Only 10.3 Miles?

  I thought my total was going to be more like 11 or 12 miles, so I'm a little disappointed in that, but 10.3 isn't shabby. Loren and I started at the North Country Trail Udell Trailhead on M-55 and went north. There was the April Fool snow on the ground. After a mile in the woods, the trail comes out on Cedar Creek Road (which isn't very road-like on the west end so it makes a nice easy piece of trail).

The best feature of this section of trail is Pine Creek.

The sun came out, and with a sandy bed the creek looked golden.

A fallen tree with roots washed bare seemed artistic.

A lovely bed of Norhern Ground Cedar accented with Reindeer Moss.

We returned to Udell and ate lunch. Loren had enough, but I went in the other direction. By now, almost all the snow was melted away. The air was crisp and the temperature stayed in the 30s, but it was nice for walking.

This section is much hillier. These are called the Udell Hills, and that's where the trailhead gets its name. My plan was to go outbound on the NCT until the place where it is closest to the Shanty Boy trail that is part of the Big M system. Here's where I bushwhacked across. I'm standing on the NCT looking north. I think the far line of hills is on the north side of the Manistee River. But all I had to do was drop down the hill- you can see the edge practically at my feet- (carefully) to reach Shanty Boy at the bottom.

Easily found the other trail and headed back to the junction with the NCT that I had passed earlier. One very very cool thing is that this is a piece of local trail I've never seen before. The outer loop at Big M is about 25 miles long. It's primarily for mountain bikes, although hiking is allowed. I need to get out there and do an overnight to see all of that loop! Anyway, Here is part of the Shanty Boy Trail

One interesting feature was a big glacial erratic boulder. These are not very common here. We mostly jut have sand, and this one is huge for our area.

Anyway, my afternoon hike would make a nice loop for a group as long as they didn't mind the steep descent from the NCT to Shanty Boy. Fun stuff! My total for the day, 10.3 miles.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 155.

In other news: I'm doing a little work on a web site, but the hiking took most of the day.

See MNF Challenge Hike #11

Bowman Lake Loop Again

  Cathy and I did the Bowman Lake loop this morning, and managed to put a slightly different twist on it. We parked at the north end and walked south first. We took the NCT side of the loop first. This loop is one of my favorite hikes, and I last did it with Loren, three months ago.

Then it was halfway when we got to the lake, so we sat on the bench there to eat our snack. Still mostly frozen. There were campers there. They said it had been quite cold in the night. Cathy said it was 16 degrees at her house when she got up. But it was above freezing by the time we made it to the lake.

Then we headed up the west side of the loop, where it goes through this blowout area, sculpted by the wind.

We found a nice patch of Northern Ground Cedar. I'm trying to separate these clubmosses (formerly all called Lycopodium) in my head. I'm quite sure that's whet this is despite the fact that it didn't have any strobili (the stalks with the spores), or annual growth constrictions. It's no big deal that there were no strobili- that's not unusual, but it would have helped me nail down the ID. However, I'm confuzzled by no constrictions, because that's supposed to be quite distinguishing. However, the shape of the stems is correct, so I'm confident in my ID. New taxonomic name is Diphasiastrum complanatum.

Here's a closer look.

My favorite picture of the day is thin overnight ice in an area of the lake that had previously thawed.

We ran into a group of young people out hiking, and one of them took our picture so no distorted selfie today!

Loop total is 6 miles, but only half of those are North Country Trail. There was still snow in some places, but most of the walking was bare ground. Our knees, ankles, and hips are grateful. 46 degrees when we finished!

North Country Trail Hike 100 Challenge for 2021 is at 90 miles.

Bowman Lake Trail and North Country Trail, Lake County, Michigan, 6 mile loop

In other news: I finished the marketing sell sheets for the Anastasia Raven mystery series. Other than that, I chilled and read a book.

See Bowman Lake Loop with Loren

Huckleberry Bog - Day 3

  Today I finished the in-the-field pictures and notes from the Huckleberry Bog Trail. It took me almost exactly the same amount of time as I spent on the first half. (Five hours of just botanizing, not counting walking in and out.) Not that it matters. I just thought it was interesting. This is a picture of the bog itself. It's really filling in with plants, but you can see one black spruce, typical of an acidic bog, growing in the middle. I loved this fallen tree, and the green light There were several kinds of club mosses. This is tree clubmoss, sometimes called princess pine, and various other names. It also has several scientific names, since the DNA testing is rearranging all of these genera. It used to be Lycopodium obscurum. I like this picture because I got the strobilus (the thing at the tip where its spores are produced) The bog is within Urbana State Forest, and this particular area used to be a homestead. Here is part of the house foundation. You can just see some layered stones making part of a basement wall. The barn foundation is better preserved. It was a bank barn, and here you can see the lower wall in the foreground, and the wall that was beneath the bank in the background. Distance walked- at least 5 miles, but again, there was lots of wandering, and exploring, and back and forthing. I tightened up my knowledge of a few ferns, and hope to begin to learn how to tell shagbark from bitternut hickory when I compare my pix with the field guide tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be another semi-chill day as I work to label the pictures for the rest of this project and finalize my notes. 

