Taking MOWA to the Trail

The Michigan Outdoor Writers Association (MOWA) is having their annual conference this weekend... just over in Baldwin! But with Confidence Camp, I'm too busy to attend. But I did offer to lead a hike. Four of us did the 3.5 mile loop at Bowman Lake. I was delighted that a few people signed up!

You know Bowman Lake is one of my favorite places in our local area.

We all had a chuckle about this. Somehow a Skunk Cabbage got itself planted in this three-trunked tree.

A happy and clean painted turtle sun-bathing on a log.

And, ta-da! The sassafras are just starting to flower and get leaves.

They took me out to lunch afterwards. A very nice morning!

Confidence Camp all afternoon. Hoping to finish the last major item this evening.

Miles walked in 2026: 162.2
Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 53.3

Bowman Lake area, Lake County, Michigan. North Country Trail 1.75 miles, Bowman Lake Trail 1.75 miles.

See Bowman Semi-Primitive Area

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

Searching for a Touch of Spring

 I am in northwest Ohio, and the NCT is just across the road in Oak Openings Metropark. Had to take a little walk.

Just for the oddity of it, here is yet another method of marking turns on the NCT. When the land manager does not allow the standard blazing, creative things happen. The thing I'm talking about is the little arrow on top of a single blaze.

Since I am far south of my latitude, I was hoping I would find some wildflowers. For a while there, it didn't seem as if I would find any. But the skunk cabbage is already getting leaves, so I was hopeful.

Yeah! I did find some Virginia Spring Beauty. Claytonia virginiana

One alien roadside plant, but I'll pretty much take anything that is blooming. This is purple Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum

This is pretty cool- a red admiral was flitting around

We had a nice dinner. Chicken and salad/salsa and tater tots.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 186.6 of which 66.6 is North Country Trail.

North Country Trail, Oak Openings Metropark, Ohio. Reed Rd to Whitehouse-Swanton Road and back, plus road. 2.8 miles

In other news: Marianne helped me make some good decisions about the formatting of my book and then I worked on it for a few hours.

See A Day of Favorites

Seidman Park

 Loren and I were on our way to the Quiet Adventure Symposium, and we stopped to hike a piece of North Country Trail less familiar to us. This is Seidman Park, just east of Grand Rapdis (MI).

You can see that the day was sunny. Always a plus!

There is a little puddle of water near the middle, but I think it's ephemeral. However, it was attractive in the sun.

At the southern end, the trail crosses Honey Creek.

OK, it's technically March now, but it still seems pretty early for things like skunk cabbage to be coming up.

This sentiment was on a bench, and I like it. Don't count the days, make the days count."

We hiked from the north end of the park to the south and back. 5.2 miles.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 132.9 of which 35.9 is North Country Trail.

North Country Trail through Seidman Park, Grand Rapids, MI. out and back 5.2 miles

See Lydia and Otto

Scottville Riverside Park- The Sad Truth

  I think maybe the last time I tried to hike this trail was in 2015, and it had been pretty much abandoned then. You can imagine it has not improved on its own. But the water is really low right now, and I thought maybe I could find my way through. A bridge on the far side washed out, and that has made it an impossible walk most of the year (unless one likes wading) ever since.

Meanwhile- a definite sign of spring. Skunk Cabbage.

I won't give you the full blow-by-blow, but a sampling. The trail near the campground is partly in decent shape. This bit of infrastructure was built by the city maybe 15 years ago. It's holding up OK, but the loop on the far side of this bridge can barely be found any more.

Once you get through that section, the trail goes along the edge of the Old Engine Club grounds. That is kept mowed, so that part of the trail is fine, although there is only one remaining marker post so that people would have a clue where to go.

The next section is where it gets really dicey. Yes, this is the trail. This would need a lot of solid work to clean up, but it could be done.

Because the water was so low, I was able to get beyond the missing bridge, and come to the edge of the Pere Marquette River. Not much green yet, but always peaceful in this stretch.

I almost always find some nice reflection picture along here. Today, it was a mossy log

There is a large bottomland hardwood swamp between the old water treatment pond locations and the river. I've never seen it this dry. This is usually covered with water. I hiked all through it today in places you can't usually access without wading in muck.

Long story shortish... I got back to the edge of one of the old treatment ponds (now dry) and then cut across to the Engine Club area. Managed to dunk my feet on that part of the adventure, but not my butt, so it was fine. Then I went to the other end and hiked around the other direction, skipping that really messed up area I worked my way through earlier. The thing is, there is another place that is almost always covered with water, preventing hikers from closing the loop. It was completely dry today. This section of the trail is badly obscured with Japanese Barberry. Invasive, thorny, miserable. Needs to be removed.

On my trip around in this direction, there were some observers in addition to me. The earth "wall" behind her is the berm for one of the treatment ponds.

Anyway, it was a fun adventure- maybe 2.5 miles. The original loop was 1.5. I did that and then an abbreviated second time around in the other direction.

I keep forgetting to tell you the signs of spring that I didn't get pictures of: peepers, chorus frogs, a muskrat, the pheobe came to my deck today, sandhill cranes, turkey vultures... they are all showing up!

In other news: I attended a couple of virtual Easter services, listened to my Easter music playlist, and did a bunch of editing.

See Trail Lost

Down By the Creek

 


Today I was pretty cranky. I was stomping along on my walk, thinking about all the perceived or even real injustices of the day. But many years ago I decided that those are not the kinds of thoughts that help me, or make friends. Really, would all of you great blog friends come here to read me whine every day? I don't think so! So I said to myself, "Self, just stop and look around and see what's here today." Of course, the first thing is the creek itself, in the slanting sun. I wish it had an interesting name, but it doesn't have a name at all.




First I noticed that the Enchanter's Nightshade, Circaea lutetiana, was blooming. Ratty showed a picture of this plant on his post about Poison Ivy. See the small white blossoms? I'll try to get a close shot of the blooms; they are tiny but interesting.



Next I saw that there was some skunk cabbage here. Who could guess that these big leaves are the same strange plant that I showed you in April. In the summer it doesn't look very odd at all!



Finally, so many of you have enjoyed the animal tracks, here are some deer tracks in the mud. They are so common here that we hardly ever notice them.

And there you have the whole reason for My Quality Day! There is always something worth the time to observe and enjoy!

	See Winter Stillness for a different view of the creek See Quiet Backwater for what the Skunk Cabbage looked like in the spring
if you like this blog, click the +1   or