Loda Lake- Spirit of the Woods Hike- June

It was a multi-purpose hike day for National Trails Day- the first Saturday in June!

The Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA started with a 3.2-mile hike, some of which was on the NCT, and some was on a spur.

The spur took us to Loda Lake.

Some of you will know that Loda Lake is a wildflower sanctuary- the only one in the entire National Forest system in the country.

We were treated to a tour by the Forest Service Botanist, Carolyn Henne. This isn't a great picture, but it does show us looking at plants beside the trail while she talks about them.

I always learn things when I'm there because the plants are always in slightly different stages of their life cycles.

One of the best pictures of the day is poison sumac. You can see the bundles of leaves and the unripe berries forming on separate stems.

The Prairie Smoke is looking great. They have planted a variety of native plants in a sort of showcase garden.

Also blooming in that garden was a lot of Hairy Beardtongue, Penstemon hirsutus. I believe the butterfly is a Pipestone Swallowtail.

Best personal find of the day was some round-leaved sundew, a carniverous plant. There were also pitcher plants on site.

After that tour, we all went to Pete and Julie's cottage where they fixed burgers and brats, and we all chipped in with a potluck. This was followed by our annual meeting.

I saw lots more plants, but these are the best pictures. Long day, but all great.

Miles walked in 2026: 180.3
NCT Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 59.8

NCT in Newaygo County 1.8 miles. Birch Grove Trail 1.4 miles, Loda Lake 1.7 miles

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Loren, Loda, Hardcore Legend

Loren and I went to Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary this afternoon to scout out some plans for the Spriit of the Woods National Trails Day event.

It was raining most of the time, so we didn't do much walking. Probably under a mile, so I guess it doesn't count. Here's Loda Lake. It's flooded so far up the boat launch, I couldn't even get close enough to show more of the open water.

Loda is the name of the Indian Princess who was daughter of Chief Pokagon. The lake was previously just another Bass lake, but was renamed in the early 1900s.

We did walk as far as the poison sumac, Toxicodendron vernix. I wanted to get a picture of the bark and buds. Here's the bark. You can be 100% sure I didn't touch it. I've never yet tangled with that one, and my hope is to avoid doing so for the rest of my life.

We also scouted out some other roads with trail crossings, trying to plan some NCT miles in addition to the event at Loda Lake. This is the trail crossing of 7 Mile Road in Newaygo County. In the rain, even the browns look rich, and the green moss helps.

We had a blast, but that was not the end of the adventure! Coming home (still raining) there was a hiker in Baldwin. He looked like a long-distance hiker with a pack and poles, head down walking in the rain. When we passed, I said, "I think that was Chris!"

I knew he was somewhere on the trail in West Michigan, but didn't really know where. There are no towns for resupply near the trail in our entire 80 miles, but Baldwin is the closest. Also, I'd never met him in person, so I wasn't really sure. It took us a few minutes to decide to turn around and check and offer to take him back to the trail.

It was Chris! That is Chris Hillier, hiking legend. 3X for the AT, has also done the PCT, and assorted other hikes. He's hardcore! He would not let me take him to my house for the night. He had already booked an overnight room. he would not even let us take him to the motel!

But I got to meet him.

I did manage to get a fair amount done on various things before Loren and I left to go scouting.

All in all, a very fun day!

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Practically Perfect in Every Way

 
Ester is already home now, but before she had to leave we packed the day to the max. And after a slow start the weather turned out to be drop-dead gorgeous.

First we went to Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary in White Cloud. It's about an hour away and I will write about it for this month's newspaper column. I arranged for a tour for us from the Loda Lake Garden Club president. She was able to point out some of the plants that I might have missed.



This is the only Wildflower Sanctuary in the entire National Forest system. It is 77 acres which used to be private. Here's Loda Lake, itself.



I last had a tour of the area in 2012, and the link below shows you some pictures from that trip. This time, we did not see some of the special plants we saw that time, but did see others. Of course, to really see wildflowers, you have to keep going back to the same area over and over. A one-day excursion is nice, but it's a complete crap shoot as to what might be blooming.

Some of my pictures are good, some not so much. So today you'll get to see one common flower, but I finally got a good picture. This is starflower, Trientalis borealis.



And one that isn't so common. This has been planted as part of a prairie restoration they are working on. The land was donated by a family who had a farm and summer home on the property in the early 1900s. The area around the old barn foundations is open and perfect for starting a small prairie area. This is prairie smoke, Geum triflorium.


Dogs are allowed on leash, so Jade got to walk with us too. We spent about two hours exploring and taking tons of pictures. Maybe I'll feature a few more another day.

After that, we got some lunch and then treated ourselves to Jones Ice Cream in Baldwin. I had lemon custard, and Ester had black cherry. Outstanding!



When we got back here she left so she'd make it home before dark. So I spent some time weeding my flower beds.

Wonderful day! Tomorrow, it's back to work.

	See Some Special Plants from Loda Lake
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Great Lakes Hikes Gathering

 
Almost 20 years ago, a friend began an online forum called Great Lakes Hikes. I was an early member, and soon after that the group began having a weekend outing once a year in the fall. I'm embarrassed to say that I've never made it to any of them, even though they hold it only an hour from where I live.

