Today I continued along the Manistee River. It was really hilly as the trail has to dip down and up at every little creek. Sometimes the trail was high above the river.
And sometimes, the trail is down more on the river's level. There are so many conifers that this is a very pretty river in any season because there is so much green.
The big news is SPRING! Well, not really because it's going to get chilly again next week, but we are experiencing several really warm days this week. I've heard peepers and chorus frogs. Yesterday I saw mourning cloak butterflies and an orange one I couldn't ID from a distance. Bill and I had been hearing sandhill cranes almost since we started hiking, and we saw some fly over, but today two of them hiked with me!
In the fungal world, scarlet cup is a sure sign of spring.
This is probably from last fall, but the neat holes of the yellow-bellied sapsucker are always intriguing.
As close as I can figure with the newest map updates, I have a total of 314 miles yet to hike. However, I want to save up to 60 of these nearest home (my Spirit of the Woods Chapter section) till last. I might hike about 20 of those and only save 40. And I have the 106 miles in the western UP that I probably can't do until June. That leaves 148-168 that I can do on this particular outing. If I could average 10-mile days (I know that's fewer than I was doing, but my knees are pretty sore) that's all very do-able. Hopefully, the warm weather is rotting the snow north of here. Of course, there will have to be a few days off. I've hiked 11 days in a row now, and I'm starting to feel it, but I'm not stopping until the rains come this weekend.
This is all to lead up to... drum roll... 4500 MILES. This is pretty astounding, but I find it even more astounding that I'm still not done with this trail.
Miles today: 9.8. Total miles so far: 4500.5.
 | See Manistee River |
4 comments:
Congrats on your 4500 miles! I enjoy reading your updates and viewing your photos. One day at a time and you will get it done!
That's a lot of miles. Very impressive.
Congratulations Joan!! We saw quite a few "orange" butterflies on our forest road walk yesterday. My ID notes from past years tell me we might have been seeing the Compton Tortoiseshell or even a Milbert's Tortoiseshell. They emerge from hibernation as adults in late March and early April.
Thanks, all! My guess is the Compton's Tortoiseshell, but I wasn't close enough to be sure.
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