Feels Like Home - Day 418

The section I hiked today is not within my chapter's range, but it's really close. I've hiked this piece often enough that it's quite familiar, and it really feels like I am approaching home. I often knew what was just around the next bend. The links below are not to yesterday's post this time, but to the last time I hiked this same section.

This is all along the Manistee River.

I was spotted again by Patty. I can't believe I didn't take a picture, but her husband Dave made me a delicious breakfast sandwich that fueled me for the morning. I guess I was so eager to eat it that I didn't think about photos.

The first section of this is very hilly, but then you get to Highbanks Rollways (where logs used to be rolled down to the river), and after that you are mostly level-ish, but with dips to creeks and gullies. The dips and climbs are mostly under 100 feet, but there are a lot of them. This is the sandy rollway bank beyond the foreground trees.

The Manistee wanders through the landscape like a drunken snake. There are over 30 oxbows on this section.

I'm a lot farther south than I was yesterday. You can actually see that the deciduous trees are greening up.

One photo I wanted, but the camera couldn't see it, was a mate to yesterday's with the "Christmas lights" in the trees. Today, the lights were green where the small beech trees were just leafing out. Maybe if it had been sunny the light would have caught the bright green. But it wasn't sunny. And it wasn't 50 degrees. In fact, it kept trying to snow! I think tomorrow is actually going to be warm. I won't complain about that.

This is one of my favorite markers along the NCT. It's one of 33 markers that have been placed along the route of the Cadillac to Traverse City Indian Trail. There is some evidence this was in use as early as 700 BC. You can't hike the trail (most is now on private property), but you can visit the markers, almost all of them have been placed where there is vehicle access, and read interpretive info about the sites. I hope to do this one of these days.

And I can finally say that I've seen a bear on the NCT in Michigan. Granted, it was on a road walk, but I think the two babies should count for points. Mama saw me, but they were pretty far away. She just continued across the road while I waited so as not to alarm her.

The day ended with a chat with an enthusiastic young man who was hoping to catch some suckers for his dinner. He said the DNR had just released 62,000 baby brown trout in the river.

Despite the long miles and the hills, my joints are surprisingly OK.

Miles today: 12.8. Total miles so far: 4632.6. Miles to go- under 200!

Baxter Bridge to Harvey Bridge, Wexford County, MI

See How Many Oxbows? See Still Along the Manistee

Seneca Park Zoo- Mostly Big Beasties

  Today was a travel day, and apart from driving several hours in heavy rain it was uneventful. But there are more zoo pictures available. I think I mentioned that it was an exceptional zoo day in that almost all the animals were visible. The last time I was there, the Polar Bear never came out at all. This is Anoki. We got to see her spend some time in the water, and then she climbed out on the rocks.

One of the favorite offerings at the zoo is the Red Pandas. There are supposedly babies this year, but we did not see them. We did see Mom and Dad, but I don't know which is which. They are so adorable, it's hard to remember they are rather viscious.

The snow leopards also have babies. Not only did we not see them, we only saw one of the adults. But he did come out and walk around quite a bit.

The otters are not as exotic, but they were sure fun to watch. Most of my pictures are just streaks of fur in the water. Minnows had just been released in their pool, and they were busily chasing down their snacks. Most of the water animals have viewing areas where you can see below the water surface to observe how the animals swim. That was a lot of fun, but they were still really fast!

We also thought we weren't going to see the tiger, but it was out when we went past the second time. This is an Amur (Siberian) Tiger, native to far eastern Russia, China and Korea. It's status is Threatened. They are generally pale with brown stripes.

And that's all for today. I think there will be one tiny adventure in the morning, and then I'm off to home.

See Bright and Weird

Catching Up

  Three days with no electricity (not so much of a problem). Three days with almost no internet service (impossible to blog).

Anyway, what I did was go to the Adirondacks to particpate in a trail work day. The North Country Trail didn't have a route across the Adirondack Park for almost 30 years. Little by little, now, agreements are being made which is giving the trail an actual treadway. It has been a dream of mine to help build that, even in some small way. But I live 15 hours away.

So when Mary Coffin, who has spearheaded this effort, posted that there was a work day this past Saturday, I had to go. It was a few hours drive back to the east, but nothing near 15. I camped near Mason Lake. A rainbow welcomed me that first evening. Next morning, I drove to town and met the other people who also came to volunteer. Of course, I knew Mary, but I also knew one other woman who came. Mary's husband Bill was there as well, but he isn't able to do the physical work any more.

