The Trees Made It to Spring

I love the colors of trees in early spring, either flowering or not. Had some nice scenery on the way to and from the dentist today.

I think these are American Plum, but I didn't get out of the car to go check.

Sweet little baby Red Maple leaves!

Just extras- a bud for Canada Mayflower

And two deer moseying across the lawn at the Methodist Church.

Today was non-stop. I started with the dentist. That was a non-event. The implant is doing great. Six more weeks and another non-event check and I can have the tooth added.

Then I came home and got the mower going and mowed some grass. Then I worked on stuff for Confidence Camp until it was time to go to bell practice. Stopped at Cathy's on the way home and we talked more Confidence Camp stuff.

I'll see how much more I can get done yet this evening.

Stopped on the way home at Rothbury Rest Area. They have a tiny 0.3 mile trail.

Miles walked in 2026: 158.7

See Spring Color

Before it Turns White

As far as I can tell from looking at posts on Facebook, everyone else in West Michigan got snow. It hasn't showed up here yet. Maybe tonight. Actually, they've upped the snowfall total for us for tomorrow. Whatever.

But I want to show you the last of the color around my yard. I trimmed the forsythia. It needs to be done at least every other year or it turns into a monster. It's not hugely colorful, but I like the yellow and maroonish layers.

Are you wondering if that renegade marigold ever bloomed? It tried SO hard, but it didn't quite make it. I covered it diligently every night for about two weeks, but this is the best it could do. A little yellow in the bud.

I want to show you the rock garden one more time because I am loving how deep red the elecombeanum sedum got this year. Some patches of light-colored foliage are also hanging on, so it looks quite nice for mid November.

And my maple tree? After doing practically nothing about getting autumnesque for weeks and weeks, it suddenly turned orange! I decided to verify what kind of maple it is. Back when I replanted this tiny sapling, really just a two-leaf cotyledon, I didn't know enough to really choose wisely as to the species. Now, I was afraid to learn that I've carefully nurtured a Norway maple for 35 years, and that is considered alien and invasive. I know there are some Norway maples in the cemetery in addition to the sugar maples, so... yikes!

But I checked it out. It can be difficult to tell the two apart, but there are a few "tricks." I'm pretty confident that this is a sugar maple.

Finally, and this has nothing to do with color, here's an autumn olive. On its way out! I've been working on this one large specimen with my new power pruner. Just have these remaining large trunks, and I should be able to get them cut to ground level this week. I'm treating the stumps with Tordon (a salt of 2,4-D which makes it legal- this is serious stuff), and every one that I cut and treated with this last year has not come back.

I'd like to say I made real progress on this menace in my kingdom this year, but I'll have to settle for moderate success. I cut back nearly a whole row of it by hand in the back yard, and you Can't Even Tell. But I'll keep after it. I'ts immensely easier with power tools.

There are ones by the driveway and the kitchen door that we cut every single cotton-pickin' year. Omer usually does these. We used to treat the stumps with Roundup, but that only slowed the stuff down. This Tordon seems to really work.

Almost everything I worked on today seems to have something that isn't going quite right. Just need to keep after them, and they'll get sorted out.

See The Color is Yellow

Color in My Kingdom

I still have some really nice autumn photos from the past few days, but I think today I'll just show you what's going on in my corner of the universe.

Here's the female mulberry tree. The male one didn't look too healthy this year. I'm hoping it's not going to die. These two trees have given me several fantastic photos- see link at end for two of them

This is the paper birch I planted about 30 years ago. It's probably too close to the house, but oh, well. It almost died, and then came back, so part of the trunk is ugly. I have to keep trimming it away from the roof. It sheds leaves all over my front flower bed. That creates a big mess to clean up in the spring, but I think it has also improved the soil there tremendously. It's always golden in the fall.

The Sedum elecombeanum that I like so much in the rock garden with its yellow-green leaves all summer and bright yellow flowers in June- turns red-orange in the fall!

There is a big patch of Winged Sumac just out into the field a little ways. I missed the peak of its color, but here is proof that maybe a week ago it was bright.

Here is a picture from last year that shows how beautiful that clump can be.



And my parting shot is one of those "huh?" moments. I posted last year that the maple tree I planted as a sapling about 6 inches tall in 1991 got autumn color for the first time ever. It's the darker orange tree behind the yellow mulberry. That was taken October 31, so almost exactly a year ago.



Here's what it looks like this year. It has very little interest in changing color for me. You can see a few hints of orange/salmon on the edges of some leaves. But it's a nice tree, and I planted it, and it lived. So I like it.

I slept in this morning because I did not sleep well last night. Still got a fair amount done and took my 3-mile road walk.

Miles hiked in 2025: 416.2

See Pink, Blue, and Red

Exploring Old Grade

Today was pretty busy, but it was all good. In the afternoon, I stopped at the "Old Grade Campground" (Manistee National Forest). It's only the second time I've been there.

Can you guess how it got its name?

Yup! It was a railroad grade. But you know I can't be content with only knowing that. I had to know what railroad. This is not far north of the village of Peacock where two separate railroads crossed each other. However, it is on the north side of the Little Manistee River. So I couldn't quite figure what railroad this was.

Turns out, it's a logging line of the Manistee and Luther RR. Their main line went from Eastlake to Hoxeyville (never quite making it to either Manistee or Luther!). On the map, the red lines are Manistee and Luther. The topmost of the dark green arrows points to where I was today. And that means the railroad had a bridge across the river there. I wonder if one can find any remnants.

