Completing Crystal Valley

 Cathy and I went out and hiked the rest of the trails at Crystal Valley today. Not surprisingly, it looked a lot different with everything green. The first part is flat, but not most of it!

I found Frangrant Bedstraw, Galium triflorum. This time you can tell why it has the triflorum name. The flowers are in little clusters of three. You can just barely see a couple of sets.

This is fairly common, but it's still a fun find. Squawroot, Conopholis americana. It's parasitic on oak and beech, both of which grow at Crystal Valley

But the best find is two more fruiting chestnut trees. One had LOTS of seed pods on the ground.

We hunted around for the trees. I think we found one of them. The leaves are w...a...y up there, and this was the best picture I got even with the zoom on my camera. Not definitive. They should be a little narrower for American, but they are definitely not pure Chinese.

The bark is, well..., not very helpful. I did find pictures on line that look like this, but it usually breaks into more separated vertical straps by the time it gets this size. However, this does look consistent with some of the pictures.

So here's the eternal question. Are these American Chestnut, Chinese Chestnut, or a hybrid. They are not Chinese, but they could be a hybrid. This issue for me on this question is that this tree is big and old. It's probably at least 75 years old. The fact that it's tall and straight says American.

Although there were experiments being done with hybrids as early as 1925, one has to wonder why there would be 3 hybrid chestnuts randomly growing out there. But... it is Forest Service property, so I suppose there could have been some kind of experiment going on.

I think it's quite a mystery, and I don't understand why the FS doesn't seem more excited about my reports. Maybe they already know about these and know they are hybrids? If so, I don't know why they wouldn't just tell me that.

We hiked 5.2 miles. Anyway. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm passing out early tonight.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 264.5.

Crystal Valley, MI. Parts of loops, 1, 3, 4. 5.3 miles

See Bedstraw Bonanza See

Back to Crystal Valley

 I went back out to Crystal Valley today, but still didn't hike every piece of every loop. I did walk 8.3 miles though.

It's still not really spring in the woods. Found more hilly trails. This is a really good area to get a workout around here. From the parking lot to the high point is about 300 feet difference, but the trails go up and down a lot. I definitely climbed and descended more than 300 feet. My tracker said my net elevation gain was 2.67 feet. Right. All that means is that I went in a loop which is good. Returning to the car is good.

I took several pictures that didn't come out at all. I took a picture of Sweetfern in bloom. Not in focus. It smells even more spicy than the leaves.

There was sun, so I was able to get a nice shadow of some emerging leaves on a rock.

The Shadbush is trying to show off. That's one of the very earliest blooms in the woods.

I was hoping for some wildflowers, but it's a very dry woods, so I didn't have big expectations. All I found was one small clump of common violets at the edge of a clearing.

A tattered Red Admiral butterfly was hanging around while I ate my lunch. I did also see a dragonfly.

It's really interesting that where the trees are getting sunlight they are starting to pop! This was a fencerow on the way home. I love this time of year.

Since I had to repeat some sections of some loops to get to "new" trail, I did stop at the chestnut balls and look around more carefully for the tree. Hmmm. I did not find anything that has the right bark. That said, I think chestnut bark can be rather variable, but I'm still mystified. I found more of the balls uphill in the woods, so I think my idea that they rolled downhill into the trail is true. And I found one ball that was broken open about a quarter mile from the others. I suspect a squirrel.

I've been trying to meet my 100 miles of campsites quota since I got home. I'm about at 40 miles. Will I make it before I give up for the day?

Total miles hiked in 2024: 208.9 of which 70.6 is North Country Trail.

Crystal Valley Ski loops, Oceana County, MI. Various loops, 8.3 miles

See Crystal Valley Outer Loop

Crystal Valley Outer Loop

 I had not been out to Crystal Valley for a long time. But I'm wanting to ramp up the miles I can hike in a day, and the outer loop of their ski trails is about 7.5. Cathy went with me. She didn't want to go that far, but with multiple loops, she could cut back to the car earlier.

It was a nice day to be out. No green yet except for moss and conifers, but that's OK.

Except for the bottom loop, the rest of the area is pretty hilly. This is out on Loop 5, the most difficult. I'd never even walked that because it was still in development the last time I hiked there. My favorite piece today was a connecting trail between Loops 4 and 5 that follows the top of a ridge.

My former adventure buddy, Ellen, is really involved with the group that maintains these trails, OCCSA (Oceana Cross Country Ski Association). Here's one serious piece of work they did.

I found a few little goodies. This is a jelly fungus, probably Exidia recisa, which can be black, brown or amber colored. It's sometimes called witches butter. I've showed you this in the past. It's really common.

This one is common too, but I may have an ID on it now. I think it's coral spot, Nectria cinnabarina. That said, I am NOT a fungus expert.

There are a few glacial erratic boulders out there. This was the biggest one I saw.

There are brand new ski trail blazes! I've never seen this style before. Pretty classy.

But the very best find of all was a bunch of these scattered on the trail. These are chestnuts! Now, I want to get really excited, but I can't tell if they are American (which would be a phenomenal find), or a hybrid (but how would one have gotten out there in the forest?). I don't know how to tell the seed pods apart, or if you even can tell them apart on the outside. I looked around for the tree, but didn't spot any bark that looked right. Later, I realized the tree might have been farther uphill and the "balls" had rolled down the trail. I also looked for leaves on the ground, but I think what I found were just large beech leaves. They didn't have pronounced enough spines. Anyway, I think I'm going to try to let someone know about this. The area is within the Manistee National Forest.

So, I pushed myself to do longer mileage. The loop was 7.9 miles, but I did extra and got 9.2 miles. I feel OK, just tired, and I did bang up a toe. I'll live.

Not much else got done. I decided that was OK for today.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 151.8 of which 45.4 is North Country Trail (none of today is NCT).

See Skiing at Crystal Valley

Skiing at Crystal Valley

 
Today was the monthly outing for the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA. We went skiing at a nice area called Crystal Valley in the Manistee National Forest. My adventure buddy, Ellen, is heavily involved with the group of volunteers that built and maintains this five-loop system.

"Come on," she says. "What are you waiting for?" Skiing is her first love.



There were just four of us. Dave, Loren, and I have been to Crystal Valley before, but Ellen knows the trails best.



This was my view for most of the two hours we were out. I'm not that great a skier, and still don't have all my stamina back after the cold that has kicked my butt. Didn't realize how bad until today. I simply could not keep up. They had to wait for me a lot.



But they were nice about it, and we had a great time. And, Ellen invited us all to her house for tacos and talking afterwards. We spent the entire afternoon yakking about biking and kayaking and skiing and stuff! Great day.



Just FYI, in case you were wondering... no Flower Show trip this year. I'll have to get a fix of greenery some other way. (But not here, it's SNOWING AGAIN)

	See Spirit of the Woods at Big M 2014
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