Assorted

What characterized today was more of the cold rain, but I don't feel compelled to show you a picture of that!

Partly because Om and I will be running all over this summer and won't see much of each other, and partly (mostly) because I wanted to try a recipe, we had a nice meal at home.

And what recipe is that, you ask? Rhubarb Glazed Chicken. It is yummy. Here is a link to the recipe I used, but I left out the hot sauce. Rhubarb Glazed Chicken. We added asparagus and a baked potato. There's chicken left for a couple more meals.

Worked a little more on the knitting project. I can continue to show you until it becomes obvious what it will be. Then you'll have to wait until it is bestowed upon the intended recipient.

And, oh yeah. I won an award at the Michigan Outdoor Writer's Conference.

I managed to work on most of my other tasks too, but the chicken was a little labor intensive because I stewed another big batch of rhubarb (and didn't need all of it for the chicken), and had to make an unplanned trip to the store. I don't usually goof up on that sort of thing, but I sure did today.

See A Little Project

Macroinvertebrate Sampling

The activity I chose to participate in this morning was to volunteer with a regularly scheduled sampling of the macroinvertebrates in the Black River. This is done by the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council and Trout Unlimited.

The health of a waterway can easily be assessed by seeing what kinds of wildlife it hosts. Macroinvertebrates are just what they sound like. Macro= large enough that you don't need a microscope, and invertebrates= animals with no backbone, so things like insect larvae snails and worms.

The equipment being readied.

We all met at a bridge on the Black River, known for good fishing.

Believe it or not, I had found my waders (which I seldom use) and they didn't leak. Several people were assigned to go up and downstream from the bridge with nets and pails. Loren (the person in charge) and I did width and water depth measurements.

When samples began to be returned to the table, they were dumped in the yellow pans. Then several of us began sorting through with small screened spoons and tweezers looking for things that were alive.

They were sorted by species into ice cube trays. We found lots. This was right at the beginning of the search. After that I was helping search and forgot to take another picture.

We found lots of larvae- the largest group was mayflies. Some stonefly, lots of caddisflies, damselflies, dragonflies, a few snails and worms, a few diptera (two winged flies), and a couple of things I didn't hear what they were. I remembered more than I thought I might have from my one previous experience doing this almost 60 years ago. But I learned new things too.

Some were kept in sampling bottles, but most were released back to the stream.

The data will be entered in the watershed coucil's database, but I think the concensus was that this location is healthy.

Trout Unlimited provided a tailgate lunch on the spot!

We were done in a couple of hours!

There is a dinner and awards yet tonight, but I have to head for home immediately afterwards, so I'm blogging early.

See Pigeon River Country

Pigeon River Country

The primary reason I am over in the middle of the state is for the Michigan Outdoor Writer's Association Conference. For my morning activity, I chose to go to the Pigeon River Country Discovery Center. Pigeon River Country State Forest is the largest single piece of state-owned land in Michigan. It is the home of Michigan's elk herd, established in 1918. There are now about 1000 animals. The Woodland Elk went extinct, so all re-established herds in the east are Rocky Mountain Elk. Because of the elk the management of the forest is more strict, and recreational uses are primarily quiet ones.

Near the headquarters, they have turned a former CCC building into the Discovery Center which is all about interpretation.

It is pretty large for a residence because it initially housed CCC crews.

This room was used as an office after the CCC left, and the building was then used as both the home and the office of the manager. Here is it set up as it might have looked in the 1930s.

Right in back of the building, and defining the entire forest is the Pigeon River. It was so named because Passenger Pigeons nested along the banks. It flows north and eventually into Lake Huron.

After we toured the building (lots of interpretive stuff, but I'm trying to keep this post a reasonable length) the guide took us to see one of the nearby small sinkhole lakes. Northeastern lower Michigan has a limestone layer. These lakes form when the middle of the limestone erodes away to form a cave, and then the top of the cave collapses. They are very round, deep and are characterized by this aqua green color. This is Section Four Sinkhole where we were able to walk right down to the shore.

Then we went to a place called Inspiration Point which has the best vista in the forest. The reason I chose the link at the end of this post today is becase it's my one point of orientation in this area. When I hiked the Midland to Mackinac Trail in 2018, it goes through this forest. If you can just see a small triangle of blue to the right of center in this photo, that is the Cornwall Flooding (a small lake). The M2M Trail follows the far bank along the dam.

At the link below you can see the lake and Sue and me eating lunch at that spot.

After that, there was some free time before the evening activities started. I chose to do some hiking (big surprise, eh?). I tried the Watchtower Man's Trail. I was warned that it hadn't yet been cleared. We are at the heart of the damaged area from the ice storm earlier this year. I thought I'd see how bad it was. I got 0.5 miles on that trail before I turned around. I wasn't going to have time to do the whole loop

When I got back to my car, I went on a piece of the Shingle Mill Pathway that had been cleared. Much nicer hiking, although the tough stuff was good practice for June. It was also part of the High Country Pathway. I've now down infinitesimal pieces of both those trails.

The evening had time for networking, a nice dinner, and two speakers. The first was about the Family Forest Carbon Program that is working to allow smaller pieces of property to be used for Carbon Banking.

