Vintage

 Here's a vintage hiker for you. Perhaps he is older than I am.

Five non-woody vintage hikers and one puppy met up at Nichols Lake North TH. As you can see, the day was bright, but it was barely above freezing when we started. By the time we finished I was in shirtsleeves!

Four of us made it as far as Tank Creek, 3.7 miles south on the trail. There is a very new bridge there, nicely built, with rip-rap protection for the stream around the footers.

No matter how many times you hike some section there are still things you may not notice. The bridge may be new, but the Carsonite post with the name is definitely vintage. Can you believe there is a sticker on the back side of it that indicates the date that post was installed? It's been there since June of 1992. I mean, at this point that's almost museum quality. I don't think I've ever noticed an installation date sticker on a Carsonite post before!

Speaking of museum quality, this piece of trail was actually built in or shortly after 1971. After the feasibility study for the NCT was done, a club called the Michigan Trail Finders agreed to build it through the Manistee National Forest. They made it from Croton Dam to McCarthy Lake. The trail is still mostly on their original route. I didn't find one today, but there there are still a couple of the old Manistee Trail markers out there in the woods. You can read more about them at exploreNCT. I got this information from David Snoek.



The weather and sky were perfectly gorgeous, and our choice of route took us past Nichols Lake. This view has been pictured so many thousands of times, it must surely be vintage by now. This lake is 160 acres and spring-fed, as are many of the lakes in this area, with no inlets or outlets.

And just north of Nichols is the tiny Atodd Lake, which seldom gets enough sun to look blue, but from one angle, it did today.

This is the first time I've hiked this section since I started my big hike in Dec 2021. This is in the Western Michigan Chapter territory, but it's only about an hour away, no farther from me than the northern stretch of our own chapter.

I didn't get a lot else done. We hiked 7.4 miles, and 7.2 of them will count for Hike 100.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 142.6 of which 45.4 is North Country Trail.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, MI, Nichols Lake North to Tank Creek and back, 7.4 miles

See Momentous but Familiar

It Doesn't Get Much Better

  It doesn't get much better than today, folks! I hiked 14 miles and finished collecting data for Newaygo County on the North Country Trail. The weather was beautiful. It was sunny and the high was 83, but there was a slight breeze that kept it from feeling too hot. And the humidity was low.

There are too many pictures in this post, but what should I leave out?

First of all, lets talk about a little geology. Most of the hills in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan are remnants of a huge glacial moraine that has eroded away in interesting patterns. There is a surviving ridge that runs somewhat N-S throughout Newaygo County. Just east of this ridge, and sometimes cutting through it are holes and channels that have become a series of lakes and wetlands. The NCT threads it's way along that ridge. Today, the southernmost lake in the series that I passed was Nichols Lake. It's also one of the largest.

Next one north that you can see from the trail is Leaf Lake. I think it gets its name from the odd shape.

That lake transitions into a long, long strip of wetlands that follow one of the eroded valleys. If this was Ohio or Pennsylvania, I'd suspect they were old mining pits. But I think these are just natural.

Condon Lake is a long, thin teardrop. You climb a hump in the ridge after a mile-long strip of wetlands, and it suddenly appears.

My hike today only took me a little north from here. But Highbank Lake, that you've seen a few other times, is in this same line. Then the trail veers west and leaves this geologic feature.

One very cool thing I found is one of the very few remaining Manistee Trail markers. That trail pre-dated the North Country Trail. And it looks like the porcupines don't care anything about history.

Best flower finds of the day are Frostweed, Helianthemum canadense,

And a Maple-leaf Viburmun, now with the flower fully open. But this picture wins because the sun helped make it a little artsy. I love the shadow on the leaf.

It was a great dragonfly day, especially along Nichols Lake, where I was "wading" through hundreds of zooming and flitting dragonflies. Getting any pictures at all was really hard. But I think most of them were Chalk-fronted Corporels. You can't see the distinguishing marks in this picture, but I did see a lot of them from better angles. I just couldn't get any pictures. There were other kinds as well. Notably some small blue ones, but no certain ID on those.

I just was trying to get lucky with a picture of this one perched on the grass. Couldn't tell what it was at all until I got home. I'm pretty sure it's the Calico Pennant, which I learned a couple of years ago.

And finally, I just like this picture. This was the edge of a wetland that wasn't terribly attractive, but the twisted shrubs and the lighting transformed it into something mysterious.

