Invitation to the Hike

One of my favorite pieces of light classical music is Inviation to the Dance by Weber. It's under 10 minutes long, and you can hear it on YouTube if you want.

Another of my favorite things is to receive an invitation to a hike that would not normally be available. This hike takes place on a private trail in Hamlin Township. That's about all I should say. But I was invited by one of the property owners to hike it with her as a guest.

For starters, the drive in to her home was spectacular.

One of their homeowner members has restored/built this trail. One end is anchored at Hamlin Lake. Always worth a view on a sunny day.

The trail is completely in woods, some if it gorgeous. Most of it, actually.

One section passes through some higher land where selective cutting was done, leaving this great treeline against a perfect October sky. Yes, the trail even has a moderate amount of topography.

This tree is one of my friend's waypoints. The pileated woodpeckers have turned it into a swiss cheese tree.

I found this "lane" along a row of Norway Spruce pleasant, although there was too much contrast for the camera to take a good picture.

The other end of the trail ends at the road, and then we walked back to her house.

I've included this picture of a past-prime geranium from her porch because it is Marie's favorite color!

Worked on projects, went for this hike. Yada, yada.

Miles hiked in 2025: 418

Private trail in Hamlin Township. 1.8 miles

See Color in My Kingdom

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

Getting in Some Hills

 Cathy and I, and another lady named Barb, hiked today on the south side of Ludington State Park. The north part won't be reopened for several more months.

This was partly for fun, and partly my training regimen to get ready for summer. We took one of the trails that is really hilly. Here we are on a ridge, but there is plenty of up and down to switch ridges.

These trails lead to Hamlin Lake, but I learned one new fact today. The north end of my favorite trail loop (see link below and the stone shelter) is just beyond that conifer-covered point. Cathy has spent time on the lake in a boat (I haven't much), so she knew that fact.

More hilly sections.

And I found some white oak acorns that the squirrels and deer hadn't eaten over the winter. A little bitter, but edible. It's a great survival food. (The red oak acorns are truly bitter. You'd have to be desperate to eat them.)

And here's the best news. We did 4.25 hilly miles. I carried a 17-pound pack, and I wasn't too tired to do anything else when I got home. I'll get there!

Miles hiked in 2025: 138.1

Ludington State Park- various trails south of Hamlin Lake. 4.25 miles

See My Favorite Ludington State Park Loop

One More Glorious Day

The day got off to a rocky start. Thunder, rain, wind. Some people had hail, but we did not.

That did not lead me to believe the day would end up like this! 60 degrees and sunny! Cathy and I went out to the State Park and did some of our usual trails. We like this section because it's really hilly and little used.

There are still a lot of leaves on the trees there, and the sun was great.

Then we circled around along Hamlin Lake to take in the view from Inspiration Point.

We managed to see places we had not hiked before for the simple reason that there were so many leaves on the ground we could not see the trails. These trails are rather faint anyway. We managed to hike back to the south mostly staying between the two trails.

When we got back to Cathy's, she fed me some homemade bean soup. Yummy!

Did I do things I was supposed to? Not in the afternoon. I did edit in the morning. I wrote 1101 words in Vacation from DMS since I posted last night.

See Water Makes Me Feel Cooler

Even Seeing Water Makes Me Feel Cooler

  Cathy and I hiked familiar trails at the State Park today. The best thing about it was all the views of the water. The humidity was brutal, and seeing all the blue just made us feel cooler. I think it actually was cooler than at my house. Usually is. We walked out to Hamlin Lake. You've seen this view a lot of times now, but it's still refreshing.

We took a short break on a bench at Inspiration Point. An eagle soared right in front of us, but I couldn't get the camera aimed fast enough. Ditto with a blue heron. That would have been a neat picture because we were above it, but that one didn't happen either.

Here's Hamlin Lake just above the dam. This is full summer at Ludington State Park. Lots and lots of people out enjoying the water in so many ways-- motor boats, tubing, paddleboards, kayaks, fishing. I went out of my way to try to exclude them from the pictures.

And the dam.

Just below that the water becomes the Big Sable River again. Now we have green instead of blue. We saw some fairly big fish, but my pictures aren't worth showing you. The reflections were nice, though. We did not walk as far as Lake Michigan.

How hot and muggy was it? Even the deer were hunkered down, resting. Two bucks in velvet sharing a small valley. This one has four points.

This one has eight!

About a five mile hike. Hilly.

