An Orangely Success

As everyone in the northeast knows, the air quality is terrible due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. It is unpleasant, but it affects my ability to function much less than the heat and humidity.

Next topic. Some of you know I signed up for the Onekama 30-day Challenge. This is just to help motivate me to get into shape for the longish hike I hope to do this fall. At 78, I can't just "wing it" the way I used to be able to do without conditioning.

So I set my goal for the challenge to hike 100 miles in those 30 days. That's 25 miles a week. Today is the end of the first week, and I needed 6+ miles. I could NOT make myself to get up and hike early- besides, it was already hot in the morning. Then it got hotter. Then the air quality went bonkers due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. But the smoke blotted out the sun enough that the temperature declined to 82°. Still not great, but better than it was all day.

So... I headed out at 6 pm to get my 6 miles.

What the heck? Someone's been using spray paint in the woods?

Then I saw spots like this all over. Then I realized there were also stripes on the trees. It's the sunlight from the very orange sun through the haze!

Just for fun, I saw little orange mushrooms.

And other little orange mushrooms.

And the evening sun trying to shine through the haze.

A great horned owl flew across the trail in front of me, but no picture.

How'd I do? Got my first 25 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 213.1
Miles walked for the Onekama Challenge: 25
Miles walked for Hike 100 Challenge: 76

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, from Timber Creek to 8th St and back and a little more.

In other news: I stayed inside and edited a lot.

See The Small of Orange

Spirit of the Woods Hike- May 2026

The group photo hasn't been posted yet for me to grab, but there were about 15 people and 5 dogs who hiked today. We traveled farther than usual, going north to where the Manistee River crosses US 131. The trail goes beneath the bridge.

The hike actually went the other direction, going north (trail west) along the high bluff beside the river.

We finally had another really nice day! We were all ready for this.

And some of the wildflowers were opening. Wood anemone.

Trout lily.

And some Carolina spring beauty.

Finally, just some cute little orange mushrooms on the green moss.

What with travel time, going out to eat, and the hike itself, this is really all I did today.

Miles hiked in 2026: 158.4
Hike 100 Challenge: 51.6

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI. US 131 Roadside rest north 3 miles and back. 6.0 miles

See SPW Hike- April 2026

My Fantasy World

Found another fantasy map. Definitely an island with one access road. It has small peninsulas with cliffs jutting over the mainland on the right. Maybe the dark areas are swamps (I'll have to explore them) and I also see an ancient forest line. I think I'll just disappear into that world for while.

Maybe this is another island where things have begun to green up. Or maybe it's just an old dry turkeytail fungus with moss growing on it.

The red pines were wet from all the recent rain. It really makes them RED.

And another fungus that I've learned the name of. This is Crowded Parchment fungus, Stereum complicatum. It's supposed to be very common, although I don't think I see it as often as I see turkeytail.

So, what was I doing in the woods yet another day in a row? I shuttled Chris back to the trail this morning, and then walked with him a short way before turning around. I really need to get some work done here! But we had a great visit- getting acquainted a bit.

You know in my fantasy, I would have just kept walking.

But I did come home, and I got a lot done. Serious editing, some work on the lawn. A few more things are starting to bloom. The Tete-a-tete daffodils in the rock garden are looking good. I walked around all my garden spaces to see what's happening. Stay tuned.

Miles walked in 2026- 141.2
NCT Hike 100 Challenge- 43.1

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. North from Timber Creek (AGAIN), 2 miles and back.

See A Great Day

Esopus Bend Nature Preserve

Today, Marie and I took a hike that was more like a "real" hike. We'd been concerned about getting in a lot of mud with the rains, so we've mostly stayed on hardened trail. But today we were more adventurous. We've hiked here together before, but not since 2012! Marie hikes here a lot because it's a good conditioning hike near her house.

Just a reminder- New York is not Michigan. Of course I love that there are rocks.

We did the loop with the biggest hill twice. Just to make us feel "at home" on the trail, this part of the hill has lots of roots.

Part of the trail is along Esopus Creek. I choose to show you this part at the bend, where there is a nose of rock that comes down to the water.

This was the place where I first learned about oriental bittersweet, an invasive that chokes entire trees. I've shown it from other locations many times, but it's still here.

Just a hint of spring- the skunk cabbage was up in the low areas. We found a bit of mud, but didn't get into anything too awful.

We even saw a lovely fungus- cinnabar polypore- which I've encountered a few times, but not too often.

We got to watch this guy for quite a few minutes. I do think it's a male because it's mature but rather small.

And this is fun! I also saw this plant the last time I was here, and after some checking today came to the same conclusion I did 14 years ago. This is lesser pyrola or lesser wintergreen, Pyrola minor. It's related to shinleaf which is more common. Here are the leaves.

And the dried fruits from last year.

What a great hike! And I'm not super tired. I feel as if I'm starting to get in shape. It was in the mid thirties, but not windy or damp and clammy, so it didn't feel nasty. There was even a little sun.

We managed to make this take quite a bit of time what with fooling around to look at things. We did odds and ends in the afternoon and went to a Scout fundraising dinner in the evening.

Miles walked in 2026: 92.9

Esopus Bend Nature Preserve, Ulster County, NY. All miles except the Meadow Paths. Some twice. 5.1 miles.

See Amazing Oriental Bittersweet See Lesser Pyrola

Shining Candy Corn Ganoderma Tsugae

I believe I've solved a fungal mystery, and it makes me really happy because this is a favorite of mine, and now I love it in both early and mature stages.