So today, I finally joined them for the last hike of the weekend. They meet at the North Country Trail Birch Grove School.



This building was the first NCTA headquarters. It was rescued from near ruin by volunteers, and now it serves as a hostel/meeting place. It makes a really nice location for groups with plenty of camping space outside (floor space inside), a small kitchen and bathroom.

For the hike today, they chose a relatively short walk to Diamond Lake. The trail was built by NCT folks through land that was purchased by the Nature Conservancy from a private owner, and then transferred to the Forest Service. This is very near where we hiked in April at Loda Lake



The destination was a county park at Diamond Lake. The day was mild, and occasionally sunny. Couldn't ask for a nicer time in November! I met several people I had only known on line, and some totally new folks too.



I have two favorite images from the day. We passed a particularly nice bog (acid wetland), and walked out on a fallen white pine to get pictures. This photo isn't about the plants (although you might recognize the leatherleaf from a couple of days ago). The "sparkles" are cotton grass. Maybe I'll feature that another day. But the picture is more about the light and the impressionistic image.



The other favorite is completely different. There were three children on the outing, and we came across a lovely little garter snake catching that same late-year sun as we were. You can see the snake was much appreciated by its audience.



I even dried clothes on the line today! Then the wind picked up, blew in a new front and it's raining now. Might be snow tomorrow!

	See Leatherleaf
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W is for Wildflowers

  You didn't expect anything else from me, did you? These are just a few beauties from the past week or so. First, a common one, the wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana. Do I need to say more about that?
Next is one that isn't so often seen. Some may recognize it as a cress, a member of the mustard family. However, look closely at the basal leaves. See how deeply lobed they are? This is the lyre-leaved rock cress, Arabis lyrata. Ellen and I found it along the White River. Yes it's a cousin of the many Arabis which are used in rock gardens.
Finally, here's another one that the Forest Service is working to restore to the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary. It's a prairie plant, and they are restoring an oak savannah in the old barnyard area. This is Geum Triflorum, prairie smoke. It gets its name because the seed pods are a feathery gray plume that looks smoke-ish.
Almost done with this A-Z thing. It's worked out fine, but I have some goodies that haven't fit to show you when we are done.

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Some Special Plants from Loda Lake

 
Since we get Sundays off from the A-Z Challenge, I'll bring you some special plants from Loda Lake. I think I'm holding out some more for "W" day, too.

There is a natural diversity of plants at Loda Lake, and the Forest Service is working hard to restore some plants that were recorded in the area in historic records. The area was clear-cut around 1900-- most of Michigan was. Then homesteaders came and tried to farm, but the soil was too poor. Most of the farms failed. The land was bought by the relatively new U.S. Forest Service. Think of a forest with no trees! It was all very different from what we have now.

Loda Lake was acquired in 1939. There are remnants of a large estate and two smaller tenant farms. All the buildings have been removed, but the foundations remain. Around the two small farms, oak savannah is being restored, including prairie plants.

So, our first little treat is Hill's Thistle, Cirsium hillii. This plant is completely new to me, but with the distinctive basal rosette, I might remember it. Of course, late in the summer it will have purple tufts of blooms. It is a rare species, requiring open sandy soil.



Next, here's a new fern. I didn't put this one on my photo pages, because I'm taking the botanist's word for it that it is Goldie's Wood Fern, Dryopteris goldiana. To be honest, it doesn't have some of the features noted in the field guide, so I'm just not certain. But, it's a pretty little thing.



Finally, the hit of the day (with me, anyway). There is a genus of ferns called moonworts. I've showed you one of them before. None of them is common, but the most often seen is Grape Fern, because it does get larger than the rest. I've only seen them a couple of other times. Yesterday, we must have seen two dozen!

All were just beginning to unfurl. That "tongue" in the middle is the fertile frond, the one that bears spores.

If you do follow the link below, you'll notice that it's very different from that moonwort. These look more like other ferns, but they are all in the genus Botrychia. This one is Botrychia virginianum



I do have pictures of this fern when it's mature, but I'll have to hunt them up and show you another day!

	See Moonwort, But Which One?
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S is for Spirit of the Woods

 
Today was the monthly hike for the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the North Country Trail Association.

After the hike, some of us went on to Gale's Pond for a while, and then I had a meeting tonight. I'm too tired to do this post justice, because we saw a number of rare plants. I'm going to beg off for now, and hopefully bring you some of those in the future.

The hike was at Loda Lake Wildflower Preserve. It's about an hour from where I live. It's the only Forest Service Wildflower Preserve there is! It turned out to be too early to see a lot of things in bloom, but I learned a lot, and saw some plants I didn't know very well.

Here's Loda Lake itself.



A Forest Service botanist met us there and gave us a guided tour. That tour also included some history of how the area came to belong to the forest, and past land use, which included two small farms. Here are some members of our group inspecting a display about that history.



I probably drove everyone crazy jumping around and ooohing and aaahing about plants, but hey.... it was a wildflower hike!

I promise you pictures in the future, but I want to be able to tell you about the plants, and I'm falling asleep!

	See Trail Work Day
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