In other news: I edited all morning. I fussed with the trailer, still with no results except information gathering. Since I got home I've been writing. About half done with the next chapter.

Ludington State Park, MI. Piney Ridge Road to Hamlin Dam to footbridge over Big Sable River and back. 5 miles.

See Views of Hamlin Lake

Ten Degrees Better

  Cathy and I went for a short hike at Ludington State Park this afternoon. The heat continues to be brutal at my house, but as is usually the case in summer it was literally at least ten degrees cooler at the lake. Much nicer for walking.

We took the Island Trail north. This is from one of the boardwalks over the shallows of Hamlin Lake.

Lots of yellow flags (wild iris). It's too bad the yellow ones are alien because they are so pretty.

Just an interesting stump in the water.

You know I'm a sucker for nifty patterns. I like the contrast of the dark rippled reflections of the stems with the white ripples of the water.

Hamlin Lake at the north end of the Island Trail

Then we turned around and went back to the Lost Lake Trail and took it away from the lake, then cut back toward Hamlin on the Lighthouse Trail. I'm going to show you more about that section another day. When we got back to Lost Lake, the trail is once again on boardwalks beside the water. Saw this gorgeous wood strip canoe.

By the time we were finished, the fog was rolling in from Lake Michigan. Here's the obligatory big lake picture. Ha! Can't see a thing. That's why lighthouses were invented.

By the time I got home, these thunderheads were building. Someone may get rain, but I don't think it's going to be us.

We hiked about 4.5 miles.

In other news. You need to be proud of me. I was outside at 7 am, before I even had coffee, digging the rest of the autumn olive out of the yard. Now I can mow, as soon as I get gas. It's been too hot to even think about digging up bushes. I also got groceries on the way home and did some editing.

Ludington State Park, MI, Island Trail and parts of the Lost Lake and Lighthouse Trails

See My Favorite SP Loop

Views of Hamlin Lake

  Cathy and I walked 4.5 hilly miles today. We've been walking these trails through the winter, but it was great to see some of these views in the warmer months. This just gives you an idea of the terrain. Sand hills in Ludington State Park.

At one point, on top of a hump, there is a great wide view of Hamlin Lake. We west Michiganders love our blue water!

Then we dropped down to the location where I've taken several pictures- same view in the link below- but it's not winter any more. The brown area in the distance in both pictures is a bare dune on the north side of the lake.

We continued the return leg of our loop, staying on the trail closest to the lake. There are no open views here, but there are glimpses of the backwaters ("lost" arms of water) along this stretch.

Along the road we found a big patch of forget-me-not. I love them, but sadly, they are alien. There is a native one, but it's smaller. It's very hard to get the blue color to show up in photos, but this isn't too bad.

We didn't make any great times, we were stopping often to enjoy the views and discuss trail junctions- we're trying to figure out which of the trails we've already hiked. These ones are not really official park trails and there are no signs. Interestingly enough, we have not yet re-found the section we were on the first day we explored these trails.

In other news: I edited all morning, looked for some stuff with little success (little is defined as- I did not find what I was looking for, but I did find a couple other things that it was nice to locate), hiked, and then got a few groceries.

Ludington State Park, Michigan, unmarked trails between Piney Ridge Road and Hamlin Lake. 4.5 mile loop

See Starting to Figure Out these Loops

Loop-de-Logging

  Tuesdays seem to be my busy day. But the part worth sharing is a hike with Cathy at Ludington State Park. We started on the Logging Trail.

It goes past two of the remaining CCC shelters in the park. This is the more ordinary of the two, but I haven't put it in the blog for a long time, so here you go.

Then we cut east to the Lost Lake Trail. I've showed you this view before, but it's always worth another look. This is Lost Lake, with the bridge on the Island Trail part way out. Hamlin Lake is beyond the bridge. We saw a couple of young women testing the waters by wading. But then we heard them shriek. Guess it's predictibly cold yet!

At the Coast Guard Trail we turned west again. There are faint hints of color on the trees and plants, but the best views are still water of any kind. This is just an ephemeral wetland- more like a muddy hole, but there is usaully an angle to find that makes them look good.

And another hummocky wetland in the sunshine.

When we reached the Logging Trail we turned south and headed back to the car. Total miles about five- count this one as hilly. Beautiful day!

In other news: Errands in the morning. Then I tried to fix my broken clothesline post. Nope... needs a new post. Stopped at Lowe's on the way to the hike (way too much money for a post, hardware, and new line), then went directly to handbell practice, and finally home again.

See Another Loop at LSP