A ski resort named Oak Mountain has given permission to build trail across their property, which will eliminate a road walk. A tentative route had been flagged. We checked and adjusted that, and began defining the treadway. We raked, cut branches and some roots, and put up blazes. We completed almost a mile. "Completed" isn't really the correct word, because there is a lot of benching to do to level the trail and remove rocks. But it is able to be walked and followed by a hiker. Going back to the campsite that afternoon, a mother bear and three cubs crossed the road in front of us. I was only fast enough with the camera to catch the last cub scooting under the guardrail. Mary and I went out again the next morning. Our goal was to follow a snowmobile route which would connect the trail we built on Saturday with the next road. This is not ideal, but for right now, our trail has been given permission to use that established route. We crossed Whiskey Brook near where we began our walk. Despite many junctions, we managed to make all the correct decisions, and connected with the work we'd already done. Mary took GPS readings, and we flagged it with tape. Hopefully we'll soon have permission to put up the blue blazes. When we got back to Oak Mountain, we did do some more of the blazing. In most places, the NCT blazes are painted. However, within the Adirondacks, they requested the nail-up style, so that is what is being used. this four-mile reroute which can now be followed eliminates a seven mile road walk! After Mary and Bill left, I had a mission. Two of them. I wanted to get a few pictures that were "real" Adirondacks. This scenic view comes cheaply, as it's seen from a roadside turnout. You don't have to work to be rewarded. But it's pretty neat anyway. This is not the High Peaks, but is a view to the southeast. This panorama made so small isn't nearly as spectacular as it is in real life. And the other part of my mission was to find one of my best friends. He and his wife live only 20 miles from where we were working, but I hadn't been able to get in touch with him. I decided to just drive there. I knew he wasn't in the same house as the last time I visited, but I had hopes that I could locate him. And I did! This is Paul, one of my very best friends in the world. In fact, he introduced me to the Adirondack Mountains, 55 years ago. Did you ever have a friend that just resonates with your soul? Nothing romantic between us, ever. But we just seem to "know" each other. We had a great visit, prayed together, and they fed me. What a perfect ending to this Adirondack visit. I suppose we look a little older than that week we climbed Haystack and Skylight so long ago, but we don't care. Now, I'm beginning to work my way back west. I'm with Irene again tonight.

Miles of NCT hiked- a total of about 6. Total for 2020: 211

North Country Trail near Speculator, NY, from Oak Mountain Resort to NY 30

 

See R&GV Rail Club

Seneca Park Zoo - More Mammals

 
Since we've been snowed in here all day, you'll get to see more pictures from the zoo. I can't complain. It's not as cold here as it is at home. About zero with some snow. But the area here is not getting hit like the Midwest this time.

I'll start with the star of the entire zoo visit. This was my first time ever to see a red panda, and he was eating and walking around before he settled in for a nap, so we actually got to watch him do things. The female slept through everything. They are at least as adorable as they are portrayed.



The gray wolves were mostly pacing around although they did lie down after a while and seem more relaxed. It was an interesting time to see them, since the chapter I'm writing is about the one hike on which we saw a family of wolves.



The baboons seemed intent on showing us their behinds, but at least I can bring you one in profile.



The African animals are housed inside for the winter. I couldn't get a good picture of any of the elephants, and this is the best I could get of the white rhino.



The giraffes were a lot of fun to watch. And if they'd been eating I could have gotten pictures without wire, but I guess they weren't hungry.



Another exhibit I really liked was the naked mole rats. They are strange creatures. They were displayed in a connected series of burrows with windows, a lot like a complex hamster cage. I didn't get any really good pictures. There are about six of them in this shot. I remember when they were discovered. I was taking the National Wildlife Federation magazine at the time, and they made quite a stir.



If tomorrow is more of today, you'll see zoo pictures again. But I am getting some writing done.

	See Seneca Park Zoo- Big Cats
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Boardwalk Repairs

 
You know we've recently had some bad storms that left a mess along the North Country Trail. This week's chapter work outing was already scheduled for the Sterling Marsh Boardwalk to deal with some frost heave and minor repairs.

However, two sections of the boardwalk took direct hits from falling trees. Here's one of them after the tree was cut off.



We had a huge group of people turn out to work, close to twenty. This was good because there was a lot to do.

After clearing the first broken section some of the guys made a pile driver with a log and board to smack the heaved sections back down. (They also used car jacks to lift some sections that had sunk.) So the boardwalk is close to level again.



Meanwhile, another guy and I went on ahead to start taking apart the broken place pictured above. Other people were unloading and cutting lumber, carrying it and tools to whoever needed it, etc.

Around noon we broke for lunch, and to have the annual chapter meeting. We have done this in the woods before- most notably one under a tarp in the pouring rain- and incidentally while working on first building this same section The Wettest Meeting But today's weather was great.

One of our members, Steve Webster, finally received the national award he was given this spring. It's the "Sweep" award, given to someone who likes to work behind the scenes but is always out there working for the trail.



After the meeting, we headed back out to continue working. As bad as that broken section looked, here we are already putting decking boards back in place.



And around 3 pm. we picked up the tools and headed back to the cars. This picture is that same section above that was completely broken up.


Sue and Sophie (with Sophie's sister Anabelle) were there. I hadn't seen Sophie in a long time. This little dog really likes me (and I her)! She kept wanting me to pick her up and hold her all day long. Well, I don't mind that.



In the roadway that got us back near where we were doing work were bear tracks, but we were making so much noise I'm sure no bear was anywhere nearby.



Great day, amazing accomplishment to get all those repairs done in one work day.

Because of all the walking back and forth, I'm counting 2 more miles toward Hike 100. Total 69 miles.

I didn't do a blog post yesterday. For some reason, after I got home from working at Shagway (extra hours, but it's not like that is difficult), I was so tired I went to bed with a book and it wasn't long before I couldn't even hold the book up. Went to sleep and slept through till 7 am!

One more week till I leave on my hike. Time to get seriously busy!

	See Boardwalk Celebration
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