Today was my day to have the stitches out of my mouth, requiring a trip to Muskegon. I couldn't waste the drive!
Well, I wanted to get another short Newaygo County trail to write about, so I went to Branstrom Park in Fremont. They are supposed to have a wooded two-mile hiking loop.
Yes, yes they do. The sign says it's well-marked. Hmm. Some of it is well marked. I had to stop someone right out of the parking lot and ask where the loop started. OK, got it. Then it was quite well marked. Until it wasn't. Or maybe it was. But the problem is that the park also has a disc golf course so there are trails all over the place. I managed to walk 2.5 miles, and I think I missed a section of the actual trail.
When I lost the trail and then came back to an intersection where I'd been before, I knew I'd gotten messed up.
I was using Avenza to track my route, which would allow me to find my way back even it I got really off. An awful lot of trails show up on Open Streets Map which is free with the Avenza download. But this one was not there. And I hadn't been able to find a map online (well, for free. AllTrails has it, but I'm not a member).
Anyway, after I lost the marked trail again, and came to another fork that was marked to the right, I chose left because I needed to get back to the car and on to the dentist. Found this cute little covered table.
Near the beginning are a couple of small bridges. The waterway is Daisy Brook Creek. I liked this rustic one, although the other was nice too. The pictures are a little dull. At this point in the day, it was completely cloudy. There were even rain showers on my way there.
Along the traills, I saw a few interesting things. This banded metamorphic rock is really nice. Not sure of the minerals.
This is Oriental Bittersweet. I didn't see a lot of it, thankfully, because it strangles trees and kills them. It's an invasive.
These awesome trees were hugging. The red is an oak (maybe scarlet or pin), and the yellow is a quaking aspen.
So, I got myself back to the car, but with having trouble finding the right parking lot and losing the trail twice, I had to call the dentist and tell them I'd be late. They were gracious.
The stitches are out, and they said it's healing really well. I have to wait until at least January before they can do an implant, so I have that long to decide if I really want it. I think I'm going to miss that tooth a lot, but I'll need to sell a lot of books and do some serious editing to pay for it.
Then... OH! One of my favorite things. I drove home on whatever back road I wanted. The sky cleared and it was a totally stunning day to be out for a rural drive in the fall. I have some pictures I definitly want to share, but they'll need to wait for another day. For today, I'll just share the Beaver Moon, coming up as I was writing this.
Now I have to do some kitchen stuff. And before I left this morning, I managed to fix a problem with my database. Great day!
I have to decide if I can use this hike and Old Grade in my news column. That was my plan, but neither trail is easy to follow. This one is nice in that it's only two miles, but has quite a bit of topography, so you can get some real exercise without a long hike.
Miles hiked in 2025: 429.4
Branstrom Park, Fremont, MI. various trails 2.5 miles
 | See Exploring Old Grade |
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