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Monday, October 8, 2018

Day Twenty-Two - Midland to Mackinac

 
Jumped the gun a little on the ending of the rain. Oh well. I walked in hard rain for an hour, but then things cleared up and the rest of the day was beautiful and warm.

Made it past the community of Aloha, and Aloha State Park.

Aloha Michigan town garden

This beautiful carving done in a stump is at the entrance to the park. Look at how even the roots are painted.

eagle carved into a tree stump

The trail swings by the shores of Mullett Lake, which is really large. After the rain cleared it was quite warm, so mist was rising from everywhere. It made the water and sky all swirl together, even with a distant shoreline.

Mullett Lake

I just liked this interesting little fungus on the end of a log.

brown fungus

In one place a large swath of white cedar needles had fallen across the trail. The pattern is fascinating.

white cedar needles

Finally, both "tunnel" pictures I took today are inviting, with the sun shining through wet leaves. I think I like the first one better, but each has a unique feel.

rail trail with sunny leaves

rail trail with sunny leaves

My feet aren't crazy about these 14-mile days on the hard surface. Actually, the feet as a whole are fine, but the two toenails I'm losing are sore tonight. Neither one is quite ready to fall off yet.

People must have been waiting to pounce on a nice afternoon. By the time I turned around and started back, there were power boats on the lake, a kayaker, a bicyclist on the trail and another walker on the trail. She said she saw me go by her house in the rain on the way out.

kayaker

Looks like the weather is going to cooperate tomorrow, but Wednesday may be a complete washout. I'm not walking in thunderstorms. We'll see what the sky actually produces. I'd like to try to pick up a bit of that missing section on the way home on Friday, but it has hardly stopped raining since the day the roads were flooded before. Probably, they haven't improved.

Forward progress: another 7 miles. Total miles walked today: 14 again. Total trail miles to date: 179. I haven't added up the total miles walked yet. I'll do that later.

See Day Twenty-One
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2 comments:

Ann said...

That carving of the eagle is amazing. Someone is very talented. That first picture of the tree tunnel is very inviting.

Sharkbytes said...

Ann- I also thought the first tunnel picture really drew me in.