Philadelphia - Longer Riverwalk

 
We walked Rachel to work again this morning and bought groceries on the way home. Good weight-bearing exercise, haha. Then I wrote another chapter of The Lonely Donkey.

After lunch, the weather was gorgeous- just what I needed to perk me up (it's going to be hard to come home to 30 degrees)- and Marie and I took a much longer walk. In fact, David suggested we walk as far as we wanted and then he could pick us up so we didn't have to do a return walk.

Marie and I started by going back down to the Schuylkill River. We walked past where we did the other day. This far north, it's less urban and there is plenty of park space.



The nearby universities all have rowing clubs, and they were out practicing today. By the time we were finished walking, the river was covered with them.



I always seem to forget how much farther south Philadelphia is from where I live. This mockingbird was just checking out the scenery.



Philadelphia is filled with sculptures. I didn't take too many pictures today because I was intent on hiking. But I caught a few. I think I've seen pictures of this one and it's companion piece. This is "Settling of the Eastern Seaboard." You could keep a blog alive for a long, long time just covering all the sculptures.



Most of the time we were walking between the river and Fairmount Park. This is a 2000-acre park with portions on both sides of the river. It was really interesting to see former entrances, places where one could presumably park and then walk up the hill into the park, when the traffic on the road at the base of the hill was much less. I liked this one. I think you could still walk up into the park here.



Of course, I'm always trying to capture a really perfect water ripple pattern picture. I do like this one a lot.



The layers of bridges are fascinating. This was my best picture.



And finally, after David retrieved us, we cooked dinner. Marie had suggested stuffed zucchini boats. They were SO yummy! David brought home ice cream, too, so we had a great meal!



Talk about a perfect day with friends. The girls are doing their homework, and we hope to play a card game after that. We've managed one each evening. These are good times!

Oh, yeah. We walked about 9 miles today. We can feel it- not quite in shape for that yet, but we sure will be soon.

See Philadelphia Riverwalk

Adventures on the Way Home

 
There was one more place I wanted to hike before I left Ann Arbor. It was my favorite hike when I lived there for grad school- partially because it was close to where I lived, and partially because it's a lovely trail. You couldn't do the full loop when I first moved there, but then the city opened Bandemer Park at the north end and opened a closed bridge to the public.

After that you could walk on both sides of the Huron River, and make a loop of about 2.5 miles. At first, some was on sidewalk, but now it's all trail.



I always enjoyed seeing the kayaks, canoes and sculls on the river, but now there's another water sport that is making itself heard. Paddleboards.



The west side of the river is more like urban path. Part of it is paved multi-use, but on the east side, the side I walked with dear little Chips almost every day, is an amazing oasis of natural pathway in the city.



Along the way, I passed the cabin that belongs to The Society of Les Voyageurs. Lots of great memories there. I stopped in and one of the student members was home. So I introduced myself (I'm considered an Alumni member) briefly and got to see some of the repair/remodeling work that has been done in recent years. I've been to some events with this group since I've been blogging, but maybe not at the cabin.

This is also a nostalgic oasis in the city. Since "we" own it, the city has to put up with the Society, but the large Argo Canoe Livery is across the street and next door is a park. We have this prime little corner of real estate, and have had the cabin here for almost 100 years. The city just has to continue to grind their teeth.



I actually lived just a couple of blocks up the street. Here's the house I shared with four other people. My room was the upstairs right window (and the window on the side). It was a small room, but I loved that space. It was a great place for me to spend those grad school years. Close enough to campus and stores to walk, but close enough to the river and trail to not feel like city.



On the way home, I stopped once for ice cream- Espresso Express flavor. Then when I got near home I stopped again to get in a few more miles on the North Country Trail. Just went south from Timber Creek and back, but added 4 miles to my Hike100 total, and the day.



Summer leaves are pretty well developed. Spring wildflowers are gone. But I found half a robin egg.



So I walked 6.5 miles today. The four miles ups my Hike 100 Challenge total to 28 miles.

Tomorrow I need to hunker down and write!