The keynote speaker was Scott Whitcomb who is the Public Lands Director with the Michigan DNR. He spoke anout several topics having to do with Michigan Public Lands. Tons of good information.

Total hiking about 3.5 miles. Miles hiked in 2025: 171.6

See Midland to Mackinac- Day 19

To Blacksmith Bayou and Beyond

 I took a little NCT hike today with a side walk down into Blacksmith Bayou. The bayou itself is a backwater of the Manistee River. Someone was actually fishing there today.

But you can see the actual river from a bit deeper into the campground.

The piece of NCT I hiked is mostly along the bank on the south side of the river. Today, these tall pines looked nice in the late afternoon light.

This blue-stemmed goldenrod, Solidago caesia, grows along the trail. Most of the time, the stems are darker purpleish, thus the name. Gray goldenrod also has flowers along the stem like this, but the leaves are different.

This is fun. It's the fruit of a mapleleaf viburnum, Viburnum acerifolium. Supposedly you can eat these, but they are better (like many fall berries) after the first frost. I guess I need to find some then and try them. But since they are popular with wildlife, I may have a hard time finding any!

Here's another nice picture of the Manistee River. You can tell that fall is on the way.

The reason I was up that way was to meet with a fellow Michigan Outdoor Writer Association member, Dave Foley and his wife Cyndy. He's doing a feature on me for the Cadillac paper before I speak at the Cadillac Area Land Conservancy in October.

In other news: I managed a little editing in the morning before leaving for this adventure.

Miles hiked in 2024: 436.5. NCT miles in 2024: 130.8

North Country Trail, Manistee Co, MI, from Highbridge to Chicago Rd and back with a side trip to Blacksmith Bayou. 3.6 miles NCT, + 1.2 side trip miles

See Old Trail Section, New Season

Iron Fish Distillery

 
So, at the MOWA Conference last weekend, we had dinner and a tour on Friday night at the Iron Fish Distillery. It's out in the middle of nowhere, but has become a very attractive destination for diners and drinkers. This picture makes it look deserted, but I got there early and this was before the evening crowd showed up.



The name is a takeoff on the popular steelhead sport fish. This is a craft distillery. Since I don't drink, this was way off my radar, but we had a tour of the plant. I have to say it was quite interesting. The farm is certified organic, and they even grind the grain on site to get the very freshest. The leftover mash goes to feed bison on a nearby farm.



Their products have already won several awards. I'm not going to get it all quite right, but one of them was for a maple-aged bourbon. And I'm pretty sure it's their custom gin that took fourth in a world competition.



At any rate, it's a good example of how a small craft enterprise can help the local economy and make money.

The food was really delicious. There were appetizers, a gourmet salad, and pulled pork sandwiches and little specialty pizzas.

So, we had a tasting session after dinner. I did just barely taste each one. We tried a vodka (yowzer!), the prize-winning gin (sort of like sucking on a pine twig through a slice of orange), a whiskey (better), and the maple bourbon (I didn't care for the maple- I do actually like bourbon and the sugar sort of dampened it down). Then we had a sample of the maple syrup that is tinged with the bourbon from using the same barrels. Now that was good. The bourbon cut the sweetness.

We inducted Howard Tanner (the man who introduced coho salmon to the Great Lakes) into the MOWA Hall of Fame, and then had ice cream.

Today was more my style. I wrote in the morning, walked to town and did errands in the afternoon, and then worked on a bunch of odds and ends- trying to settle some of the mess I've generated.

	See MOWA Awards
if you like this blog, click

More from Yesterday and Today's Hikes

 
Today, I led a hike for the Michigan Outdoor Writer's Association. Two people joined me on that adventure. We had a great time, and the rain held off until just after we finished. How's that for good delivery?!



Just since Thursday, the pink lady's slipper orchids have exploded into bloom. Here Andy is taking a picture of one of them. But I think we saw at least 50 in bloom, and a lot more leaves.



Now here's a very cool thing. This has to be something like the sixth time I've hiked this section of trail along Hodenpyl Dam Pond, but it's the first time I've realized what hill can be seen across the water. I'm quite certain this is Briar Hill, the highest point in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. See link below for that adventure. It's a really nice view of that bubble of hills.



There were probably a dozen kinds of sedge in flower, not all of which I recognize. I need a portable lab and a week! This one, however, is Carex comosa.



Now we'll flip back to yesterday.

This is just another nice view of the Manistee River. The trail is on high bluffs along the river for several miles.



I saw several more ferns as well. This was a nice patch of Oak Fern, Gymnocarpium dryopteris. It looks like a very short bracken fern-- only about three inches tall.



The sporangia (spore cases) are beginning to develop on the underside. See the little dots? I'm always happy when I can actually get a picture of that.



So, the reception is going to start soon (followed by dinner and the program), and I need to pick up my junk and take it out to the car. I spent a quiet afternoon working on my computer at an area that is set up just for such purposes. (At Crystal Mountain Resort).

Nice day. I'm posting early today so I'm not too tired to post later. Besides, I'm driving home tonight after the program, so it would be really late.

Today- North Country Trail from Hodenpyl Dam to Fletcher Creek Campground, 5.5 miles, Wexford County, MI
Yesterday- North Country Trail from Fletcher Creek to M37 and back, 12 miles total, Wexford County, MI

	See Briar Hill
if you like this blog, click