Hart Montague Rail Trail - Whitehall

  Today was the second day of the vendor event. It didn't start till 11:00 so I went early enough to take my walk before. Today I went south, toward Whitehall. Here's the appealing trail picture of the day

As you get closer to town there is more art. This is a fun one of sunflowers

Of course, a village on a lake that is connected to Lake Michigan is going to have a marina, and they are always good for a picture or two.

I made it to one of the larger community gardens maintained by the garden club before I had to turn around. There is this butterfly with stained glass wings!

And the garden has lovely plantings.

I'm not positive which Oenothera this is, but it's one of the evening primroses. There are a number of garden cultivars. THe flowers were almost 3" across.

And here's my mystery plant. At least it was a mystery, but I think I have it figured out. It's one of the Beardtongues, a Penstemon. Since most of them prefer dry prairie environments, but this one was in a wetland, that helps narrow things down. The insides of the flowers aren't particularly striped, but I think it is Foxglove Beardtongue, Penstemon digitalis.

In other news: It was beastly hot and humid. That took a lot out of me, but now it's cooling down and I'm finishing up getting ready to leave tomorrow. I did average sales today, but combined with yesterday, I did well!

Hart Montague Rail Trail, Muskegon Co, MI, through downtown and back 3+ miles

See Rail Trail at White Lake

Hart Montague Rail Trail at White Lake

  The vendor event went really well today, and the park we were at is right beside the Hart-Montague Rail Trail. So after we were done for the day, I went for a little walk. For a rail trail, it's pretty nice. There isn't a lot of it that is right out in the blazing sun, but this piece is particularly pretty.

I'm not a big fan of Canada Geese, but I'll admit they are handsome birds. The event and the trail are right along White Lake. The geese are literally ON White Lake.

This is a planted rose bush, but it's a variety that has blossoms more like wild roses. And the color is stunning. I did not play with this photo at all.

Another rather ordinary bird, a Redwing Blackbird, but he was showing off for me.

There are a lot of art installations along this trail in Whitehall, and I was very curious about this one, which was slightly off the trail, but you could walk to it. I thought there would be an interpretive sign, or at least the name of the artist. Most of the art pieces have a sign. Maybe this one is new. I don't remember it. Anyway, no sign. But I couldn't figure it out from a distance.

When I got right up to it, I learned that it's pretty cool. There are constructions of natural elements made with old tools or mechanical parts on the three legs. This part is cattails. The heads of the cattails are old springs.

In other news: I did well at the event, and it continues through tomorrow, so I'll be back there in the morning.

Hart Montague Rail Trail, Muskegon County, MI, 3+ miles north side of Whitehall

See Holiday Bike Ride

My Trailer Redo - Days 119-122 -That Big Patch Job

  I am unbelievably pleased with how this turned out. I have zero/zilch/no/nada experiene working with Bondo in big areas, and this stupid space has a ridged hump in the middle. I was prepared to settle for moderately good. Instead, I got this to pretty darn good. Not 100% professional grade, but not shabby.

Let me remind you of the size of the hole I had to start with.

There is nothing fast about doing a project like this. I had kept working on building up the fiberglass in this area for quite a while. Every time I had some leftover resin from some other fix, I would slap on a little more fiberglass. There was nothing over 1/8 inch deep anywhere. Most was much less. The hole was initially covered in 2017 (wow- I've been working on this trailer for 5 years!), and I managed to get a hint of the ridge in the initial repair.

Well, you start by just filling it in- no matter how big the hole is. Smash the Bondo in to prevent having air gaps. Biggest tip from a friend- don't do it when the temperature is hot because the Bondo sets up even faster than normal. Second tip from me- if the can of Bondo you have has thickened over time, throw it out and go buy a new one.

First sanding- just to see how things are going. The lighter areas are sanded. The rest are spaces that still need to be filled and brought up to the right depth.

