State Park Loop

 Today was non-stop busy.

I had laundry on the line by 8:30 in the morning. Had a Zoom meeting at 9 and then follow up stuff after that until lunch. Took down the laundry. Edited. Then I did errands and went for a walk. Usually, before bell practice, I just walk around the trails near the Mehodist Church. But the weather was gorgeous. I decided to drive a little farther and take a walk at Ludington State Park.

I really love the Island Trail, so I hiked out on that. This is looking out into Hamlin Lake from near the beginning of the trail.

The trail connects a string of islands that form Lost Lake. All the lakes with that name- a lot in Michigan- didn't get lost. They were formed because a ridge of land separated them from a larger body of water, so this one is "lost" from Hamlin Lake. In this picture Lost Lake is on the left.

I wasn't sure how much hiking time I'd have because of the errands. But I made it to the north end of the Island Trail, and this CCC cabin, in good time.

So I decided to do a loop with some other trails. I headed inland on the Ridge Trail. That is a high trail with some topography. You get glimpses of Lake Michigan from up there.

The Ridge Trail is just what it says- on top of a ridge. You can sort of see how high a lot of it is in this picture.

You can choose to return to the parking several ways. Today, I got off the Ridge Trail and returned via the Lost Lake Trail which goes on the west side of Lost Lake. But right at the junction, you can get a shot of how the Island Trail connects the eastern edges. See the bridge out there? I zoomed way in to get the picture.

Then there was bell practice. The hard piece we are working on for Christmas is starting to come together. I think this day was packed full enough

Miles walked in 2026: 676.6
Ludington State Park: Island Trail, Ridge Trail, Lost Lake Trail loop. 4.6 miles

See My Favorite Ludington SP Loop

The Rest of Granny's Quilts

 I believe I have now collected into one place all the quilts I still have that Granny made, and they are all clean. I've previously shown you four of them (and a couple of comforters). All the quilts were made before 1950. Can't do better on timing than that.

This one is perhaps the most spectacular of these four. I believe the design is called "Pink Dahlia."

It's interesting, because the design seems to be very curvy, but notice that all the pieces are triangles with straight edges. This is piecework.

This one is a "Lily" design. Sometimes it's called "Tulips." Anyway, Again, it has a lot of pink- not my favorite as we all know. This is applique. The motif is upside down in the picture.

This closeup is right side up.

This one is perhaps less interesting, but it's yet another technique. The "Flower Basket" design is all embroidered. Some of the threads are worn, but if you like pink it's nice.

Here's a better look at the design.

These three quilts are mostly less spectacular than the ones I've shown you before (links at end), but it's just the order that I located them- no sort of ranking intended.

There is one other that I can't find at all. It's possible that this one got worn out and went by the wayside. This may be some variation on "Bear Claw." I have two books from which Granny took most of her patterns, so it's possible it's in one of those. The dog in the picture is Jeremiah who died in 1975, so this quilt hasn't been seen in quite a while.

In other news: I worked at cleaning up some of the mess I've created in unpacking all this stuff. There is yet more to share in the coming days. I brought up one more big box from the other building, cleaned and sorted it. Almost all of that is going to the resale store. I'll keep just a couple of things. There was nothing special at all in there. (And none of the missing cups!)

See Granny's Favorite Quilt? See Lone Star Quilt See Quilts

"Clementine" China

 Today's feature is china that I know nothing about. I don't remember it ever being used or discussed at our house, and yet, it was in boxes that came from Mom's house.

This is the Clementine pattern of Pope Gosser china. This was made in Coshocton, Ohio. This pattern was probably made around 1957 and the company went out of business in 1958.

The fact that it dates from that late has me completely stumped as to who it belonged to. I can't imagine anyone in my family was buying china at that point. The only thing that MIGHT fit is that date is about when Granny moved from Hamilton, NY to where I lived. I suppose she might have bought new dishes, but I have no memory of using these. That said... they are pink and fancy and I wouldn't have liked them. Although I lived with Granny a fair amount of the time after she moved to my hometown, I can't pull up any recollection of what dishes we did use. I remember almost all of the dishes from home though. Staying with Granny was not in the category of my favorite things.

The point is, these are not of any special family significance.

What I seem to have is 4 dinner plates, 4 small plates, 5 small bowls, and 3 saucers. Again... no cups.

I spent some time in the building where I think the box with all the missing cups must be. No luck. But it HAS to be there.

