Hemlock Crossing and More

I have landed at Jean's for the night with the Hollard Art in the Park tomorrow. We already have the canopies set up, and we've talked author and editor stuff till we kind of ran down.

I stopped on the way down here today and hiked at a new-to-me park. I think it's going to be my favorite stop on the way to Holland. Called Hemlock Crossing, on the Pigeon River (the short one that's totally in Ottawa County).

Here's another view showing the footbridge to the trails.

There are miles of ski loops mostly in the woods. Moderate topography. The whole thing also connects to a regional multi-use trail

I just liked this log.

I hiked 5.3 miles, and there are probably at least that many more miles of trail without duplicating very much.

At Jean's, she's been working really hard at cleaning up her hillside garden. It's looking fantastic.

I'll probably show you more of it another day, but for now, here's a coreopsis called 'Golden Threads.'

Best of all, I got to meet her new dog, a cheaglehund (chihuahua, beagle, dascshund mix) named Loki. She's going to have to watch me carefully, or he might end up coming home with me. He is 7 pounds of spring loaded beagle. I'm definitely in love.

I have to go to sleep now. I'm beat.

Miles walked in 2026: 269.1
Onekama Challenge: 80.9 miles.

Hemlock Crossing park, Holland, Michigan, various loops- 5.3 miles.

See Jean's Garden

Did You Guess Diane?

I would suspect that you had prior information if you guessed Diane because she hasn't been part of my regular circuit until recently although we knew each other as children. We have so many interests in common that we became instant adult friends.

We packed the day just about as full as possible. It began with a puppy fix for me. The white puppy is Nola and the black lab is Tula.

Their owner is a man I also haven't seen since childhood. His name is Gary. He is younger than I am, but I was quite good friends with his older sister. We are no longer children as you can probably tell. (I think the last time I saw him, I was taller than he was.) He treated us to coffee and homemade lemon cookies. Yum!

Next up was a little hike. Diane has been able to up her mileage quite a lot since last summer. She gave me local choices and we walked to a place I've featured on the blog quite often, but I think the last time I did this particular hike was around 1970.

We walked up the Taughannock gorge. It's hard to get a sense of the perspective, but those rock walls are about 500 feet high.

This trail takes you to the base of Taughannock Falls. This is 215-foot free fall drop, considered the highest free drop east of the Rockies.

The walk in to the falls and back was 1.9 miles.

All the pictures I've shown on the blog before today were taken from an overlook that is along one of the edges of the bluff. I took another of those today, but I won't post it. The one I will share is that if you walk a short way along a different trail from that upper overlook you can get much closer to the falls. I think this shot gives you a better sense of the power of the water. It was really noisy from this vantage point. All the sound of the falling water and ice was rising right up the rock walls!

Then we went up to the museum. Diane is Village Historian. I gave them the quilt made by Frances Leary.

And she wanted to show me this. It's an accordion that was donated. I've never seen one like it at all, so I wasn't very helpful. But it was fun. A few of the buttons still play notes.

The day was not done, but I didn't take more pictures except the selfie. We listened to a web seminar about trails, we got chicken wings for dinner from the local Sportsman's Club (honey mustard), and then we looked at some more of my family's genealogy. She has discovered a few more things that I didn't know. She's amazing!

There is no clue for tomorrow, because it's so obvious it needs no clue except maybe this- who is my best friend in the universe? I'll head out first thing in the morning.

Miles walked in 2026: 51

Taughannock Falls SP, New York, gorge trail and part of north rim trail, 2.3 miles.

See Did You Guess Elaine?

35 Years Since...

Well, it hasn't been 35 years since I've seen Annabelle and Sophie, although it has been a little long.

And it hasn't been 35 years since I've seen Sue, or even since I heard her play a piano.

And it hasn't been 35 years since I've seen this Kathy. What are we doing?

Can you guess? I now have a piano again. (it was FREE- can you believe it? PTL) And it's been 35 years since that was true. You know I'm horribly out of practice, but I played a few pieces that were in the piano bench (badly). I have two cartons full of piano music, plus about 15 hymnals and uncounted chorus books. I'll need to get some of that out. Yeah! More mess.

It was a fairly major project to clear out a space where the piano could live and I need to find better homes for some of the stuff that was in that space. Sue and Kathy came to help move it. That was really a major project, but we did it! Took most of the afternoon.

We also had ice cream, but I didn't realize the SD card wasn't in my camera, so no picture of that.

The morning had the usual computer tasks. Another really hot one today. We are supposed to get some serious rain tonight. I hope that's real or I'll have to water the flowerbeds tomorrow.

See Got Out to One Place

Return to Lick Brook Falls

 I made it to Elaine's tonight. We took a short hike in the evening, because it's going to continue to be pretty hot during the days. Lick Brook Falls, (along the Finger Lakes and North Country Trails) see link below for when I was there on the big hike, is only about a mile from where she lives, but she'd never been there. It's in a nature preserve, but it kind of a "secret."

To get there you have to cross a railroad bridge. This is probably illegal, but everyone does it, because there is no other bridge over the creek.

Elaine had never been there, and she loves waterfalls. But it was a bit disappointing because... it's July... not very much water.

But, there were a few interesting trickles.

Someone else thought the railroad bridge was interesting too. Yup, it's another blue racer!

You know I was looking at the plants. This isn't anything really special, but I don't see it very often, so I had to look it up to remind myself. It's Ditch Stonecrop, Penthorum sedoides.

