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Sunday, April 26, 2020

I Couldn't Stay Inside

 
Today was supposed to be nice, and the rest of the week not so much, so I just had to go out again.

Most of what I hiked is North Country Trail in Wexford County, but then I did a few more miles that connect with what Teeny and I just did a couple days ago.

This is an unnamed creek just east of 12 Road where the trail goes into the Pere Marquette State Forest. I'm not sure if I've seen this exact location before or not. Most of this entire section of trail was re-routed when the wonderful right-of-way along Hodenpyl Dam Pond was made possible by Consumers Energy. I think this is different, and I'm too lazy to get out the maps and really look it up right now.

creek in dappled sun

This is another piece along the Manistee River. Actually, from the time the North Country Trail first crosses the Manistee, at Highbridge, it more or less follows it for about 60 trail miles. Here, the trail undulates between river level and the bluff (which isn't as high above the water as where I was a couple of days ago). There are lots of great views.

Manistee River

If this is not exactly where I hiked with Angie (see chapter "Sneaky Valley" in North Country Cache), it looks very similar with lots of White Cedar growing beside the river.

white cedar

Here is one of many, many oxbows along this old river.

oxbow on Manistee River

I was looking forward to a 60 degree day, and it actually hit 70! Wow. Sun, warmth, my favorite trail. Here is a clump of marsh marigolds.

marsh marigolds

And a nice perky Trout Lily.

trout lily

A Yellow-bellied sapsucker had been busy on this fallen tree.

yellow-bellied sapsucker holes

This walk was 6 miles (out and back), but I really wanted to connect with Eddington Creek from the other direction. I know, I've hiked it a gazillion times, but that is the northernmost piece of trail our chapter maintains, and I've been trying to get condition reports to the president, so I didn't want to leave this piece out. Anyway, this is the old rail bed of the Michigan and Northeastern RR, which we now follow for over a mile.

old rail bed

That added a total of just over 3 more miles, so I ended up walking 9 miles today. North Country Trail total for 2020 is at 177.

In other news: hmmm... I did something else this morning, but I have no idea what at the moment.

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI, 12 Road to Harvey Bridge and back. Manistee County, MI, Hodenpyl Dam to Eddington Creek and back.

See Teeny's First Overnight- Day 2

2 comments:

Ann said...

Sounds like a perfect day. Who could ask for anything more.

Secondary Roads said...

Can't remember what happened? Sounds like my day.