The lower dark green arrow points to Peacock where the light green Michigan E & W line crossed the Chicago and West Michigan line in magenta.

I was hoping to write about the loop trail at Old Grade for one of my columns. I have to think about whether I should do that. Some of the trail is in bad shape. I made it through with electronic help. The good portion could be done as an out and back. Anyway, I had fun. Here's where the trail begins.

When you get around on the other side of the loop, the trail briefly follows a small, unnamed creek that flows beneath hemlocks to the Little Manistee River .

Here are a couple of closeups. Red maple leaf- not just red in color, but it's a red maple.

And some needles from a white cedar which fell artistically on its horizontal trunk. I suspect squirrels bit these off and dropped them.

This all happened after I met with some people about some trail stuff, and I also did laundry. I worked on computer stuff a bit this morning, and my day was completely filled!

Miles hiked in 2025: 410.4

Old Grade loop trail and in and out from entrance 2.3 miles.

See Not Quite, But Quite All Right

More Fall Finery

These pictures were all taken yesterday. Today was mostly gray and rainy although not nearly as stormy as was predicted. We only had 0.2 inch of rain. I walked around outside a bit, but not really enough to call it a hike.

At the west side of the cemetery a row of Ailanthus (Tree-of-Heaven) is growing in front of the maples. The Ailanthus is invasive and should be removed, but meanwhile it has nice color and texture contrast.

This is the line of trees on the edge of the cemetery. I've shared it a lot because it almost always looks nice in the fall. There are lots of aging sugar maples in the cemetery which usually produce good color.

Not all fall beauty has to have vibrant colors. Sometimes neutral tones are just fine. Here are faded flower heads of New England Aster with the Rabbit Tobacco in front.

I really liked the textural interest of this one! In the front is the fully mature Fall Witch Grass, with a field of asparagus gone to seed behind that.

I had brain fog this morning, but managed to reclaim most of the day. Even wrote in Vacation from DMS a little bit.

See To the Tunnel of Trees

To the Tunnel of Trees

The scheduled hike for tomorrow was postponed because it's supposed to really rain and be stormy for a couple of days. I was going to take a break today since I hiked yesterday. But the prospect of severl days of rain made me go out. I road-walked to a favorite nearby locale- the Conrad Road tunnel of trees.

These trees are getting really old. There's actually another nice tunnel a few miles farther west on Conrad, but I wasn't walking that far. And the road is still dirt in this place making it more attractive to me.

These photos are not touched up in any way. The sugar maples that form the lane are always this flaming yellw-orange each year.

There is one more little piece of tunnel not much farther away. I zoomed it in closer.

There was a stiff little breeze although it was warm. You can see how it was pushing the leaves. I started out with a light jacket, but soon tied that around my waist. Also came home with 90 ¢ worth of empty cans.

Got a lot done today! Worked a bit on almost all my regular projects. Walked to the tunnel and back- 4 miles.

Miles hiked in 2025: 401.5

See Conrad Road tunnel of trees in all seasons

Fall Hike with Friends

I spotted a couple of hikers on the North Country Trail today, and then hiked with them a little way. On the right is Jane. She's got 1000 miles as an NCT Long Distance Hiker, and she just finished all of Michigan a couple of months ago.

On the left is Amy. Both of these ladies are from the Battle Creek area (Chief Noonday Chapter), but Amy had never hiked any of the NCT outside of their chapter miles. And today was her birthday! We are trying to give her a case of "blue blaze fever."

And how did we manage to get a picture that isn't a selfie? Just as we were posing, a backpacker, Korey, came along! He took the shot for us.

They started just a little south of our Chapter's section, so I got to see a piece I don't go to quite so often. I always like that.

Colors are starting. The woods isn't flaming yet, but I managed to catch some color.

Shots across more open areas of wetland always look good.

The red maples are starting to get serious.

I have no idea what kind of mushroom this is, but it was interesting.

I hiked in with them for about 2 miles and then turned around. It was only a tenth of a mile the other direction to Cedar Creek, which I also haven't seen for a while (like since Dec 2021 when I walked away from home to begin my long hike!), so I went there as well.

The weather was perfect, the hiking was easy, new friends and long-time friends. Life is good.

Oh yeah, and I did the usual other stuff.

Miles hiked in 2025: 383.7
Miles hiked on the NCT in 2025: 226.6

16-Mile Rd in Newaygo County on NCT, 2.1 miles out and then back

See Traction Treads

Hunting for (but Not Finding) Spring

 Cathy and I hiked four miles this morning, and I was determined to find some signs of spring. Well, not much success there.

This is Pennsylvania Sedge, and if you squint, you can just see the stems starting to come up in the middle of this clump.

This picture is terrible, but the blackberry canes have just the tinyest leaves starting.

The best evidence is swelling buds on the red maple, but they haven't even erupted in flowers yet.

But when I got home... there are primroses in bloom. So there's that!

After lunch, Cathy and I did a jigsaw puzzle. It's called "Dog Days," and it was a lot of fun. 750 pieces and just the right level that we managed to finish in one afternoon.

I did manage to get two loads of laundry done and dried on the line as well.

Four miles with 22 pounds. That is great because I believe I can do a two-day one-night backpack with only 22 pounds. So, now I just need to work on the mileage. My back is sore, but not too bad.

Miles hiked in 2025: 97.5. Hile 100: 32.5.

NCT, Timber Creek south to Wingleton and back. 4 miles

See Leitch Bayou