How to have lunch:
1. Take a friend (Ellen). Find a place in the woods to leave a little green car.
2. Hike about 3 miles on sand roads that look as if they are never used (wrong). Talk with a man in a white pickup truck who passes us who assumes that we are lost. Talk with a man in a black pickup truck who IS lost. He wants to know if we can help him find 6-Mile Bridge. (We could, but he was really not anywhere near where he wanted to be, and had no idea how he got where he was. I drew him a map and sent him on his way).
3. Find Black Lake, a tiny little kettle hole lake with public land on the north edge, and three cottages on the south.
4. Try to find a spot out of the wind- not a possibility. Sit down anyway and pull out our lunches. Try to eat normally and pretend that we are really having a good time. Finally admit to each other that we are freezing and that it seems like the temperature has dropped in the last 90 minutes.
5. Try to get the dog to take a drink from the lake. "I'm not putting my feet in that cold water," says Maggie.
6. Find leaves of birdsfoot violet! At least some hope of a wildflower or two before June.
7. Hike back to car, and express joy in being outside in a good temperature for hiking (just not sitting in the wind!). Fridays with Ellen are getting to be one of the best parts of my week. Not too many people think that these kinds of activities make a nearly perfect day.
P.S. If you want to see how I spent the evening, check out Story on Stage
 | See I Could Do This For a Living |
Flowers are out everywhere here but sadly we won't see birdsfoot violet, had a thunderstorm last night and the grass seems to have grown 6 inches overnight :)
ReplyDeleteThat does look cold! Check out my latest post for some woodland wildflowers in NE Iowa. It will be your turn soon.
ReplyDeleteAnd, maybe you could help me identify one of the plants.
Casey
aside from the being cold part it sounds like a good way to spend the day to me. I don't blame Maggie for not wanting to get her feet wet
ReplyDeleteDon't you love how you convince yourself you are not freezing when you really are?? And when you finally admit it, the other person does too?? :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun day. :) Glad you are warm again.
Carol- Is that one plant you folks don't have? I'd never seen it till I came to Michigan.
ReplyDeleteCasey- I'll be over to see what I can do. I love plant ID puzzles.
Ann- It really was great, we just didn't expect it to feel so cold
Lin- what was amazing was that the tiny pond that is Black Lake could provide enough open water for the wind to pick up cold, damp velocity, but it sure did.
It's wonderful to have a friend like Ellen, with whom you share your love of hiking, exploring, camping and braving the elements! I'm such a whimp, I'd throw in the towel as soon as I got cold!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a near perfect day to me.
ReplyDelete