See Huckleberry Bog Day 2

What a Glorious Day!

 
Lots of pictures again, but I can't help it! Today was about as perfect as you can get. First, I finished the blazing on the main portion of my trail. That was the easy railbed through the swamp portion. So after that I took a longer hike. This section is one I don't seem to hike very often, so it was almost like seeing a new piece of trail since I didn't remember every turn by heart.

Reflection of trees in the slightly flooded Muckwa Creek. Everything is wonderful in the sunshine!



Common running clubmoss. Lycopodium clavatum.



Artist's Conch fungus, Ganoderma applamatum. I used to love carving pictures into the undersides of these. Now, I'm happy with taking their snapshots.



This is maybe the best find of the day. I was aided in the identification by that wad of coarse black fur beside the skull parts. I did not arrange those jaws; that's exactly how they were lying. I did bring one home, and thanks to my great "Key to Mammal Skulls and Lower Jaws" was able to verify that it's a striped skunk. Live mammals I saw include a chipmunk, red squirrel, and two black gray squirrels.



This is a weird burl. Not all bumpy like most.



I saw at least three different kinds of butterflies. Several were the Mourning Cloaks- an early hatcher, one small blue one- way too fast to identify, and two of these which I am pretty sure are Eastern Commas even though I can't see the wings really well, Polygonia comma. I wish I could have gotten a picture with the wings all the way open, but this was the best I could do.



It was a wonderful day for patterns and reflections. This is just some submerged grass in an unnamed creek flowing with the current.



Back to Muckwa Creek and last year's fallen leaves on the creek bed, with one floating on the surface, and the reflections of trees.



This final picture is back up in the bottomland hardwood swamp on my section of trail. It doesn't look spooky and gloomy at all in the sunshine!


The Spring Peepers and Chorus Flogs were all warmed up and singing at full force in every little ephemeral wetland. The ticks and mosquitoes aren't awake yet. Cool air and warm sun- my favorite. Days don't get much better than this one.

I hiked a total of 10 miles today. NCT Hike 100 Challenge 2020 is at 81 miles.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, 5 Mile Road past Freesoil Trailhead and back.

See Painting Blazes 102

Old Baldy and Green Point Hikes

 
Today was a hike with the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA. We chose to go somewhere other than on the North Country Trail for a change. We used to do this a lot, but the past few years we've stuck to the NCT because of the 100 mile challenge. But we wanted to see something different again. We went north and hiked two trails at Arcadia Dunes. I thought I had hiked all of those in July 2017, but somehow I missed Green Point, so that one was new to me.

Here's our group picture. It's taken at almost the exact spot of the fourth picture down in the post linked below. Different season! We did a three-mile loop at Old Baldy. (Of course there are many bare dunes along the Lake Michigan shore nicknamed Old Baldy, but this is the one at Arcadia Dunes Nature Preserve.)



Out on the bluff at the top of the dune, you look down to the lake. It's a lot farther than it looks in this picture!



This is the view to the north.



It's early April. We have to take our green where we can find it. This is a club moss, probably Northern Ground Cedar, They used to all be in the Lycopodiums, but now there are new genera. Diphasiastrum complanatum



And probably shining fir moss, Huperzia lucidula



Then we drove a few miles north to hike a two-mile loop at Green Point. This trail has three overlooks above Lake Michigan. Since the day was gray and misty (but we didn't really get wet), the views are sort of magical. This one is looking south with the big lake on the right and Lower Herring Lake off on the left.



At the third overlook there are stairs so you can go down to lake level. Here's the view north toward Frankfort.



I just liked this picture of the bluffs. Looks wild.



The best green on that trail was some moss on a lumpy tree.



and I liked this fungus growing on a dead tree.



Fun day!

There is no other news. This really took all day. After I got home and cleaned up I've just been taking it easy and looking up a few odds and ends.

Arcadia Dunes, Old Baldy loop 3 miles, and Arcadia Dunes, Green Point loop 2 miles, Banzie County, Michigan

	See Arcadia Dunes
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Serene and Small

 
These are three more pictures from yesterday. I have something quality to show you that I worked on today, but I'm saving the pictures until it's done. (Tomorrow I hope). But it's not a problem, because there is more fun stuff from my little walk yesterday.

Part of the path is right along the Pere Marquette River. This is one restful scene where some cedars grace the far bank.



I also saw some very large pixie cups. Some are close to an inch tall, twice what I think of as usual. But they are out in the open instead of hiding in the grass like the ones I found in my back yard.



Also found one kind of clubmoss. There are several that commonly grow in the area, and I'll bet I'll find others on this walk if I keep my eyes open. This is bristly clubmoss, Lycopodium annotinum. It's about three inches tall.



It's always bright green and shiny. It looks like someone spread plastic festoons in the woods. (Well, I just discovered I already showed you this yesterday. OK, I'm tired. Going to bed soon)

	See A Pixie Hiding in My Grass
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