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

All the Colors, Not the Rainbow

Red is for the Seven Sisters Rose. This is usually varied shades of light pink with an occasional darker flower. This year all the roses are very nearly red. Since I don't like this plant much, this is at least a color I enjoy more.

For orange we have another blossom open on the 'Frosty Kiss' Gazania.

Common Mullein provides yellow. Thes are on the plant that has the fuzzy rosettes of big leaves in spring.

Green is a surprise. I just don't know what the surprise is yet. These leaves have come up in some disturbed soil. It may be one of the prickly lettuces, but it doesn't look quite right to me for that. Stay tuned.

Blue and purple don't look very different in the pictures. In real life the plants do look different. This is the Viper's Bugloss, that weed I love. I've coaxed enough of it to self-seed in the driveway beds that it's looking very nice right now. I'll share a long shot another day so you can see how much there is.

And for purple, this is a plant Betsy gave me, Moldavian Dragonhead, Dracocephalum moldavica. And there's a scientific name that's easy to remember. Draco=dragon, cephalum= head, and the moldavian. It's an annual, but perhaps it will re-seed. This one is new to me.

For white, this is one of my new Moon Garden plants. It's still in its pot because it's going in a specific place that I don't have dug up yet. This is a Guara called 'Whirling Butterflies.' It's supposed to get 3 feet tall but probably not until I get it out of that pot!

Finally, what set off this color theme in my head was the black sky at mid-day! We had a fast but heavy thunderstorm. But if there was a rainbow afterwards, I missed it.

The heat today has been the worst so far. I may have to sleep on the deck tonight. The fans have lost the battle with the interior air.

In other news, I did the morning editing and stuff, but the hateful task in the basement is nearly done. Stay tuned. Only worked outside briefly. There is a little breeze now, so I might try for a few more minutes.

See Winter Rainbow 1

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

Amazing Ashokan

The morning today was just about as close to perfect of a hike as you can get. You know, right, that if there are 10 things that make a perfect hike and you get all 10 of them, it's a dream. Wake up. Nine would be amazing, probably 6 is about normal for a good hike. This was close to a 9. I guess you could wish for blue water instead of ice (but then we would have missed one of the most interesting things). You might have wanted natural surface and that we would have actually seen the eagle. But this was seriously wonderful.

The weather was great. Mid fifties, warming a bit more before we finished. We had gorgeous views. We got to watch something really interesting. I managed to ID some of the surrounding mountains. We met an interesting couple and had a surprising interaction with another man.

Marie took me out to the Ashokan Reservoir where we hiked once seven years ago (link at end). The reservoir was built in the early 1900s to provide water to New York City. This trail used to be a road, but was closed and turned into a trail when a new road farther from the water was built. This is the view east, and I think the jagged peaks are Snake Rocks.

But not so fast. First we tried to do another piece of the Ashokan Rail Trail. I had not been on that before. However, the piece that has views of the reservoir was totally ice covered, and we opted not to do that. We walked a bit the other direction. This is one of the old mile markers indicating 16 miles to Kingston.

But we wanted to see the water, so we turned around and went to a different trailhead. You can see what a beautiful day it was!

The whole edge of the reservoir is lined with native rock. It makes dizzying patterns.

Our first interesting people encounter was with a man to whom we said, "Good morning." He countered with, "Why is it a good morning?" I don't think anyone has ever asked me that before at least after the casual greeting! I quickly said, "Because I am hiking with my best friend and it's a beautiful here."

This is South Mountain (which is west of the reservoir) on the right, and the larger one is Ashokan High Point which is the tallest peak surrounding the reservoir on the left. Ashokan is 3,081 feet tall.

This is perhaps my favorite view from the Reservoir. The little nipple to the right of center is, I'm pretty sure, Slide Mountain which is the high point in the Catskills at 4180 feet. The eastern terminus of the Finger Lakes Trail has been extended to there, but I've not yet done that new piece. It will be an all-day hilly hike to get from the last parking area to the new terminus. At least 8 miles total. In front of that is Cornell Mountain with, I think, Samuels Peak in the front left.

This is the roadway that crosses near the middle, and I'm pretty sure the peak in the background (these are all part of the Catskill Mountains) is Ticetonyk (TICE-tun-ike) which is from the name Mattias TenEyk who owned it.

We walked all of the roadway today. This was where we watched the most interesing thing. The ice is breaking up, and there is one of the arches of that bridge where water is flowing from one side of the reservoir to the other. There were slabs of ice being swirled around in a huge circle on the downstream side. You can see a few in the picture above. It was like watching plate tectonics speeded up. We watched the slabs (plates) hitting each other. Sometimes one would go beneath the other (subduction). Sometimes the lower one would be tilted upright and some even flipped completely over. It was fascinating. I began to realize how big slabs of rock could get tilted and even flipped.