I met another long-distance hiker on the trail! Liz Jones is hiking from Croton Dam to Munising. Good luck, Liz! It's amazing that I actually encounter hikers multiple times a year, now. This is a relatively new phenomenon for the NCT!

It was also a good day for bullfrogs and mosquitoes and gypsy moths. The only negative for the whole day is that the gypsy caterpillars are hanging on their threads everywhere. I had "silk" threads touching my face all day long. I really could have done without that. But I prefer to emphasize how perfect the day was!

The only other news is that there was a Reading Regatta Zoom event in the evening.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 335.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Michigan, FR 5633 almost to Tank Creek and back for a total of 14 miles

See MNF Challenge Hike #5

Nichols Lake in the Morning

  This morning, I dragged myself out of bed early and helped spot a hiker on the North Country Trail. We met at the north end of Nichols Lake, in Newaygo County. I've been here before, but more often at the south end, so it was a nice change of scenery.

Just another view more to the east. Blue is a good start to any day.

The day did warm up to the 50s, but it certainly didn't start out that way. I liked the ice on these common mullein leaves.

Delivered the hiker to where he wanted to go, and came home. (Well, of course there were complications, but eventually he was delivered!)

In other news: I painted for almost 4 hours and did some editing.

See Common Mullein

Manistee National Forest Challenge Hike #5

 
Today was the fifth hike in the series to walk the entire Manistee National Forest this season. Ten hikers this time.



We started at Nichols Lake. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking. Mid 60's temperature, mostly cloudy, but with some blue sky showing through. The mosquitoes weren't bad at all.



For the first few miles north of Nichols Lake the trail winds between a series of small lakes. Leaf Lake is my favorite because it has so many little bays and wetland areas.



Every bit of the hike today is included in what I backpacked, solo, last fall. But this time the travel was south to north, and of course this is summer. It looked so different! The first time I ever hiked this piece, it was winter.

We have one sub-group that moves really fast down the trail. As I said last week, I'm happy enough to stay in the rear. Stopping to take pictures of the little joys I find is one of the best parts of hiking for me.

This week I found a hawk feather. I also heard a scarlet tanager, but couldn't find the bird to go with the song.


Cedar Creek is always a favorite spot. It never seems to change the way it looks; the water level and color always seem about the same.



Here's one of the mysterious purple mushrooms. I'm pretty sure this is Blewit, but there was only the one, and I didn't want to pull it up to look at the gills. That doesn't kill the mushrooom (most of the organism is underground), but it would ruin it for other hikers to see.



We've seen Indian Pipes on almost every one of these hikes, but most of the clumps haven't really been photo worthy. This one isn't bad.



Eleven miles. The leaders did it in 3 hours and 25 minutes. I was sweep, bringing up the rear, and my time was 4 hours 15 minutes (inclusive of 3 rest stops). I don't know why I'm even telling you this. These hikes are not supposed to be races. We have several people who just want to do them fast, and they seem to be driving the group only because they don't like to wait for us to get to the cars at the end. Unfortunately, both of the vehicles at the end belonged to the "slower" hikers. At least the two people who like waiting the least got their car in place at the end, so they could leave as soon as they finished.

Anyway, I did one of my favorite activities on the way home. Pick a dirt road going in the right direction and follow it till I have to take another. Made it to within 2 miles of my house by this method (not all dirt, but quite a lot) before having to get on the highway (river crossings on bridges are recommended in vehicles).



Food, shower, jammies. A little rain outside to end the evening. A really nice day.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Nichols Lake north to 96th St

	See MNF Challenge Hike #4
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Lakes of the Day

 
Out doing work assignments. The day got nicer and nicer, and it's hard to beat sun on lakes for beautiful scenery.

This is a fairly large inland lake, Woodland Lake. This section isn't overrun with cottages, and the colors are starting to develop nicely in the trees.



I made a quick latrine stop at Nichols Lake. To you, this is just another lake you don't know. But it's a familiar place to me because the North Country Trail goes right along the shore for a distance. In fact, I was almost standing in the trail to take this picture.



The third lake I stopped at was very interesting. I think that part of it is likely to be a acid bog. It looked like larch growing, and floating mats of vegetation. It's called Island Lake. I don't think I'd seen it before. I found some wild grape vines on the edge, and the grapes were exceptionally sweet for wild ones. I ate several bunches, and continued on with purple lips!



There were quite a few interesting details to photograph there. I liked this little reflection best.



No surprise, one of my cases was on Lake Michigan. And what west coast day would be complete without the beauty of the big lake.

	See Tour De Lacs
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