South Channel Light

 I was hunkered down at the computer, and had been for hours, when Cathy called and suggested a walk. Yes!

We went out to the Ludington south channel. This is the opposite side of the channel from the lighthouse. You can see both in this picture, but it would be 10 miles to walk from where we were to the Ludington light. We were headed for the red striped light on the left.

The water near shore was an amazing turquoise, although farther out it was deep blue. You can just kind of see that in the pictures above and below this one.

Although we probably could have made it to the south light safely by hugging the channel side of the walk, Cathy didn't want to get as wet as seemed likely!

On the way back to the car we walked through the Pere Marquette memorial. This is where Jacques Marquette may have died.

We added a little more to our hike by climbing the 73 steps up the dune to walk through Buttersville Campground. That had more shade and made a nice ending to our walk.

The little adventure made a good break in my computer-bound day- editing and other stuff.

Miles walked in 2026: 300.7
A loop from Buttersville Park, Mason County, to partway out the south breakwall and back. 3.8 miles

See Liquid Air

Onekama Township Parks

One of the things you can do for the Onekama Challenge is visit all 7 Onekama Township Parks to get a sticker. Today, Cathy and I went and did that. There were places you could hike/walk at 3 of them.

First we went to John Langland Park which is where the channel from Portage Lake enters Lake Michigan. There is a short accessable walkway to the beach, but by hiking a little extra down to a public access point we were able to hike along the channel to the light on the north breakwall.

I do love these Lake Michigan pictures with nothing but sky and water.

There were ducks alongside the breakwall. Mama merganser...

And a raft of teenagers trailing her.

Then we went to North Point Park where there were also hiking trails. Part were paved for accessibiltiy, and part were dirt surface. One short loop was gravel. A nice feature there was a garden of native plants that are labeled in Braille, Anishinaabemowin, Spanish, and English. Most of the plants are very new or gone. Hopefully it will be maintained. That had 2 miles of trails, and they were fine, but my favorites were the lakeside one above, and the next one.

There was a mile of trail at Glen Park. This is the site of a mineral spring where a grand hotel was built in the late 1800s. The waters were considered restorative, and people traveled from all over to visit. Here is Cathy on a bridge over the creek.

Several places in the creek still have these ceramic tiles sunk in them to contain pools of the mineral water. And these three are under a shelter to help preserve them. I sampled the water, and yup, it has that oily, mineral taste.

Of course the hotel burned long ago, and we couldn't even figure out where it had been. This park had the most primitive trail and the most topography.

After we visited all seven (two of them we barely got out of the car because it was just a matter of taking a picture of a sign for wetland preserves- but it was good to know the township is preserving a fair amount of wetlands), we went for ice cream. Came home, did a few errands, voted. Oh yeah, I got laundry on the line before we left this morning. I had a Zoom event at 6 pm, but I forgot. Hopefully it was recorded.

Miles walked in 2026: 277.2
Onekama Challenge: 89.0 miles

Onekama Township, Michigan, John Langland Park, Glen Park, and North Point Park trails. Total 4.1 miles

See Portage Lake- A Brief Glimpse

Eight Miles at Bowman

Got in a good hike with Cathy and here is the selfie to prove it!.

We had planned to hike in the warmer part of the day, but then I found out I had a meeting right after lunch, so we went earlier. Temperature was hovering right at 32° and it snowed on us for a while. But it did warm up a bit before we finished.

The red morning sky really didn't live up to its reputation. I don't think a few snow flurries counts for much in the way of storming. But it was very pretty.

My goal was to walk eight miles. We started at the north parking area and walked south for four miles on the NCT. I usually do the loop, half of which is not NCT, but I wanted miles that would count for Hike 100 today. This took us south of 56th St for an additional mile. Then we had a snack and turned back.

Bowman Lake is one of my favorite places on our trail. It's a glacial kettle lake. Looks a little hazy with the snow flurries.