Bandemer Park trails and Argo Nature Area trails loop- 2.5 miles
North Country Trail, Timber Creek south to Wingleton Road and back- 4 miles

	See A Weekend with Friends
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Can an Adventure be Calm?

 
Adventure buddy, Ellen, and I were bemoaning our lack of time to get together recently. She invited me to come to her place on Bass Lake tonight to do a little paddling, and then she would fix dinner.

I got there later than I wanted... just too much running around I had to do. But all the summer people are gone. The lake is quiet, and tonight as we made our way across the lake by kayak and into the outlet channel the water became smooth as glass. The sun was low in the sky making great shadows, even of the veins in the water lily leaves.



I stopped paddling at the pace my mind was still racing and just dipped the blades often enough to keep the kayak moving, trying to be as still as possible. We could still hear cars on the road in the distance, but there were no motor boats, no children yelling or splashing. Ducks quacked, and then exploded into the air in front of us. A late dragonfly hummed by. A leaf drifted down.



There were a few people where the outlet reaches Lake Michigan, come down to watch the sunset, but they were quiet too. Dune grass softens the vastness of big Lake Michigan beyond.



We walked out to the beach and were surprised that the big lake is still quite warm. Once it does warm up it takes a long while to cool down again.

Dock ornament or real bird? I wasn't sure until it picked up a foot! A few herons are still here. They tend to stick around until ponds begin to freeze and they can't find fish to eat.



We caught the last of the light paddling back. The sun at our backs lit the trees on the opposite shore. The colors are almost garish in intensity.



We arrived back at Ellen's just in time for sunset. She grilled some brats which we ate with roasted cabbage and waldorf salad. A wonderful calming adventure.



Too bad I have to be at work in 40 minutes!

	See The Launching of the Kayak for how crowded the outlet is in summer
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Kayaking the Pere Marquette

 
Today will have too many pictures, but you'll have to suffer through. It was a great day! Ester, Ellen and I kayaked from Bowman Bridge to Upper Branch Bridge on the Pere Marquette River. Counting a couple of stops, we were on the river for 5 1/2 hours. It was a perfect day!

Just this week the colors have begun showing up in the trees. The air was crisp and the sun warm!



We paddled for a couple of hours and pulled out on a shallow bank to eat lunch. Just to prove we were all there: Ester and Ellen



Joan and Ester


Most of the water was pretty smooth, but in a few places we got in to some riffle-y rapids. Nothing difficult, just a little fun.



We saw a few interesting details, but it was really hard to get good pictures because the water was moving fast enough that it was hard for the camera to focus. We saw a really large wasp (bald-faced hornet) nest. It seemed to be unoccupied- shut down for the winter- but I sure didn't bump it to check that!



This was really neat, but I didn't get a single good picture. We only saw one turtle all day. The weather has cooled and even with sun today, most of the turtles must have already headed for the mud. But, the one turtle we saw was was the somewhat rare Blanding's Turtle. You can tell because of the rather high shell and yellow chin.



By far, the greatest activity on the river today was fishing. The salmon are beginning to run upstream, and there were anglers every few yards for almost the entire distance. I would be 95% correct if I used the more common term "fishermen." But we did see a few women. Once in a while we saw a fish swimming, and we saw a few get caught. These guys had just netted this one off the line.



We did have one extra bit of excitement. Just before the takeout, less than five minutes from the end, Ester thought she should take a bath. (Not really, it was definitely not planned.) Over she went, right in a fast bit of current as the river went under a bridge. She verified that the water was "really cold." But she got the kayak to the bank and emptied it, and only lost one little personal item. Everything else was in a bag clipped to the kayak. Since we were SO close to the end she waited to get into dry clothes till we all got off the river, and all was well.

It was a totally wonderful day!

	See Personally Crafted Paper for another wasp nest See The Secret Pond and an Amazing Turtle for another Blanding's turtle
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Kayaking and Swimming

 
Ellen and I thought we might have to cancel. The morning was gray, and she even got a little rain at her house (I didn't). Gray wouldn't matter, but thunderstorms were predicted. Playing on water in electrical storms is not a good idea.

