Berry Nice Hike

  I needed to run down to Hart today, so Cathy went with me and then we took a little hike on the Hart-Montague Rail Trail. It's paved and flat, but it is nicely shaded, and it was really easy to get to from where I needed to go.

It seems surprisingly early to find blackberries ripe in mid July. I always associate them with August. But we found enough ripe ones that both of us had a nice snack

And then we also found black raspberries, which I've always called blackcaps. There were fewer of these, but we each had a small handful. These were more in line with the timing I would have expected. They were just about finished.

Best plant find of the day is a beautiful Narrowleaf Meadowsweet, Spiraea alba. I thought maybe it was Steeplebush. That would have been a really nice find, but the undersides of the leaves and the stems aren't hairy.

Cathy and I walked out and back from Hart for a total of 5.2 miles. I got home just as the rain hit!

In other news: I edited. I wrote a chapter. I did my errand in Hart.

Oceana County, MI, Hart Montague Rail Trail, Polk Road to Taylor Road and back 5.2 miles

See Narrowleaf Meadowsweet

Hart Montague Rail Trail - Whitehall

  Today was the second day of the vendor event. It didn't start till 11:00 so I went early enough to take my walk before. Today I went south, toward Whitehall. Here's the appealing trail picture of the day

As you get closer to town there is more art. This is a fun one of sunflowers

Of course, a village on a lake that is connected to Lake Michigan is going to have a marina, and they are always good for a picture or two.

I made it to one of the larger community gardens maintained by the garden club before I had to turn around. There is this butterfly with stained glass wings!

And the garden has lovely plantings.

I'm not positive which Oenothera this is, but it's one of the evening primroses. There are a number of garden cultivars. THe flowers were almost 3" across.

And here's my mystery plant. At least it was a mystery, but I think I have it figured out. It's one of the Beardtongues, a Penstemon. Since most of them prefer dry prairie environments, but this one was in a wetland, that helps narrow things down. The insides of the flowers aren't particularly striped, but I think it is Foxglove Beardtongue, Penstemon digitalis.

In other news: It was beastly hot and humid. That took a lot out of me, but now it's cooling down and I'm finishing up getting ready to leave tomorrow. I did average sales today, but combined with yesterday, I did well!

Hart Montague Rail Trail, Muskegon Co, MI, through downtown and back 3+ miles

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Hart Montague Rail Trail at White Lake

  The vendor event went really well today, and the park we were at is right beside the Hart-Montague Rail Trail. So after we were done for the day, I went for a little walk. For a rail trail, it's pretty nice. There isn't a lot of it that is right out in the blazing sun, but this piece is particularly pretty.

I'm not a big fan of Canada Geese, but I'll admit they are handsome birds. The event and the trail are right along White Lake. The geese are literally ON White Lake.

This is a planted rose bush, but it's a variety that has blossoms more like wild roses. And the color is stunning. I did not play with this photo at all.

Another rather ordinary bird, a Redwing Blackbird, but he was showing off for me.

There are a lot of art installations along this trail in Whitehall, and I was very curious about this one, which was slightly off the trail, but you could walk to it. I thought there would be an interpretive sign, or at least the name of the artist. Most of the art pieces have a sign. Maybe this one is new. I don't remember it. Anyway, no sign. But I couldn't figure it out from a distance.

When I got right up to it, I learned that it's pretty cool. There are constructions of natural elements made with old tools or mechanical parts on the three legs. This part is cattails. The heads of the cattails are old springs.

In other news: I did well at the event, and it continues through tomorrow, so I'll be back there in the morning.

Hart Montague Rail Trail, Muskegon County, MI, 3+ miles north side of Whitehall

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Mower and More

  Big day today! Sue and I drove to Shelby to pick up my "new" lawnmower. It's been really well taken care of. This is such a great deal for me!

Then we went out to eat at the Brown Bear in Shelby.

This was what we elected to take home. We'd already eaten half! Good food.

We were parked right beside the Hart-Montague Rail Trail. We were stuffed and needed some exercise, and the doggies wanted a walk. Perfect!

Two happy little sniffers. We walked a total of four miles.

Best event of the walk? Spotting a rufous-sided towhee!

On the way home, I saw a northern harrier hawk too, but no picture. And on the way down, we took a peek at the Pere Marquette river flats because there were reports of a flock of migrating white pelicans. Pretty sure we saw one straggler. Great birding day, especially since I'm not a very good birder.

In other news: I had a meeting tonight. I didn't get any mowing done, because it was starting to sprinkle as soon as we made it back to my place, and then it actually started raining.

See First Bike Ride 2017 See Half an Accomplishment

First Bike Ride 2017

 
Subtitle: How to Sew a Vest on a Button.

This story all started when we were inserting Shopko ads into an advertising flyer at work. They had a really good price on comforters, and the picture looked like I might even like them. Well, I've been looking for one, since mine is 25 years old and not in good shape at all. The problem begins when I tell you that Shopko is 30 miles away from me. And I HATE shopping.

Anyway... if I were going to drive that far, I'd hate to be doing so for only one reason. Thus I began looking for more justification for said trip. Item number two: the Hart-Montague Rail Trail. They resurfaced it in 2015, and I hadn't been on it at all since then. It had gotten in pretty bad shape, so a nice smooth ride was appealing. And the weather was supposed to be nice this weekend.



And... I found out some additional information about something interesting (which I'll show you tomorrow). To get a new picture also required a trip to that same general area.

I woke up feeling really good- not Saturday-awful at all.

Now that we've constructed a decent sized vest for that button, let me tell you that the button disintigrated. I didn't like any of the comforters, but I did buy some other stuff. The thing is, when you hate to shop, and you actually find yourself in a store you don't go to often, it pays to look around to see what they have that is on your "really must buy sometime soon" list.

