This is not far north of the village of Peacock where two separate railroads crossed each other. However, it is on the north side of the Little Manistee River. So I couldn't quite figure what railroad this was.

Turns out, it's a logging line of the Manistee and Luther RR. Their main line went from Eastlake to Hoxeyville (never quite making it to either Manistee or Luther!). On the map, the red lines are Manistee and Luther. The topmost of the dark green arrows points to where I was today. And that means the railroad had a bridge across the river there. I wonder if one can find any remnants.

The lower dark green arrow points to Peacock where the light green Michigan E & W line crossed the Chicago and West Michigan line in magenta.

I was hoping to write about the loop trail at Old Grade for one of my columns. I have to think about whether I should do that. Some of the trail is in bad shape. I made it through with electronic help. The good portion could be done as an out and back. Anyway, I had fun. Here's where the trail begins.

When you get around on the other side of the loop, the trail briefly follows a small, unnamed creek that flows beneath hemlocks to the Little Manistee River .

Here are a couple of closeups. Red maple leaf- not just red in color, but it's a red maple.

And some needles from a white cedar which fell artistically on its horizontal trunk. I suspect squirrels bit these off and dropped them.

This all happened after I met with some people about some trail stuff, and I also did laundry. I worked on computer stuff a bit this morning, and my day was completely filled!

Miles hiked in 2025: 410.4

Old Grade loop trail and in and out from entrance 2.3 miles.

See Not Quite, But Quite All Right

10 More Newaygo County Miles

  Today, I hiked another 10.5 miles. 10.25 were on the North Country Trail, and 0.25 was a bushwhack to get from a road to where I finished hiking last Wednesday. I've recently hiked some of these miles with groups- links below if you like to compare seasons.

I started just south of the Centerline Road crossing. The other day I found several really large white pines. This time, there were big red oaks. Still alive- I could see buds on the tips of the upper branches. You can be assured that the pines were not there when this baby grew up.

I'll just take you along with me past the features of interest. West of Centerline, the trail passes Pearl Lake. Lots of swampy area around it, but you could get water with difficulty. I did not even notice it last November!

But this is the hike I took with friends to see the new boardwalk across an extensive marsh. I ate my lunch on the deck in the middle of it today.

It's a lonely landscape- very wild and northern looking. I like the view back from the other end where you can frame it with some trees.

Spring is coming! I saw a few flowers today- will probably share those tomorrow. But the Shadbush is starting to bloom. That's a sure sign. Nice arrangement, Mother Nature!

And here we are at the White River again. However, I haven't actually shown you the bridge itself before. These are brought in on a big piece of equipment and just plopped in place- they are all one piece. Standard Forest Service issue, but very practical where equipment access is possible.

And here's the river itself. This may be the same view I shared in November. But I like it.

A little farther, and the trail parallels and then crosses Rattlesnake Creek. There are a lot of white cedar along there. Very pretty.

Just north of M-20 is Second Cole Creek. This is always shaded, and reminds me a lot of the unnamed creek close to home south of Upper Branch Bridge.

I passed quite a few of the large red oaks today.

Got to the car sooner than I expected- that's because I apparently can't subtract. I thought the hike was going to be longer. Well, it was nice. The temperature was perfect- right around 60 degrees, I wasn't tired at all when I finished. Now I have to get this data processed.

North Country Trail miles so far in 2021 is at 189.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, east of Centerline Road to 3 Mile Road, 10.25 miles

There isn't really any other news. A trail friend spotted me, so I didn't have to walk both directions. That was awesome!

See Hiking is Back on My Radar See White River from the Other Direction

Not Quite as Gray

  Today wasn't quite as gray as yesterday. The sun put some effort into burning through, and it bored a flimsy hole in the gray a couple of times.

I walked a route that had a tiny bit different part. I started on the side of the road that gave me a view of the cemetery pond. You haven't seen many pictures of it recently because the shrubs have grown in so thickly you can hardly see it from the road, except in winter. (The rampant poison ivy keeps me away in summer.)

The "new" part of the walk was on Cedar Lane. (I've driven this road plenty of times but not for a while, because it is a dead end.) I expected the usual "joke" about it being named for something that was no longer in existence. However, there is a long line of planted white cedar along the first quarter mile of the road. Lots of Norway spruce and red pine and autumn olive too.

This road takes you down to the level of Hackert Lake. This was the best picture I could get between all the houses. I wish you could walk around the lake, but several stretches are private. This route made a fairly nice walk even though I had to just backtrack to get home, because it has a decent amount of topography for a walk near home.

Saw a lot of sandhill crane tracks. It looked like a herd of them had stomped through this area. It's probably true. This is only about a half mile from where I know they nest.

But I saved the best for last, even though it happened first. This morning's sunrise was picture worthy!

In other news: I wrote a chapter in the morning, and worked on two other projects in addition to the walk. If I could be this disciplined all the time, I'd actually get a lot done.

See Gray But OK