This is a sight you don't really see in the summer. This is the ridge of hills on the northeast side of the Pere Marquette River, across the river from where we were.

Then we ran into a trail crew! Jack was out cutting downed trees, and Sue and Kathy were swamping for him. Dumb me, I didn't take a picture of them working. We had been thinking that the trail was pretty clear without too many things to step over, but now it's completely clear between 56th and 40th Streets!

We moved one of their vehicles for them so they wouldn't have to backtrack, and I made it to my meeting on time.

I'm trying to stretch my mileages. We did the full eight, and my hips and knees were a little stiff but OK. And I was tired, but I did manage to work on a few things in the afternoon. I wasn't totally done in. Elevation max and min were only 125 feet apart, but there were numerous ups and downs, so this was a good workout.

Miles walked in 2026: 129.0
Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 32.6

North Country Trail, Lake Co. Michigan, 40th St south four miles and back for 8 total.

See Bowman Lake 2024

2.5 Sloppy Ones

Since yesterday was so nasty, I really wanted to get out and do some hiking today. Cathy and I went to Timber Creek. The snow was better for snowmen than for hiking.

It was very sloppy. I wore the foam snowshoes, and Cathy just wore cleats. Neither was ideal. Ideal was not an option. The woods was stark with wet trees and partially melted snow.

The most interesting thing we saw was a hole where some critter poked its nose. We didn't see tracks, though.

We walked out and back. So if you want to hike north from Timber Creek things are pretty well compacted for 1.25 miles right now!

I edited and did miscellaneous stuff.

Miles hiked in 2026: 9.2
Hike 100 2026: 6.7

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Timber Creek north for 1.25 miles out and back.

See SPW January Hike

Christmas 2025

Quite a nice holiday, actually.

Om went and picked up Josh to ensure that he would show up. Steve called and we did gift opening with phone commentary. He's done that the past few years, but he seemed to really get into it today with me sending him pictures of the various gifts. So, that was really fun.

After the successful experiment a few days ago, I made a real batch of the low cal/carb cinnamon rolls. These turned out even better. I learned a few things the first time.

The table looks good. But wait... five plates?

Yup! Doug and Cathy were going to go spend the day with one of their daughters. But all the kids are really sick, so they are waiting a few days. That was perfect- they came and ate with us. We had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry relish, and a low-cal chocolate dessert. That list sounds impressive, but we really kept it simple. It's also a meal that most everyone will eat.

Cathy brought a game we all played. It's called Marbles and Jokers. It's very similar to Sorry, but it will work for three to eight players, and there is more strategy to it. Doug won if anyone cares. The board is very ingenious. Each player choses a color and you hinge the sections together with a 2-D ball and socket joint to create the track.

We tried to get a family picture. Well. Josh says this is his smiling face. We couldn't find a location where the light didn't bounce off my hair. Om looks pretty good.

As is so true in most holiday homes, the day started with cleaning up the kitchen so that I could make another kitchen mess. The second one is partially cleaned up. Om took care of all the wrappings (most are fabric and bags, so it's just a matter of folding them and putting back in the box. The only paper wrapping here is on things someone else brought in.)

Cathy gave me a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, I have six new ones. I may have to start one this week. She also brought some pumpkin bread and sweet snacks. That bag of mint M&Ms got opened and devoured.

I'll share some of our loot another day. Right now, I'm beat. And too full of food.

See Food Coma

Two More Snowy Miles

Cathy and I and a third person went and did another two miles on the NCT on snowshoes. We went where others had hiked just before the weekend, so the snow was not completely unbroken.

Even though there was a path (partially filled in from new snow), we were perfectly content to just do a mile in and then back out. That was tough enough. I apparently have less stamina on snowshoes than I used to have.

It was cold, but we bundled up and were plenty warm. Good to be outside!

I had another event this evening, but I'll tell you more about that later.

Miles hiked in 2025: 468.9
Miles hiked on the NCT in 2025: 253.8

North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI. North from Udell TH one mile and back.

