Hiking with Kate

 Today, I got to take a hike with the brand new Executive Director of the North Country Trail Association. She is spending time visiting with a few of us "old f*rts" who have been around long enough to see a lot of things happen with the trail. Her name is Kate Hagner.

We could have met over coffee, but how much better to take a hike together!

We went to Sterling Marsh so I could show her the massive boardwalk project our chapter did a few years ago. There's a bit of open water.

Just proof that we made it all the way to the beginning of the 13 boardwalks. Yes, each one is numbered.

She signed our fairly new trail register! I'm thrilled to see that about 4 pages of entries have already been made.

We talked the whole way about hopes and dreams for the trail. I'm afraid I did more of the talking. I guess that was kind of the purpose, but still... I could have shut up and done more listening. Nevertheless, I got to tell her my personal hot buttons on trail issues, so I feel valued. Her head must be spinning as she does this with a whole bunch of trail people.

Best nature find- A tooth fungus.

At first, I didn't think that's what it was because I didn't see the teeth. The edges are smooth. But they are hiding back in there!

We did about 3.5 miles. She got to see the Ed Chappel boardwalk and a very pretty section of trail. And listen to me- what a treat! Ha (I really did talk too much but hopefully she'll forgive me.)

Miles walked in 2026: 290.7
Miles on the NCT in 2026: 112.2
Onekama Challenge: 102.5- complete!

North Country Trail, Lake Co, Michigan, Jenks TH south 1.75 miles and back.

See NCTA Introduces New Executive Director

Sterling Marsh Shenanigans

This morning, I went out to Sterling Marsh on the North Country Trail. The marsh is up to some serious trickery! There is no water in it at all. That mud strip you can see is usually open water, and often, the water comes to the edge of the snow in this picture! Not that I get there EVERY fall, but I think I've only seen it dry one other time.

They have had a little more snow than at my house, covering the boardwalks. The oak leaves made a lovely mosaic.

Was I there just to take a hike? No. The NCTA is capitalizing on my recent hike of the whole trail to hopefully boost year-end giving. So I was there with Paul Kogelschatz, the Fund Raising Coordinator, to shoot some video.

They have also asked me to do a Zoom meeting on Nov 28, Giving Tuesday. Stay tuned for how to get in on that chat time if you are interested.

The rest of the shenanigans were provided by a flock of turkeys who couldn't decide whether to cross the road.

Actually, they had decided to cross the road, but couldn't decide which side they wanted to be on. Result- the were crossing and re-crossing the road both when I went to Sterling Marsh, and when I came home. But no turkeys were harmed in the snapping of these pictures.

I took myself out to lunch at the Cardinal Restaurant in Custer. It looks like that's a business that might survive at that location. I'm glad. The tiny towns need all the help they can get. The next one east, Walhalla, has a huge new building. I'm not sure what that is going to be, but it has tall garage doors, so perhaps some kind of service place. It will join the Post Office, a Dollar General, a bar, and a shed sales place as the town's businesses. OK, I guess there's a plumber there too.

I edited in the afternoon.

North Country Trail, Jenks Rd to Sterling Marsh and back, 3 miles

See Living the Dream

Sterling Marsh North

  Cathy and I managed to get a little hike in before the sky opened and poured water on everything. We hiked just north of where Loren and I went on Thursday. It had also rained before we got there, and the colors are always lovely and vibrant when things are wet.

We hiked past the northern portion of Sterling Marsh. This section is also covered with water lilies.

But the most interesting thing is this beaver lodge. I don't remember a lodge being here before. I wonder if this means we are going to start having problems with trail flooding. I guess we'll have to wait and see how the beaver think things should be altered. With that clear strip of open water, it sure looks like an active lodge.

The Bee Balm, AKA Wild Bergamot, Monarda fistulosa was in bloom. I thought I was going to get a picture with a little butterfly on the blossom, but it flew away.

I did get a nice picture of a male Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly. The females have black bodies instead of the bright metallic blue-green of the males. We also saw a beautiful black and green dragonfly, but no picture of that. Sorry.

Like so many of my recent hikes, this was double duty for some trail work. We added a few stickers, and put this strip on the post at the 76th St junction with the spur to the trailhead so you can clearly tell where to go when you approach it from the south.

We were safely on the way home before the rain hit. The humidity was 72%, so the shorter hike was just fine. I was soaked through with sweat even though we didn't get rained on.

In other news: After I got home I did some more volunteer stuff and then buckled down to finish Chapter 47 of Dead Mule Swamp Singer.

My NCT miles for 2021 is at 355, Cathy is at 52.5 for Hike 100.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. 76th St to Jenks TH and back. 3 miles total

See Sterling Marsh Again

Sterling Marsh Again

  Today, Loren and I hiked through Sterling Marsh on the NCT. The water is quite low, but it's always a beautiful walk.