Repeat those two steps time after time, cleaning the dust off between each application, trying not to overfill so that you have to sand down a lot of product. This is getting closer- you can see there is a lot more light area, and much less dark.

I realized sometime yesterday that this was actually turning out pretty good. I was able to reconstruct the ridge. And at that point, I wanted to keep working on all the little dips and pits to try to get it nice and level. Here was the situation this afternoon. (The area below the bottom ridge is just going to have to be slightly rough. That's where I accidentally cut through the shell taking out the air conditioner, and I had to patch both the inside and the outside to get it to stop leaking. I can live with that.)

And looking at an angle down the length of the ridge. Not factory perfect, but way better than I thought I could do.

I decided that the large areas oould benefit from an extra coat of primer, so I slapped that on early this evening. You can really see how the ridge turned out in this one.

I didn't want to try to put primer on more of the trailer because I'm taking it out next week. I'd just get it covered with bugs and have to wash it all again when I get home. But I am pretty much ready to clean and finish the painting. I did find just a couple more little dings to Bondo, but they are no big deal.

In other news: I could not wake up today. It was humid, and that never helps. But I got the trailer pretty much loaded for next week, got ready for the vendor event, and I worked on one of my editing projects. There's another reading event yet tonight. I'm posting early because I have to get up and be functional earlier than I like in the morning.

See Index to Fiberglass Trailer Refurbish See Bigger Bondo

Mixed Bag

  Although I'm not sure we are going to get any rain, the sky this evening was beautiful as clouds gathered.

Maybe the best thing I did was make a pickle macaroni salad. It's really good. I think the only change I might make is to add some red onion.

I contninued to work on the trailer. Almost done patching the big hole- maybe that will be tomorrow's news. Meanwhile, I need to have Sunny ready to go on Monday. Where? Stay tuned.

The news is all over the map: errands, trailer work, bookwork, making the salad, organizing things for the weekend and next week. And another book event in the evening.

See Cauliflower Salad

Trail Work and a Pretty

  I haven't been on the trail much lately- it's been hot, and I've started working on the trailer. And I was doing a lot of editing. These are all good things (OK, maybe not the heat). But today, Andrea asked if we could get out to continue the blazing on her section, and it all came together. Isn't the trail appealing with all the greenery?

We didn't get a lot done. Sigh. It just takes a long time to do it right. This is one of the old blazes. Red pine- never the best choice, but it's what is growing there. The bark on red pine just flakes and flakes. A couple of swipes, and this blaze was completely on the ground. Did a good scraping, and painted a new one.

Anyway, we did a half mile. That's a half mile more than would have been done if we hadn't gone.

Both of the small creeks in this section are completely dry, but one of them has blue flag growing. One of my favorites.

After Andrea left, I finally got things fixed (almost) at the Freesoil Trailhead where a new snowmobile trail was put in that cut right across the trail and obliterated any indication of where to go on the north side of the road. So consider this a public service announcement. The magenta line is how you used to cross the road, on an angle to the west. Now, you'll go straight across- see the Carsonite post on the other side.

You go for a few yards on an old 2-track road. This is the place I could not totally get right today. There is absolutely nothing on which to paint a blaze for the left turn. I think I'll have to put in a 4x4 post. However, you CAN see the next blaze if you look left. I chose this route, because it means the trail does not cross the snowmobile trail at all. Seems safer That trail comes up the seasonal road to the corner, crosses Freesoil Road and makes an abrupt left. Our trail now stays to the east of that motor trail corner.

After you make the left turn, then you have to make an abrupt right to get on the former route of the trail. That turn is correctly marked now. You can see the turn blaze if you squint at the picture. It's been over a year they've had that whole construction area torn up, so it feels good to have it close to properly marked.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 324.

In other news: I edited. I made yogurt. I worked on a pet project. I worked on that big Bondo project on the trailer. I had another book meeting this evening.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Freesoil Trailhead south and back- total 4 miles

See Lopping, No Loping