I did manage to find all the quilts (except one that I haven't seen for 50 years, so maybe it wore out because it wasn't in great shape even then), now washed, that Granny made. They are collected into one location. I've shown you some of them. I'll go through the whole bunch on the blog once more because I've found homes for a few of them.

But, you wouldn't believe the amount of time I spent looking for the rest of the pile of quilts that I had previously cleaned and put away. I had nearly exhausted all the places I could think of for where I might have put them, but eventually I found them. Needless to say, that whole process did not improve the neatness of the house.

That said, I think I will start packing up some of the china again. With a value threshold, Replacements, Ltd, will accept dropoffs of china and flatware. I know I can easily make that cutoff because I also have a ton of family silverware that needs to go somewhere. That would be a fun road trip- to North Carolina. I think I'll start contemplating that.

While I was hunting for the cups, I did find at least one other box of stuff from Mom's house that can be sorted and gotten rid of. Yeah, it's only one box, but one box at a time is better than nothing.

I also made an initial contact with the museum where some family items are going to go.

I get pats on the head for a day of progress on this hopeless sorting project even if not much actual progress was made.

See Gascow Rose Tea Set

Spirit of the Woods Hike - November 2026

 Today was the monthly Spirit of the Woods Chapter Hike. We had a great turnout with 27 people and 5 dogs in the picture. I think two more people and 2 more dogs arrived just after it was taken.

In order to reach a nice location on a group hike, we started at a road crossing that isn't really a trailhead, but it doesn't get much traffic, so it wasn't a problem to park along the road.

The good destination was McCarthy Lake, one of my favorite of the local trail places. Most of the leaves came down with this week's rain, but there was still some good color there.

A new small bridge on this section.

We were glad it's late enough in the season that this wasp nest wasn't active. It wasn't very high above the trail at all.

After the hike, quite a few of the people went to President Dan's cottage for a finger-food lunch. Yum. I took the picture before all the food arrived. If anyone went home hungry it was their own fault!

Our chapter has a very exciting opportunity coming up in 2027. I won't say more about it just yet, but I spent just a few minutes sharing with the group, and their response was positive. Stay tuned!

As almost all our chapter hikes, it was an out-and-back, so people can make the hike as long or short as they want. Some of us went out 3 miles and then back. One person recovering from medical issues did 1.2 miles and was very pleased at being able to do that much. How far one hikes has nothing to do with "success."

Miles walked in 2026: 672
2026 miles hiked on NCT: 134.2

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. 3-Mile Rd, south for 3.1 miles and back for a total of 6.2.

See SPW Hike Sept 2026

Sylvan Scouting

 Today, five people went out to scout a possible route to get a piece of the North Country Trail off road. This is near where we scouted last year (link at end), but not connected to that.

That piece is currently in a holding pattern while landowners are being contacted - at least that is being attempted. So far, there hasn't been much success.

This piece has a much better chance of happening. The man in the gray jacket and hat is going to grant an easement for us to get onto Forest Service property. This will eliminate about 3/4 mile of roadwalk.

Yes, the NCTA people have their noses buried in electronics. We were trying to take good tracks and mark waypoints of interest in terms of finding the best route through the area.

Here, Kurt and Kenny are checking out the property corner post. Kurt is a chapter member who lives in the neighborhood and he's been making a lot of the contacts including the one that has led to this easement. Kenny is the NCTA staff member (Michigan Regional Trail Coordinator) who will help orchestrate all the administrative pieces of the puzzle.

And why is it "Sylvan Scouting?" Sylvan means "woods," and we were in the woods (Penn- sylvania = Penn's woods). But the real reason is that the biggest issue with this route is that the trail will need to cross Sylvan Creek. It's a little bigger than we expected, and in the spring, the accompanying wetlands will be much wider.

Here's where the deer cross it.

Don't hold your breath. The Forest Service will have to do a NEPA study. They are probably the ones who will choose where the bridge will be, and it will need to be large enough that it must be engineered. Depending on what a scouting hike in the spring shows, there are wetlands that will have to at least have puncheon if not raised boardwalk. Lots of hummocky areas make that clear.

But once across the creek the land rises and should be high and dry to get back out to the next road.

We collected valuable information, and this is the first step.

In other news: I went to the store yet again, and did some other planning stuff for the trail.

Miles walked in 2026: 665.8
Bushwhacking for possible NCT route: 3 miles

See Scouting