South Channel Light

 I was hunkered down at the computer, and had been for hours, when Cathy called and suggested a walk. Yes!

We went out to the Ludington south channel. This is the opposite side of the channel from the lighthouse. You can see both in this picture, but it would be 10 miles to walk from where we were to the Ludington light. We were headed for the red striped light on the left.

The water near shore was an amazing turquoise, although farther out it was deep blue. You can just kind of see that in the pictures above and below this one.

Although we probably could have made it to the south light safely by hugging the channel side of the walk, Cathy didn't want to get as wet as seemed likely!

On the way back to the car we walked through the Pere Marquette memorial. This is where Jacques Marquette may have died.

We added a little more to our hike by climbing the 73 steps up the dune to walk through Buttersville Campground. That had more shade and made a nice ending to our walk.

The little adventure made a good break in my computer-bound day- editing and other stuff.

Miles walked in 2026: 300.7
A loop from Buttersville Park, Mason County, to partway out the south breakwall and back. 3.8 miles

See Liquid Air

A Better View?

  Sorry about no blog post last night. My eye hurt so bad I just couldn't function. Got an eye doctor appt. this morning. Two doctors looked at it, and the eye is fine. Really fine. What I have now is post-shingles neuralgia. This could last a while, but hopefully not more than a couple of weeks. The point is... I can use my eyes as much as I'm comfortable with. I'm not doing any damage. I just need to wait for the nerves to heal.

I drove through the beach afterwards and got much nicer pictures than last week.

And some open water looking more to the north.

I actually had a fair amount of energy today (compared to the past 3+ weeks). Maybe tomorrow I'll both have energy and my eye will be less light-sensitive. Of course they had to dilate it today.

But I'm very encouraged.

See The View? at the Beach

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Manistee Riverwalk Reopens

 The Manistee Riverwalk is one of the nicest urban, water-side pathways anywhere. It's almost like a gamescape with varying surfaces, levels, views, etc. A part of it has been closed for repairs, but for once, my luck was fantastic. I had to go to Manistee today, and they just re-opened that section.

A lot of it is in sun, with pavement and flower beds. Lots of flower beds. You may see more of that tomorrow. Even this late, there were still nice things to see

Other parts are like shaded secret entrances to other worlds.

The primary business street, River Street, is a level above the walk. Many of the buildings are old. I love this section near the Cypress St Bridge. With the shadow of a railing from the upper level and the old stone and brick, it looks like a castle.

When you get out at the west end, the Manistee River empties into Lake Michigan. This is the Manistee Lighthouse.

On the walk back, there is this really nice view of the river. This is also a shipping channel as boats come in to Manistee Lake, so it has to be kept open and clear. In fact, it was a dredging operation that caused part of the walk to be closed for most of the summer. But this shows how there is a great variety of landscapes along the route.

Almost back to the beginning. This is the Cypress Street Bridge. It's a drawbridge and has been closed for repairs most of the last two years. I know everyone is happy to see it open again. You can just barely see the railroad swing bridge beyond in its open position. I know I did a post on that, but I can't find it to link. Another time.

Finally for today, another artsy shot. This is nothing but the reflection of a post. But I like it a lot.

Most of the day was spent finishing up the necessary stuff I've been working on and then getting it delivered. This walk was my reward.

Miles hiked in 2024: 473.9 Manistee Riverwalk, both directions. 3.5 miles

See Manistee Riverwalk

A Ludington Day

 It was miserably hot today. I had to do some work in the morning, but then we headed for Ludington. It's usually 10 degrees cooler in Ludington in the summer and that was true today. We went for lunch at House of Flavors and split a Great Lakes Cranberry Wrap. Yum.

Then we drove around and looked at a few historic buildings and places. The beach was next. Pure Ludington, although things are winding down for the season since many schools have already started.

The goal was to walk out to the Lighthouse, which we did.

Nothing but blue lake and sky behind us!

Then we went back to House of Flavors for ice cream. I mean, we do know what HOF is for!

After that it was home again to do a few tasks around the house, but it was so hot we ended up watching a few funny videos.

The goal of the evening was to watch the Badger come in. That's a favorite Ludington pass-time, but I haven't done it anytime recently. I'm glad we went. Here she comes. See her?

I'm pretty sure you can find her now. She's being escorted by a Sheriff's boat. Also the Ludington Harbor Patrol was on duty. There have been some problems lately with small boats not staying out of the way, so they may have upped the escort presence.

Just a reminder. This is the only remaining coal-fired passenger ship in the U.S., and it's a registered Historic Landmark. The Badger and its sister ship the Spartan (also docked at Ludington but not seaworthy) are the two largest such ships ever built.

It has to turn around to dock because vehicles and any cargo are loaded off the back. You may remember that part of the docking system broke last summer and they lost about a third of the sailing season. But that's all fixed, with a new "apron" and counterweights. Watching it do that maneuver is quite interesting. Here is it almost backed into place in front of the Spartan.

It was still hot, so we drove around to the other side of Pere Marquette Lake for the view of the ferries from that side and also to visit the memorial to Pere Marquette. This is one of the most likely places for his death, although there are a lot of theories pointing to other locations.

Home again, salads for dinner- it was just too hot to eat, some visiting. Today was as full as it was going to get.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 372.8.

Ludington breakwater to the lighthouse and back 1.0 mile

See Working Our Way Home

Celebration 2024 - Friday

 Marie, Diane and I just took a little walk out to the St. Ignace Lighthouse this morning. Since my program was this afternoon, I couldn't take a chance on going on a scheduled hike and not getting back in time.

