On the outward walk, the skies were still rather gray, but even so, the lake had a treat for me.
Can you spot it? Nice reflection and texture pic in there!
I liked how soft and green the young white pines looked. (McCarthy Creek is down the hill ahead of us)
Today, you could see the large beaver pond that is south of McCarthy Lake. However, it just doesn't show up in pictures through the trees. See the little bit of blue and light brown (old cattails) out in the distance? It's a huge wetland, about 50 acres.
And believe it or not, despite the many times I've walked this, I discovered another little mystery. There is a tiny creek south of the beaver pond, but it's big enough that the Chapter built a small bridge over it. It's not on the topo map. However, the NCT interactive map has just added some additional basemap options. One of them shows this, and labels it as McCarthy Creek. It make it looks as if the creek arises south of the beaver pond, flows north through the beaver pond, and then is joined by the outflow from McCarthy Lake (a kettle hole with no inflow), and then it continues northward to the Big Sable River. Here is the "unknown" creek today.
And here is the known crossing of McCarthy Creek, north of the lake. I've been thinking for a while that following this would make a fun bushwhacking adventure, and now I'll HAVE to check it out.
I love this section of trail, and we did seven miles.
Total miles hiked in 2024: 127.7 of which 30.7 is North Country Trail. (7 NCT for Cathy)
North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. 3-Mile Rd to Centerline and back, 7 miles
 | See McCarthy Lake- Day 427 |
2 comments:
Looks like it was a beautiful day.
Ann- truly!
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