Way out in the open water there is a covering of water lilies. The vertical stripes are mostly hard-stem bulrush.

Here is one of the boardwalk sections. We didn't meet a single other person out there today. It was just us and the mosquitoes!

A lot of the sedges are in fruit right now. This is one of my favorites, because it's so showy, Carex intumescens.

And this was a new one to me. Pretty sure it's Carex flava, sometimes called hedgehog grass.

If you want a showy fungus, how about Stacked Hydnum?

And if you prefer something delicate, here is Unicorn Pinkgill.

We hiked about six miles. North Country Trail Miles for 2021 is at 352.

In other news: I am quite a bit poorer, but I have brand new, shiny, very good tires on my car. I went to the store and also did some more cleaning. I'd try to be a little more poetic or literary or something, but I'm tired.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Jenks Road TH to 96th St and back. 6 miles total

See Trail Work- Easy Edition

Trail Work- Easy Edition

  Marie and I got ourselves out on time to do some trail work that I had volunteered to do.

Since Vermont has been officially added to the North Country Trail, all the stickers on carsonite posts at road crossings and junctions have to be changed to the 8-state strip.

So we drove to a lot of road crossings and replaced the stickers. Marie doesn't live anywhere near the trail, so although she has done some volunteer things for the trail, this was her first time to actually work ON the trail.

There are some posts that have to be hiked to, so we also took a walk through Sterling Marsh. Also, I wanted her to see the boardwalks.

The open water of the Marsh was lovely- it's one of the really neat spots on the trail. Usually lots of birds, and in spring, frogs. However, the high temp of the day was 37 degrees! All the frogs were hunkered down in the mud. No singing! This might be the cold day of Marie's visit. Supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow. She didn't really bring winter clothes.

And the hepatica was not willing to open its flowers, but I finally did see some this year that was technically in bloom.

We also nailed up some connector trail symbols on a couple of road walks, and dug out two posts that needed to be removed. Total miles we walked was about 5.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 208.

North Country Trail, Lake County, Michigan, Jenks Rd. Trailhead south through Sterling Marsh and back, and a few other short pieces to reach posts

In other news: That's about it- we had to find some of the items that were other pieces of the puzzle to have all the things with us that we needed.

See Ludington State Park with Cathy and Marie

Living the Dream

 
I know I'm supposed to be telling you about the Philadelphia Flower Show, but today was just so perfect I can't keep from sharing it. The day played out just in the way I envision many, many days of my future. I spent the morning writing. I'm part way through chapter 4 of The Lonely Donkey.

After lunch, I went out for a hike. I went to the North Country Trail, the section by Sterling Marsh, and hiked 6 miles.



With some ice still on the water, it was very pretty. Who can resist sunny skies and brisk air?



I met one other couple. I think that's a safe amount of social distancing. I actually knew them, so we chatted a while.



This is the time of year when you can really see how important all those boardwalks we built are. This section of trail was horrible to hike in spring before we did this.



There were some long, long ice crystals trying to form. But they had all melted by the time I went back past this point.



And I saw these interesting beetle bark galleries. I don't know what kind... no particular pattern, and I forgot to pay attention to what kind of tree it was, which would have helped with the ID.



I also stopped at a couple of places to do checks for my Get Off the Couch web site. Now I'm working on doing those updates.

Hike 100 Challenge for 2020 is at 32 miles.

A perfect day in just the right format!

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, Jenks Road Trailhead to 96th St and back, 6 miles

	See Sterling Marsh Jan 2019
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Last Training Hike and Gumby Progress

 
Cathy and I took the last of my training hikes today. Focus was miles rather than weight. We went to the North Country Trail and did 8.2 miles. Including two breaks, we were out for 2 hours and 29 minutes. So that was a pretty good pace.

We went through the Sterling Marsh section from 76th St to 96th St and back. Plenty of mosquitoes today! They kept us moving.



We saw a tree covered with Chicken Mushroom,




I was hoping to get the Gumby II jacket done today, but it goes slowly because it's a fairly complicated design and I have to figure out the order of each step and exactly how to do it. But I wouldn't want you to think I wasn't actually making this!

This is an odd looking piece! It's half the hood with one of the front zipper panels.



It assembled nicely.


Here are the sleeves and body except for the front pocket panel.



Next up, I have to attach the hood to the body. The seam is continuous and taped. (For an inexpensive rain suit Gumby sure was made well.) I was just trying to figure out which surfaces go together first and how the bias tape is incorporated into that when Cathy came for our walk.

I should finish this tonight, but it's not going to happen. I'll just have to move into high gear tomorrow.

In other news: I got the kitchen mess pretty well cleaned up! Hike 100 is at 77 miles

North Country Trail, 8.2 miles, Lake County 76th St to 96th and back

	See Half of Gumby Turns Blue
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