See Spirit of the Woods Hike- December

Logging Trail

Anyone local knows that Ludington State Park was closed for 10 months getting major upgrades, mostly to the roads. It's now open again. Although we did drive around to see the new blacktop, the trails are the same. We hiked the Logging Trail. It's mostly in white pines, so the color was green.

Who is "we?" Cathy and I went.

There are three of the CCC shelters remaining from the 1930s, and two of them are on this trail. The hexagonal one is where we took the selfie, and this one is the more traditional style.

This loop is has a little topography, so you don't feel as if you are just out for a stroll. Back at the campground there are more deciduous trees, so there was some color to see.

The park was very busy for a fall weekday. That said, there's plenty of room to spread out. We did see a few other hikers on the same trail, but it wasn't crowded.

Had to stop along the road on the way back to town. A photo of Lake Michigan is practically required. The clear blues of October are always great!

In other news, I edited a lot. I made yogurt.

Miles hiked in 2025: 397.5

Ludington State Park, Logging Trail loop from the campground. 3.7 miles

See Logging Trail 2010

Victory Township Park

I am flabbergasted to discover that I've apparently never blogged about Victory Township Park. There is a short trail out there which I manage to hike every few years. Cathy and I went there this morning.

It's on Upper Hamlin Lake. Here's a view from the parking area.

There are a few trails. It's always a guessing game when I go out there to see which ones are in good condition. However, this time, things seemed marked quite well, and the trails are being used.

One nice feature of the park is a Veteran's Memorial which is always well-kept. It honors those from Victory Township who were killed in WWI and WWII.

The Stiff Aster is in bloom. It's much prettier than the picture. The flowers are clear blue, but the camera just can't seem to grab the color.

We hiked every inch of every trail possible, even checking out some dead ends. I'll be writing about this and Gale's Pond in my Ludington Daily News Column this month.

Managed a bit of computer work this afternoon. One of my back teeth broke a piece off today, so I'll need a dentist appointment, but they are closed until Monday. So far, it doesn't hurt.

Miles hiked in 2025 (this includes some hiking out back of my house that I don't bother reporting every day): 362.

Victory Park- red, green and blue trails. 1.7 miles

See Views of Hamlin Lake

Ten on the Dragon

As part of my continuing conditioning, I wanted to get in a ten mile hike this week. Collette and Sue met up with Cathy and me and we did 10 miles on the Dragon Trail which goes around Hardy Dam Pond.

We hiked from Newaygo SP to Brower Park. I thought this was going to get me all new miles on the trail but it did overlap with what Ellen and I did last year (link at end). No matter. The whole loop is now open and is over 40 miles. I've done just under 20 of them.

The day started out overcast, so we didn't have blue water, but some errant ray of sunshine must have been lighting these trees at the bottom of the bank below us.

By the end of the day we did get some of that blue water!

This trail wanders through Newaygo and Mecosta Counties. So this was our joke of the day. We call this a Mecosta Moose.

OK, it's obviously a horse. But how often do you come across a horse tethered in the woods with no human nearby? And it's wearing a harness. Around the next bend, we came across a wagon, also just sitting in the woods, empty. Still no human. The horse is obviously well cared for, and was not distressed, but the whole thing just made us chuckle. And scratch our heads.

Got a cool pattern picture in Rosy Run where we ate our lunch.

The big news of the day was wildflowers. I even got a new one! So you know it's a stellar day in my book. There were so many, I'll do a separate post about them tomorrow. Also, I think I've IDed a cool fungus that I also saw on the big hike.

Afterwards, Cathy and I came home by way of.. (do you recognize the location?)

... Country Dairy for some ice cream. A fantastic day, and my body is accepting the 10 miles pretty well.

Miles hiked in 2025: 190.8

Dragon Trail, Newaygo, MI. Newaygo SP to Brower Park. 10 miles

See Back to the Dragon