The rail trail sure is a nice ride now. Not only was it resurfaced, but they reconstructed the picnic turnouts and benches and mile markers.



My usual first ride of the year is about six miles. (And I hate to tell you this, but I did not take one single bike ride all last year. How horrible is that!) But since I had lugged the bike all the way down there, and the trail was so nice, I wanted to take advantage of all that. My plan was to ride for an hour. And I did it! According to the mileposts, I rode out 5 miles and, obviously, 5 miles back, for a total of 10. I'm not even sore. Not even my seat!

This is just an unnamed wetland seen from the turnout shown above, but water views are always welcome.



And I even found a flower in bloom. It's not very impressive, but it was blooming. I think it's Cuckoo Flower, Cardamine pratensis, but not even a good example of that. As you can see, it's growing in rocks. It's on the shoulder of the trail, which has to be a terrible location.


The leaves aren't fully open, and it's struggling for every breath, so the features one would look for to ID the plant aren't good exemplars. But, hey, it's a flower!

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Trail Closed! = Good

 
Sorry about no post yesterday. I slept all morning after work Friday night. Then had to go out and do a couple of cases for the other job in the afternoon. Fell asleep at my computer after that and decided to go to bed at 8 pm. Slept right through till 6:30 this morning!

Today, I went searching for information and progress on the improvements that are being done this year to the Hart-Montague Rail Trail.



The section between Montague and Rothbury is indeed re-paved, and that seems to be on schedule.

I rode about ten miles on a different piece, which was plenty, plenty in the heat wave we are suddenly having.

Had the privilege of helping someone who needed an assist. Quality day!

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Holiday Bike Ride

 
I did take the bike and went for a ride right after the paper route. Since it ends pretty far south, I went just a little farther and rode the south section of the Hart-Montague Rail Trail, from Rothbury to Whitehall.

You should know that it was already 80 degrees at 4 am. I got on the bike at 6:45. I'm certain I haven't been on a bike that early in the morning since the days of long-distance bike trips. My internal clock is just destroyed this week.

However, the ride was pretty nice. About 16 miles out and back.

Here's the White River as I crossed. It looks as if the sun isn't up, but it really was.



Most of this piece of trail is straight and narrow and nice for riding, but not too stimulating. However when you get into Montague/Whitehall it becomes a really nice urban (small city) trail. The garden clubs have done a lot of landscaping. Here's one of the largest gardens.



They also have an Art Walk with quite a few sculptures and constructions. Most are somewhat contemporary, but this one is a whimsical eagle in a wooded section, that's a lot of fun.


Coming back, Montague is visible across White Lake (same bridge as above, just different direction and angle)



When I got home, it was blasting hot. I took a cold shower, ate, tried to do some stuff and ended up vegged out with a book. Then I slept for a while, and worked on paperwork for the assignments I did yesterday.

Tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be even hotter. I'm not sure how I'm going to do all the stuff I have to do. Stick around, and you'll find out...

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A Somewhat Spontaneous Bike Ride

 
Om and I thought about doing this yesterday, but actually got around to it today. Someone sent me an email this week, telling me the Hart-Montague Rail Trail was paved for an additional 8 miles farther south than I thought. So I wanted to check it out.

It really is paved that much farther. Apparently it has its own name, the Berry Junction Trail.



Whitehall has been creating a beautiful trail space with gardens, and an Art Walk. One of the new constructions was added last year, with this new piece of trail. It's called "Flowers Heaven Scent," and is made of metal.



Also of interest is this real flower, the Michigan Lily. Really, it's Lilium michiganense. It's similar to Turk's Cap Lily, but has more clear orange.



Om was more interested in this. The trail goes right beside Michigan Adventure, a smallish amusement park. But they do have a decent wood roller coaster. It's called Shivering Timbers.



We were about two miles from the end of the ride, and saw ahead of us a guy sitting on the pavement, talking with a biker. We got closer, and realized we knew the guy on the ground! It was our buddy, Josh Schuyler. He had broken a wheel on his inline skate, and had to borrow an allen wrench from a biker to take it off.

What fun! He skated the rest of the way back with us. He's a great skier, and uses the roller-blading as a way to stay in shape for that.



Only about 16 miles, but it was a lot of fun, and now I know about the trail extension. It just ends at a road crossing, but the ultimate goal is to connect with other trails that go to Grand Rapids, or Holland.

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Ellen and Joan Take an Excellent Bike Ride

 
Today was awesome! The weather cooled down significantly, and Ellen and I went for a bike ride on the Hart Montague Rail Trail. It's the closest one to us, so it involves a little travel, but not too much.

A lot of it is lovely shaded sections like this one.



We rode from the north end at Hart to south of Shelby, where we took a break at Country Dairy for lunch. This is a large local dairy operation which does a big business based on their organic products with no rBST or other hormones. They used to have an ice cream stand. Now it's a full restaurant, gift shop, and educational tour program. I had a Turkey Bacon Ranch wrap and Ellen had a Turkey in the Slaw panini.



Then we rode south farther, and turned around in Rothbury. On the way back we stopped at Country Dairy again. I'm sure you know why... for ice cream! I had Nutty Java Moo, and Ellen had Mooey Gooey Fudge.

With a little digital magic, I bring you both of us and the wrong end of the cow.



All together, we rode 30 miles. Not bad, eh?

No pix, but we saw: Rose-breasted grosbeak, female goldfinches, cowbird, cardinal, song sparrow, brown thrasher, robins, and a grouse. Also saw a black swallowtail butterfly. Usually, on a bike, by the time you stop and turn the camera on the wildlife is long gone! Not many wildflowers in bloom: Hoary vetch, the cat's ear I featured a couple of days ago, and Canada anemone.

Only one word needed: wonderful!

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