But we ate lunch, and the day cleared off and turned bright and hot. We did the paddle we always do from Ellen's because there is no transporting of boats. We paddled across Bass Lake.



The outlet from that small lake to Lake Michigan is always one of the prettiest spots I know for small boats. It's shaded and intimate with interesting plants.



The outlet leads to Lake Michigan. The big lake was warm enough for swimming but cool enough to feel REALLY good. We swam for a while- nothing too strenuous. And then we paddled back!



And some of those interesting plants? Lots of water lilies blooming. I liked this one which was not shy about showing off and not hiding in the leaves.



The interesting shrub known as buttonbush was also in bloom.



I'm always smiling when we are playing outside!

	See Joan & Ellen's Next Adventure
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Manistee River Canoe Trip

 I'm breaking one of my personal blog rules today and posting too many pictures. But they tell the story of our INCREDIBLY AWESOME day. It was darn near perfect. This was an activity of the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the North Country Trail Association. Yes, we usually, hike, but we sure aren't opposed to other kinds of adventures occasionally.



Thanks to Ellen's equipment, Loretta and I got to go, but we had to get the canoe with my car. Then another friend of Ellen's brought two kayaks in her truck. Other people brought their watercraft by various methods.



Here we all are- nine of us. We had six kayaks, one canoe, and one rubber raft.



We put the boats in the water just below Hodenpyl Dam on the Manistee River. The rubber raft had no hope of floating/paddling as fast as the canoe and kayaks, but the guy using it knew that, and he was content to just have a lazy day. Having some way to get his car spotted at the downstream end was worth it even if he couldn't keep up. (He made it safely- the leaders called him later.)



Right away we paddled under the Manistee Suspension Bridge. This was built as a joint venture by Consumers Energy and the Manistee National Forest. It's a footbridge, but it's the second-largest suspension bridge in Michigan. The largest, of course, is one of the largest in the world, the Mackinaw Bridge



Early in the trip there was quite a bit of riffled water. You couldn't really call them rapids- nothing that difficult. You just needed to make sure you were avoiding the standing waves where the big rocks were, and then they were just fun. Loretta took this picture, but we didn't get any really good one, since we had to be ready to steer as soon as we got near them. It was just enough to be fun.



At some point we pulled out on a meadow-y bend and ate our lunches. Most of us took a swim after that. Even though the sun was hot, the cool water, and getting our clothes wet was wonderful, because the afternoon was more in the sun, and on slower water.



This is a typical scene from later in the day. It was wonderfully quiet. A double-crested cormorant dove right under our canoe, and then surfaced before going back under- hunting for fish. I've never seen one swim so close! We also saw geese and ducks, fish, crayfish, kingfishers, swallows, and assorted other birds. Someone else saw a mink, but I missed that.



We reached Red Bridge in good time. Our vehicles had been spotted there, so we just needed to load up. Leaders Loren and Dave brought watermelon and sodas for us.

This is definitely one of the best days of my summer so far. The weather was ideal, the company was great, the activity level was good, the ambiance was absolutely perfect.

Ahhhhhhhh.

Bass Lake with Loretta

In preparation for Saturday's adventure there are some serious logistics. One of the pieces is that I needed to pick up Ellen's canoe on my car, so Loretta and I did that tonight. And since we were going there, we took a little paddle on Bass Lake, and through the outlet.



Yes, this is the same place that Ellen and I kayak all the time. That's because it's where Ellen lives, and it's easy for her to keep the kayaks there all summer.



It leads out to Lake Michigan. This is such a pretty place. There are often lots of people there because it's also a good place for kids to play. You can drive there too- you don't have to come in by boat.



We just thought this was funny. It looks like the gulls have all bought their front-row seats, and are now lined up waiting for the show to start.

When we got back, Ellen was home (she had a meeting) and the three of us got the canoe on my car. For Saturday, she's bringing a friend with a truck and the two kayaks.

I'm loving this cool week. Next week is going to be more tropical, so I'm trying to enjoy this weather to the max.

See Kayaking on November 21 See Joan and Ellen's Next Adventure