On Tuesday, we saw all these fungal growths on a fallen tree.

I immediately knew I was "on to" something. Especially when I saw the ones on the bottom of the log

I saw these in the Adirondacks on the NCT hike. I called them 'Candy Corn' fungus.

At that time, I managed to determine that they are in the Ganoderma genus, but couldn't be certain what kind. Gano= shining, and Derma= skin. Shining skin fungus.

Now, I'm pretty sure this is the early growth of the Hemlock Polypore or Hemlock Varnish Shelf (because they are shiny as if they'd just been varnished). The log we saw Tuesday is a fallen hemlock, so that's a huge clue. And I know that the Hemlock Polypore is found in this area.

This is a young Ganoderma tsugae. Tsugae= hemlock. One thing for certain about just about all the mushrooms/fungi is that they can look very different at different stages.

So what's this look like when it's mature? I first encountered this one in 1998 in Wisconsin, where we nicknamed it the 'Rearview Mirror' fungus because they eventually grow out at an angle on a stalk. Doesn't look much like those candy corn, does it?

And here is the upper side of a beautiful mature one. It really does look like it's been varnished. And it usually grows on hemlock. Many of the polypores are named for their preferred wood to inhabit.

I love that I've figured this out, and I love the looks of this fungus in all its stages.

In other news, there's a Brown Thrasher flying around my yard, but I haven't been able to catch a picture. Did a good job of accomplishing computer tasks in the morning. Unloaded the concrete blocks and worked on gardens in the afternoon. Yeah me!

See Fun Guys Wear Brown

Crystal Valley Outer Loop

 I had not been out to Crystal Valley for a long time. But I'm wanting to ramp up the miles I can hike in a day, and the outer loop of their ski trails is about 7.5. Cathy went with me. She didn't want to go that far, but with multiple loops, she could cut back to the car earlier.

It was a nice day to be out. No green yet except for moss and conifers, but that's OK.

Except for the bottom loop, the rest of the area is pretty hilly. This is out on Loop 5, the most difficult. I'd never even walked that because it was still in development the last time I hiked there. My favorite piece today was a connecting trail between Loops 4 and 5 that follows the top of a ridge.

My former adventure buddy, Ellen, is really involved with the group that maintains these trails, OCCSA (Oceana Cross Country Ski Association). Here's one serious piece of work they did.

I found a few little goodies. This is a jelly fungus, probably Exidia recisa, which can be black, brown or amber colored. It's sometimes called witches butter. I've showed you this in the past. It's really common.

This one is common too, but I may have an ID on it now. I think it's coral spot, Nectria cinnabarina. That said, I am NOT a fungus expert.

There are a few glacial erratic boulders out there. This was the biggest one I saw.

There are brand new ski trail blazes! I've never seen this style before. Pretty classy.

But the very best find of all was a bunch of these scattered on the trail. These are chestnuts! Now, I want to get really excited, but I can't tell if they are American (which would be a phenomenal find), or a hybrid (but how would one have gotten out there in the forest?). I don't know how to tell the seed pods apart, or if you even can tell them apart on the outside. I looked around for the tree, but didn't spot any bark that looked right. Later, I realized the tree might have been farther uphill and the "balls" had rolled down the trail. I also looked for leaves on the ground, but I think what I found were just large beech leaves. They didn't have pronounced enough spines. Anyway, I think I'm going to try to let someone know about this. The area is within the Manistee National Forest.

So, I pushed myself to do longer mileage. The loop was 7.9 miles, but I did extra and got 9.2 miles. I feel OK, just tired, and I did bang up a toe. I'll live.

Not much else got done. I decided that was OK for today.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 151.8 of which 45.4 is North Country Trail (none of today is NCT).

See Skiing at Crystal Valley

Ward Hills Again

  Today, a fairly new friend, Monica, and I hiked 6.5 miles. We did a combo of North Country Trail, bushwhacking, and 2-tracks to make a loop and then we added a short out-and-back tail to make it a little longer.

We went to the Ward Hills Fire Tower site. I learned a couple of new things about this. For one thing, this is not only the highest hill in Ward Hills, I think it's the highest base elevation of any of the fire tower sites in the Manistee National Forest. I had assumed that would be either Udell or Red Bridge tower sites which are farther north in a hillier location. But this one is at 1160 feet, and Red Bridge is only 1101. Udell's base elevation is only 1000 feet. This was a 100-foot tower and was built by the Walhalla CCC camp. It was dismantled in 1972. Now you can only see the footings.

I hunted for the benchmark, but I've forgotten exactly where it is. Another reason to go back there. It's a site I like, even though the views are mostly grown in.

The best part is the foundation of the keeper's house. I haven't been able to find out a lot of information about specific towers, but this is the only one I know of that had a house provided.

I didn't take a lot of pictures. We were doing quite a bit of visiting. But I did snap one of my favorite bowls in this section. The trail snakes around the rim

This log was rimmed with a little orange fungus which contrasted nicely with the moss.

Another nice find was some Angel Wings fungus. Supposed to be edible, but I haven't tried it. There has been some conflicting evidence on its edibility. I'll stick to the ones I'm certain of, thank you.

Anyway, we hiked 5.25 miles on the NCT, and another 1.25 on roads. Hoping for more hikes with Monica!

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 360. I think Monica has her Hike 100 done.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, 8th St to Centerline Rd, and 8th St and Fire Tower access road for a loop and more. 6.5 miles

In other news: I edited, I wrote a chapter, I had a meeting this evening, and did a teeny-tiny bit on the trailer.

See Eight Miles for Spring