And that's enough for today! We have some adventures planned for tomorrow, but I need a long nap first!

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 266.3. NCT miles hiked 106.2.

Route 96 to Lick Brook Falls and back and a little more. Near Ithaca, NY. 1.8 miles

See Lick Brook Falls

Birthday Fun

 My usual birthday treat to myself is a hike. But this year I deferred that to another day. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see. I'm kind of on a roll with the book and want to work while I'm highly motivated.

But I was eating my lunch and someone called and asked me if I wanted to go out. Um... I was full. But there's always room for dessert, right? Especially pie.

Do you know who it was? It was Sue! With a friend of hers, Jan.

They had Jan's car, so I wasn't sure if I'd get to see my little buddies. But they had come too. Sophie and Annabelle are always good for smiles and licks.

And Omer got me some treat foods I'd been wanting. Some chips and pop.

And I've been inhaling broccoli. Just in the mood. Here it is with cottage cheese for breakfast. But last night for dinner I just ate a huge bowl of broccoli with butter. Yummers

Sue brought me another fun item. But I'm not going to share that until I decide where to put it. I thought I knew the answer to that when she gave it to me, but I need to rethink it. Stay tuned.

I did my editing, and then my 100 new miles of campsites, and some more formatting fixes. I may try to get more done this evening so that I'll feel good about going out to play tomorrow.

Oh yeah. What year is it? Most of you know. Finishing trip 76 around the blazing ball of gasses.

See Surprises and Blessings

A Day of Favorites

 A lot of really favorite things today. The weather was absolutely how I like it. Cool air, warm sun. We started with jackets, but ended up in shirtsleeves. The sky was clear blue.

It was the monthly hike for the Spirit of the Woods Chapter. We had 53 people, three dogs, and a ferret! These two pictures got all but three of the hikers. The group quickly split up into small groups or singles, so it didn't feel like a total herd except at the very beginning.

We hiked south from M20 on the North Country Trail. Part of that section is through a pine plantation.

Madeline and Roxy get acquainted.

Most everyone hiked as far as the White River, about 3.25 miles, and back.

That was my intention, but once I got that far, I couldn't stop. There was a group that went on to Echo Drive. This is part of the group.

So, that was 4.25 miles, for a hike total of 8.5. Then I continued on to the south, until I got to Marianne's house in Ohio. I made the trip today because the hike was already an hour south of my house. We visited, we did a little work, then we went to town...

...for ice cream! I tried Nutty BonBon. Mostly peanut butter in a vanilla base. Yum.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 183.8 of which 64.3 is North Country Trail.

Lovely day, perfect weather, a hike on the NCT, a car that runs, a friend, ice cream!

See SPW at Big M

Summer of 1993 - 1

 Tonight is just going to be a teaser. I did my quota of editing and writing, a couple of other bits of work, and then started scanning slides that I've wanted to digitize for a long while. But it takes a fair amount of time to do them. However, I got the project about half done. I won't be showing you all the pictures. Some aren't very good, or there are a lot that are similar.

I'm going to take you back to the summer of 1993. I had just completed my first year of grad school, at the University of Michigan, college of Engineering. I'll tell you more about what I was doing as we continue, but here is where I spent the summer, at the DesPlaines River Wetlands, Wetlands Research, Inc. It's in Illinois, but very close to the Wisconsin border, about four miles inland from Lake Michigan

I've always said this was the best summer of my life, but now it has to compete with the big hike Dec '21- Jun '23. Apples and oranges. Anyway, there I was.

Tonight I will tease you with puppy pictures. Chips was only 3 months old when I went to live on this site in May. We cleaned up an empty trailer and lived there for four months. My Cat's Meow sleeping bag was brand new! I was only barely introduced to the North Country Trail. Marie and I had taken one 3-day backpacking trip in 1991, and a couple of day hikes. We had hoped to do a long hike that summer, but Marie had broken a bone in her foot and although it was healed, she didn't think she could do the weight of a backpack. More on that later.

I had my first real car (I'd owned a couple of beater vans before then). It was a Dodge Colt Vista, and I loved it. Chips did too. As long as he was with me or in the car, he felt safe.

I will tell you that he locked me out of the car once.

Tomorrow, I'll get the rest of the slides scanned, and begin telling you about that summer.

See In Memory of Hoover Houdini Chips

Cold, but Sunny

 It was 16 degrees this morning, but a small group of us decided to hike a few miles. The awesome news is that the sun was out most of the time!

This is the same section I hiked last week (link below), but things certainly look different today. And look at the shadows!

Six of us met and broke new trail in the snow.

We had two dogs with us. You know Koa, and you know that she is pretty small, about 20 pounds. But look how tiny Roxy is! Roxy is a Tibetian Spaniel. I'd never heard of that. She will only grow to be about 15 pounds. She's so tiny that she got to ride in a pack the whole way, and even with her warm coat and being in a pouch, she curled into a ball and hunkered down. You can see the little lump in Peg's front carrier in the picture above.

Naturally, the topic of greatest discussion was the blue sky. And what a lovely shade of blue it was!

Other than that I did some editing and writing. Walking in the snow was hard. I stressed my sore knee a bit.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 102.7 of which 18.7 is North Country Trail.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Timber Creek TH to FR 6428 and back. 5.2 miles

See Before the Rain