We even saw some mergansers.

Walking back to the car we met a couple who were training to walk the Camino de Santiago (in Spain) in the fall. (They were wearing backpacks and I asked if they were getting ready for a hike). The man has walked all of the Appalachian Trail, and they plan to walk the Superior Hiking Trail next year. They also have some other trails in Europe in mind because their son lives in Zurich. We traded stories and names.

We saw an eagle nest, but not the birds. The ice patterns were artistic. We saw an air boat that almost certainly belongs to New York City Department of Environmental Protection (which operates the reservoir) going over the ice to reach a buoy of some kind (water sampling?).

What a wonderful day! It rained in the afternoon, but that's OK. We played our game, fixed dinner, read a little in the book we are currently sharing, and then I had a Zoom meeting.

Miles walked in 2026: 87.8

New York, Ashokan Reservoir Rail Trail 1.2 miles, and Ashokan Promenade 4.2 miles. Total 5.4 miles.

See Ashokan Reservoir Hike

Miscellaneous

I kept myself motivated and working on all the small and generally annoying tasks that needed to be done by allowing myself 10 pieces in the jigsaw puzzle after each item I got to cross off my list.

Then I took a walk. It was 50° out! The first picture is from today. Paper birch branches against the clear sky. Lovely, lovely, lovely!

And I have something to share from my walk on Sunday. Look who was so busy on a tree he let several of us take pictures. Usually the pileated woodpeckers are skittish. Not this one! This picture has a good silhouette, but the branches are in the way.

This is a clearer picture, but it's the back. Maybe not as interesting, although it's also not a view you see all the time.

These are possibly the best pictures I've taken of a pileated. I did get some good ones in Ohio once, but if I put them on the blog the search is not finding them. Those were unusual because the woodpecker was finding something to eat on the ground and was totally focused on getting it so it didn't notice Marie and me sneaking close. Maybe I'll find and share them some time.

The sky on Sunday was also gorgeous. I have to say that it's much easier to be cheerful when the sky is blue.

I am in good shape to finish the last things on my list tomorrow and pack the car. May put a few more pieces in the puzzle and take my book to bed.

Miles walked in 2026: 45.5

Road walk 4 miles.

See Snow Mushrooms and Other Events

Winter Images

The big ticket item here is still winter and snow and more snow. Bell choir was cancelled, so I didn't have to go out. But winter sure can be beautiful.

This picture is from the other day at Cartier Park

The sun didn't quite break through this afternoon, but it tried for just a few minutes.

And I got another set of polka dots and stripes.

Bell practice was cancelled, so I didn't have to go anywhere.

We took the Christmas tree down, and I took the compost out. That was the extent of going outside.

I made my brain work on continuing the plot of Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp and managed another 656 words. I at least have the next piece of what has to happen.

See Photoessay in Black and White

First Snowshoe Winter 2025-26

It always looks about the same, but I usually blog about my first day to use the snowshoes each winter.

We got more snow overnight here, and there are maybe 10 inches on the ground. You can see flakes in the air in this picture.

I did about a half mile, which was plenty for the first outing. And the wind was pretty cold. It was all overcast, so there are no shadows to help you see the tracks. But if you can tell, yes, I was using the wood snowshoes. The bindings are shot. Cheapest new ones I can find are $50! I'm pondering options and temporarily still using duct tape for repairs, but it's iffy. I do like the wood ones better than the small foam ones although those have their purposes.

The sky looks pretty much the same as the ground without the line of tracks!

I did a little bit of work today, but it was really a non-starting day for me. I played my game more than I should have and didn't do much.

I think maybe I didn't snowshoe at all last winter. We didn't get much accumulation. At any rate, I didn't blog about it.

See First Snowshoe 2023

Skyday #3

Here are 6 of the last 7 days of the sky. Even the blue has gone more to gray. Those bright clear days of October are over. It's odd how the tones from the top to bottom panes matched up. Just chance.

November 13- a nice clear day, and I think I did some outside work.

November 14- overcast but mild. I did trail work.

November 15- still mild but not much sun

November 16-Changeable skies. Blue, black, white, everything in between.

November 17- Pleasant for November, but ended with a little snow- all gove now

November 19- cold! But not bad.

Are you liking these? I like the tiles, but can't seem to think of much to say about them.

I didn't move around enough today. Sat at the computer too much. That will change tomorrow.

See Skyday #2