Year Two... And, Go - Day 366

  Today's walk was pleasant. I enjoyed the way the little bit of old snow created white shapes, and the dusting of new snow turned the leaves to pastel.

I'm always fascinated when the cut ends of logs show a star pattern from being cut just above a node where new branches emerged when the tree was growing. This one was even more interesting, in that some fungus had grown only on certain textures of the cut wood, enhancing the shapes.

Just another appealing picture of the trail today through woods. The old snow was crusty, but usually it had a clear treadway.

The landmark today was that we walked through Valley Spur Ski Area. This is the lodge. The skiers would like more snow ASAP, but we were happy to walk less slippery trails.

The biggest challenge of the day was that we had to take a late start because Bill had an online appointment that was not negotiable. We didn't put feet on the trail until 10:45. That meant we finished in the last of the sunlight with a road walk. See the alpenglow?

Another thing that held us up in the morning was getting information that was SO worth the delay. Last night we figured out a way to walk through Pictured Rocks as day hikes. Right after we finished making that plan, Bill found a map that showed all the secondary access roads (the ones we needed) as closed starting December 1, and only open to snowmobiles. Well, there's no snow, but how serious are they about closures? Would we get ticketed, or worse, towed if we drove in to these internal trailheads? We were able to get a concrete answer that we would not be in trouble. They just like to be consistent with their winter preparations, so they use that date. We promised to use good judgement, but there's nothing in the forecast but some light flurries for the next few days. We think we are golden to get through.

We finished the hike just at dark, using the blinking mode on my little light for safety. We celebrated good miles and the workable Pictured Rocks plan by getting olive burgers and tater tots before heading "home."

One thing that was neat, although it was too dark to get a picture, is that Munising was having some sort of evening Christmas shopping/family event. One street was all blocked off and we couldn't figure out why. Then we saw a team of horses pulling a wagonload of people. There were free rides through town!

Miles today:14.7. Total miles so far: 4192.6.

See One Year