Did You Guess Elaine?

This clue wasn't bad if you've been around a while. The next person on the New York rotation is Elaine, and we always play a lot of games. The game I showed you last night was called Master Labyrinth. We think it would be fun with three or four people, but with the two of us both playing defensively, we decided to give up on it about halfway through. She was ahead at the time, but we were both tired of it. Here's Elaine cogitating her next move.

This morning, we started in again. Upwords is possibly Elaine's favorite. She beat me smartly. (But I beat her last year.) Sorry for the weird angle on the board, but you can see the words.

Elaine had asked me if I had a game I could bring, so I brought one of my very favorites which no one will play with me. Elaine liked it, but the learning curve is steep. We played about five rounds, but in demonstration mode, just for fun. I'll bring it next time so we can compete.

Then we played another that belongs to Elaine that we both like, Carcasonne. The biggest problem was that we didn't have a large enough flat surface, and the paper we tried to cover the slat tables with created too much topography for the map. But we successfully completed one game. I won this one.

This is part of Elaine's rock collection. She loves geology. I love plants.

Here we are, the "Bobsey Twins," so nicknamed by our high school gym teacher, and it has been an apt comparison. We are 364 days apart in age, like many of the same things, etc. (Except that she's six feet tall and I'm not.)

We had grilled cheese sandwiches with smoked cheese for lunch. Yummy!

Now, here's your clue for where I am now. This will be about as much help as the computer memory board was, but tough nuggies. It's all I have. I'll tell you that the ferret's name is Pebbles.

No walking occurred. I had high hopes, but it just didn't happen. Tomorrow should be more active.

See Did You Guess Irene?

Heritage Nature Trail - Cadillac

 After the vendor event today, I took a short hike on the Heritage Nature Trail at Mitchell State Park in Cadillac. I had been there once before in 2015 (link below).

This is a large man-made wetland area between Lakes Mitchell and Cadillac. Black Creek, seen here, used to be used to float logs between the two lakes, but it was too shallow, and a canal was eventually dug. This changed the hydrology of the area enough that this became about 70 acres of wetland.

Since it's now preserved as a nature study area, that is a good thing. Most of the trail is in the form of a raised berm that goes in a rectangle around the area. At least it's dirt. But despite being close to two busy highways, it's known for great wildlife viewing. There is a spur into the middle of the marsh with an observation platform. I went out there, but it's pretty early to see much. There were a couple of slow peepers.

I really liked this collection of hummocks along the diverted section of Black Creek that surrounds the wetland.

Saw my first turtles of the year! Just painted turtles, but that's OK. I like to play the game of "which will be first?" Some years it's been a Blandings.

I wanted to take the outer loop, and I did. But the cut-across loop was so attractive, I had to walk it too (both directions, eh?). It goes over what they call "hemlock island." Since nobody was keeping any kind of records when this land was all changed, they don't really know why it's higher, or why (uncharacteristically) hemlocks are growing that near a wetland. But it was a beautiful section of trail. Two humps with hemlocks, and one lower section with a boardwalk through the marsh.

On the walk back, I cut over to Lake Cadillac.

The willow trees are getting all sexy. This is goat willow, Salix caprea, alien. But the male catkins sure are fancy.

With the extra bits of trail I did and the out and back pieces, I managed to turn it into a four mile walk. There is lots of interpretation, and would be a nice walk with kids. Probably you'd see a lot of wildlife activity on a summer evening.

The vendor event went OK. They didn't manage to pull in a very good crowd. I sold a few books and talked with a lot of people. But a few of my friends came. Sorry, no picture of Miki, but I finally got a pretty good one of Eamon!

Total miles hiked in 2024: 193.6 of which 69.6 is North Country Trail.

Mitchell State Park, Cadillac, MI, Heritage Nature Study Trail. with spurs. 4.0 miles

See Sunday Hikes

Couldn't Stay Inside!

 I was going to hunker down and work a lot today, but the forecast was for 53 degrees! Nope. Have to go out.

I met Miki at the Freesoil Trailhead to walk my adopted section of trail.

Pretty much, when Miki hikes, so does Eamon. He is a young ferret, so he has lots of energy. He walked over half of the way, and got a ride in "mom's" coat the rest of the time.

The bottomland hardwood swamp along the section of trail that was Manistee and Luther Railroad is very dry. This often has a couple of feet of standing water in it.

Remember the bridges I helped replace in August? (Link below) Here is one of them completed. There are five little ones. So nice to have sturdy passage.

Once again, I contemplated following the unknown rail berm that crosses the trail here. See more in link below. Today, you could really see the berm heading north (yellow). The trail is the blue line. This would be a good time to try to follow it. We'll see!

Finally, just a nice trail picture. At least, as nice as they get in the brown and gray months. My thermometer said it made it to 55 degrees!

I did get quite a bit of editing done, and some writing before I hiked.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 113.3 of which 23.7 is North Country Trail.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, Freesoil Rd to Tyndall Rd and back. 5 miles

See Trail Work Day See Railroad or Road