Pentwater Pathway with Cathy

  Cathy didn't work today- she is semi-retired now, and we went to the Pentwater Pathway and did the loops in such a way that our miles added up to 7.7.

The terrain is similar throughout the forest where it's located, and things are still brown and gray. That means pictures tend to look mostly like this. But since it's a series of ski loops there are some decent hills.

Here's a large black oak. We stopped on Long Bridge on the way home. It was super windy locally for almost 24 hours. It's finally calmed down now, but you can see how windblown we were out there in the open. It wasn't bad at all in the woods, though.

Here's the view down the lake, toward the village of Pentwater. Similar view in the link below about kayaking.

The temperature made it into the 50s, the sky was clear, and the water blue. I love the blue and tan of the old cattails. (not snow in the background but sandbags- big problems here with high water last year)

A lone mute swan was hunting for lunch.

Nice hike, nice day.

Pentwater Pathway, Pentwater, Michigan. Various loops for a total of 7.7 miles

In other news: I came home and got cleaned up and did a few odds and ends. Since the wind was trying to remove the tarp from my trailer, it's now officially removed for the season.

See Pentwater Pathway Hike See Kayaks Loaded, Kayaks Launched

More Fun! What, Me Work?

 
Just call me Maynard G. Krebs. And if you are old enough to understand this joke, you'll know how young we are. Today after church I headed for Pentwater to spend time with Loretta, GayLynne and Paula. Loretta leaves to go home in the morning. So sad.

We sure do have fun when she's here.



Lunch, fooling around, games, and watching the sunset over Pentwater Lake. Mighty fine.







What, you don't think we were having enough fun? OK, how about this?

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On Lost Lake

 



I decided to back up and share a couple more pictures from my hike at Ludington State Park last weekend. These white objects were seen on Lost Lake, which is a portion of the larger Hamlin Lake. It's considered "lost" because it is almost completely cut off from the larger lake, connected by a couple of channels. Floating plastic bags? Buoys?


Oh, hello! It's one of our local big birds, the mute swan. These birds have become almost the signature bird of the Ludington area, yet they aren't a North American native. The swans that are native to this area are the trumpeters and tundra swans. We have them too, but not as many, except during migration times.


Here is one of the ways you can recognize the difference. The mute swans have the gracefully curved necks so familiar to bathroom decals! Trumpeters and tundras carry their necks straight up and down.
Finally, the mute swans have an orange beak; on the others it's black.

And mute swans are... mute. Trumpeters are NOT. They can be very noisy. The day that Ellen and I kayaked through a flock of them they honked and honked for a long time as they all flew away.

Thanks for all the neat comments about the fern lesson. I'll definitely be showing you some more easy stuff about ferns this spring.

See Kayaking on November 21! to see the trumpeter swans flying See I Never Would Have Seen These If... for another picture of a mute swan