I know this is nothing but the rip-rap along the pier, but I liked the play of the light on the water.

My program went great. After mine was done, I managed to slip into the end of a geology workshop that I wanted to attend, but the time conflicted with mine. One of the places we got to see is called St. Anthony's Rock. It's a sea stack- a conglomeration of rocks from collapsed underwater caves of the last glacial lake before the current Great Lakes (Lake Nippising). If you are from Michigan, you will probably recognize the name of the most famous one, which is Castle Rock.

The evening speaker was dynamic and funny, but all my pictures are out of focus. I did get my picture with one of the remaining charter members of the NCTA. This is Ken Gackler. In fact, his membership number is #2!

That doesn't sound like a busy day, but it was... lots of talking and running around. I'm crashing for the night. See you tomorrow.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 367.3.

various places in St. Ignace, 1.5 miles

See Celebration 2024- thursday

Saugerties Lighthouse

  There are 8 remaining lighthouses along the Hudson River. More than 24 were built from 1826 to 1921, coinciding with the rise in night use of passenger steamboats. This is Saugerties Lighthouse, built in 1869 to replace an earlier light at this location from 1835.

This is looking down the Hudson River toward New York. I'm not sure I've ever taken a hike before where you had to check the tide table before setting out. The Hudson River is actually a tidal estuary, affected by the tides as far north as Albany. At the trailhead to this short walk, the tide table is posted with the days and times that the trail is underwater!

There are two items of note here. First is the bouy with something on top. It's an osprey nest. If you look closely, you'll see a baby's head.

Squint even harder, and you'll see a bridge just to the right of center. That's the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge that Marie and I walked across in March 2023.

I learned a new plant, but it's a bad one. This is Water Chestnut, Trapa natans. It was brought to the US in 1884 by a plant collector. Of course it escaped into the Hudson River. It forms large mats that clog waterways. Animals do eat the large seed pods.

This is a fun plant, but I haven't seen it for a while. It's Dodder, Cuscuta sp., a parasitic plant that looks like someone draped orange silly string over other plants. It has to tap into the vasuclar system of another plant for nourishment. It will sometimes bloom, and I have pictures of that from back when my pix were 35mm.

Also, we saw what appeared to be an ordinary squirrel. However, on closer inspection it appears to have been crosed with a lemur. Just kidding, but I don't think I've ever seen one with stripes on its legs like this.

In other news: We sent for our FLT 50 and FLT Branch Trail patches. We bought paint. If it ever stops raining (not constant, but enough to keep things wet), we have a DIY project to do.

The reason I'm blogging late is that one of Ed and Marie's very shy kitties (two rescue cats) decided to sit on my lap for a long time. Previously, (like for several years previously) she has not even let me touch her. The other cat won't let anyone touch him. I mean, when a shy cat parks on your lap, you just can't get up and blog.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 351.1.

Trail to Saugerties (NY) Lighthouse and back, 1 mile

See Sort of a Foodie Day

A Walk to the Ludington Lighthouse

Before bell choir practice, I took a fast walk out to the Ludington Lighthouse. I've learned that it's actually only a light, not a lightHOUSE, because there is no keepers house associated with it. But I doubt that even I can manage to remember to be that particular when talking about it.

The pier to get out to it is three-tenths of a mile long, so it's a decent little walk. More so when it's windy as it was this afternoon. Not TOO windy, or you can't go on the pier. The waves crash right over it in a storm. Today, there were only some wet places. This picture is taken right into the sun.

Once you get there, you find yourself right under the base which resembles the prow of a ship. It's designed to help break up waves. The waves break and spray higher than the lighthouse fairly regularly.

Just across the channel is a marker light. That is where Cathy and I walked to in the post linked below. Of course it's about a 10-mile drive to get around to the south pier!

There weren't very many people on the pier today, but neither was it deserted. Unless there is a real storm, there are usually locals who like to walk out there. And most years, there is someone who walks there when they really shouldn't. At the best they get a bad dunking and lesson. At worst, they drown. This is looking back at the Stearns Park Beach. Not covered with sunbathers today! The shoreline continues north toward Big Sable point.

The snow/sand fences are up for the winter. The sand is drifting. Already there are piles of it along the drive through the park. Locals complain about how early the fencing goes up. But the city has to trade off the expense of clearing the drifted sand (which is considerable) with good will. The fencing keeps it from blowing all the way into town.

No writing happened today. I did some work for a client, I did some research. I did a couple of things in the trailer. I'll share those when a small collection of them is complete. Then I went to town and walked and went to bell choir, after which I had a meeting. Busy, busy.

See Liquid Air

Liquid Air

Cathy and I took an evening walk. We went out to Buttersville on the south side of the Ludington Channel and walked out to the marker light. From there, you can look across the channel to the Ludington Lighthouse. You might note that it's just a bit hazy. Like seriously hazy. Like liquid air hazy.

On the way, we passed the Pere Marquette Shrine. I hadn't really been there since the base was rebuilt. It looks good. This is supposedly the place where Marquette died, although there are several places which claim that fact.

The carferries, both the Badger and the Spartan are at their docks. Remember, the Badger had to end its season early. The Spartan just sits there anyway.

Coming back on the pier the light was hitting the rip-rap. Just rocks, right? But photos are always about the lighting.

The haze made for interesting lighting as the sun got lower.

The day was oppresive with heat and humidity. I managed to do a few things this morning, and then just petered out. How did I ever walk in this stuff last summer? It was about all I could do to breathe today. Tomorrow I need to be functional, that's for sure.

See 2011 Trip to the South Channel