Hiking and Watching the Fishermen

Today was the September hike of the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA. I was the hike leader, and chose to go to a place on the Pere Marquette River called Maple Leaf Access. The trails are those made by anglers, but you can wander along the river for a long distance, and make some loops with old roads. The views along the river are always great.



It turned out that only one other person came. That was Vickie, of Vickie and Joan Go Frogging. As it turned out, the river was lined with anglers, about one every 50 feet! I know almost nothing about fish and fishing, but Vickie does! Her husband (who didn't come because he's having pain management issues with his neck) likes to fish a lot, and Vickie has gone with him enough to explain things to me.



I had asked some guys yesterday what they were fishing for, and the answer is salmon. Since the salmon have been introduced to Lake Michigan, they come up the rivers to spawn every fall. These are big fish, two feet or more long. I've seen the river when there were so many fish it was like a traffic jam. This weekend, there weren't that many, but we saw a few swimming across the shallows. The fishermen and women were trying hard to entice them to bite. Vickie says that means to just annoy them enough, since once they start upstream the no longer eat anything.

We did see some fish get hooked. We watched these guys try to land this fish for about ten minutes. You can see the fish break the surface in this picture.



The guys were walking downstream with the fish, and were getting a bit out of camera range unless I was willing to get in the river with them. Since my waders (yes, I have some) were home, I decided we'd leave the guys to do their thing without our help. However, a few minutes later, after we were high on a bluff again, we heard cheering, so I think they landed it.

Now here's the really odd thing. Vickie says that salmon at this point in their life cycle don't taste good at all. They are already starting to die, and their flesh tastes very fishy. I suppose some of the anglers might have been out just for the sport, and planned to release the fish. But we did see several that were keeping their catches on stringers. Here's one that another guy was planning to keep.



We had a great walk, lunch in the sun, and got a kick out of watching all the people chasing fish.

	See Maggie Says- Ruby Creek is Wet
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The Gold Begins

It's beginning to feel like fall- just enjoy the gold. This is woodland sunflower and Canada goldenrod.



This afternoon I went out to scout the location where I'm leading a trail club hike tomorrow. I've hiked it before, but I wanted to go in the opposite direction, and didn't want to make any mistakes. So, Maggie and I had a nice walk, and it was just what we were supposed to be doing!



These little golden mushrooms were growing in the path. I'm no mushroom expert. I've looked in the book, but don't really have any good guesses on their ID. But they're cute.



Finally, here's a favorite. These are the leaves of the American sassafras, Sassafras albidum. You can see all three forms. The single-lobed leaf, the mitten, and the three-lobed leaf. I love sassafras. It seems to me that every single stage of it's life is odd in some way. Maybe I should do a whole post about it. I have pictures of most of those phases now.

The walk was great, and I'll see it all again tomorrow with some other folks. There is supposed to be more sun tomorrow, so perhaps I'll get some even better pictures. Come back and find out!

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The Snow-Covered Mountains of Michigan

What? You don't believe me? Here they are.



Oh, ok... I fibbed a little bit. But, you could almost believe it for a minute, right?

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Three Lakes and The Bridge

Anyone who travels from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula (or in the other direction) will see three lakes and a bridge. We are not talking just any little lakes- you'd be sure to see some of those too. Nor are we talking about any little bridge.

These were taken on my return trip today, so I'll show them in that order.




It was trying to whip up a storm when I left Marquette. Ahead of me was quite dark, but Lake Superior was beautiful. Yes, the three lakes I'm talking about are three of the five Great Lakes. This is looking back toward Marquette.

A couple of hours of driving took me to the south edge of the UP, and now I was looking at Lake Michigan.



The land you see in the distance is the western bulge of the Lower Peninsula. As I headed farther east, The Bridge became visible. In Michigan, one never needs to explain what they mean by "The Bridge." It's the Mackinac (say MACK-in-aw) Bridge which spans the straights of Michilimackinac.

It's comparable to the Golden Gate Bridge. One is longer between the towers, and the other is longer between the anchor points. At any rate, total length with approaches is five miles.

This is one of the few vantage points where you can see the entire bridge.




The third lake? Just on the other side of The Bridge is Lake Huron. Michigan and Huron join at the straights and have the same water level, the only two of the Great Lakes which are equal in elevation.

It's a crazy busy week for me, but I'm home safely, and worked hard this evening. So far so good.

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Hiking at Craig Lake State Park

I'm here in Marquette, with my friend Lorana, who is letting me stay here. I'm giving my program tonight for the North Country Trail Hikers Chapter.

However, today, we went out hiking with a visiting group from Harbor Springs. They are hiking various sections of the North Country Trail in the Upper Peninsula. We started at Craig Lake State Park and headed east as far as the outlet for Crooked Lake, then returned. Total, about 8 miles.



The morning was quite chilly, which felt delightful.



There were rocks and hills, but this sight was slightly unusual. Look at the size of the burls on that tree!



We walked four miles to the bridge over the Crooked Lake Outlet, where we sat on the bridge and ate our lunches. It was nice to have a little sun on our shoulders.



Look what's happening already- the leaves are starting to turn colors. Fall is coming!

I should be home again by this time tomorrow.

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