Butterflies of the Week

 
I took lots of pictures on my hikes this past weekend, so today I'll bring you butterflies. Here's a better picture of the Mourning Cloak, Nymphalis antiopa. I'll bet there were hundreds of them out flying around. And I just learned something. They live for 11-12 months, making them one of the longest-lived butterflies. Although their colors aren't bright, they are fairly large and they fly like crazy, and perch with their wings open, so it's pretty easy to see them.



I learned a new butterfly too. This little white guy was flitting around. Looks a lot like a cabbage butterfly, but no dark spots. Turns out that it's a Mustard White butterfly, Pieris oleracea. The dark body, and darker wing veins (which I could see when I expanded the picture are key. And they are also an early spring flyer.



Here's another butterfly I saw a lot of. Can you see it?



Ha, ha! I couldn't even see it, except that I knew it was there. It's one of the tiny blue butterflies. The minute it lands, it folds up its wings and becomes gray and invisible. Probably a spring azure, but who knows? It's sitting right on the end of that upper left to lower right grass blade, looking at you.



Told you I finished the jigsaw puzzle yesterday. It was a good one, called Puppy Love. The puppies were surprisingly hard, but the rest of it was easy. Four missing pieces, but that just added to the challenge. I've started another one.



In other news: I decided I should get on the cleaning bandwagon. That way you can't quite say that I never clean things. So now I have a huge mess spread across the kitchen, but I'm working at putting things back in the other room. I suspect it won't get finished until tomorrow. But then it will be clean for another while. You'd think from the amount of dust and crud I cleaned up that the room hadn't been touched in 10 years. Ick. Also went to the post office and the bank.

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Locating Yourself in the Landscape

 
Maps. I love maps. I love having maps in my head. I love trying to place myself in long vistas, imagining how early peoples located themselves in relationship to natural features.

For example... at one vista from the trail on Saturday, I tried to determine what that white "scar" is in the middle of the view. I'm pretty sure it's actually the sand road leading down to Harvey Bridge where I started hiking that day.



Here's the really fun one. Remember how I keep finding views of Briar Hill, the highest point in the Lower Peninsula (1706 feet). Got it again!

The lump just right of center in this picture is Briar Hill from the north, and the little pimple left of it is the confusingly named Briar Ski Hill (1314 feet). Both are near Mesick, MI.



Here is another view. In this longer shot, Briar Ski Hill is hidden in the ridges in front of Briar Hill. The other pimple to the left (east) has to be an unnamed hill that is over near Silver Creek at 1251 feet. But this does show how these peaks stand out from the mostly consistent level of the far ridge. In this picture, Briar Hill (the big one) is about 8 miles away.



In both cases, I took a compass bearing just to be sure I wasn't trying to see something that really wasn't what I wanted it to be. But when I checked on a bigger map at home, I was right.

Now that you also know what to look for, you can spot those distinctive prominences in several of the other pictures from the last couple of days.

In other news: I worked on projects of mine all day long. I finished the jigsaw puzzle. I made potato-leek soup for supper with some leeks I brought home from my hike. Life is good.

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How Many Oxbows?

 

How many oxbows can you stand to see? I hope about 4 more. How many oxbows are there on the Manistee River? Who knows? How Many oxbows are there between Harvey Bridge and Baxter Bridge? Well, over 30, counting the curves that "face" north. You can't see all of them from the trail. Let's just say, "it wiggles a lot."

Here are two that are near Baxter Bridge





This is the "famous" one, the view from Highbanks Rollways. (More on this later in the week)



And one more with naked sand banks.



There was also this lovely unnamed stream crossing in the afternoon sun.



And the cedar waxwings were flying about. There were a lot of juniper bushes along the trail here, and I wonder if that's what attracted the cedar waxwings. They do eat juniper berries.



The temperature is supposed to drop again for this week, so I'm glad I went out today. It was 70, dropping into the 60s with a cool breeze and warm sun. Just my favorite kind of day. I expected the ticks to be out since I've seen a couple already, but not a one this weekend.

I took a lot more pictures than this, and you'll see some of them in upcoming days.

Total miles today- 12. I'm tired, but not exhausted.

Total NCT miles for 2020- 202

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI. Baxter Bridge to the extension of 23 Rd. and back

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Still Along the Manistee

 
Headed north again to continue onward in Wexford County on the North Country Trail.

This entire section is along the Manistee River. I started at Harvey Bridge and did all the off-road pieces as far as where 23 Road would be if it extended to the river. Then I turned around. Throughout this section, the trail is mostly not as high above the river, so you get some closer views and access points.



The deciduous trees are barely greening up, but at least the conifers are looking green. As I mentioned before, the Manistee has dozens of oxbows. Here are 4 different ones just from this section I walked today.









Right about in the middle of what I walked is a lovely reliable water source deep in a valley. It's the North Branch of Anderson Creek.



Here is one of the mile markers on the Cadillac to Traverse City Indian Trail. You can't actually walk this trail (too much is lost to private property, I think), but you can find most of the markers by driving around and walking a little bit. This is on my "want to do" list. And now I know that I'm on trail Angie and I hiked in 2000 because we took pictures at this marker.



Caught a male flicker showing off and singing.



Total miles walked, about 13. I only carried the day pack. It was the hottest day we've had yet (over 70), and it takes me a while to get used to heat. I wanted to have an enjoyable hike, not a death march.

The worst thing about this section is that an awful lot of it is accessible by 2-tracks, and there are all kinds of vehicle camping spots that are... what? Not dispersed really, not official campsites... they just get used. And they were almost all occupied today. People certainly are not considering them to be under the banned uses. Since parts of the trail follow these old roads, I walked through or around a lot of people's camps today.

Total NCT miles hiked this year- 190

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI, Harvey Bridge to theoretical extension of 23 road, and back. Off-road miles only. 13 miles

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Waking Up Hungry

 
I rarely wake up hungry, and today was no exception. However, as I was carrying the laundry basket to the clothesline, I noticed brand new diggings in the area where Ms. Woodchuck lives.

Pretty soon, Om called me downstairs to see her. Have you ever seen such a thin woodchuck? It seems awfully late, but the fresh dirt piles and the lack of fat make me wonder if she just woke up for the spring.


After standing up so nice for me, she went back to four paws and gave me the evil eye before scurrying down the burrow.



In other news: I did promotional stuff. I did laundry. I walked to the P.O. and the bank. Then I went and bought some cranberry juice. (I might be getting a little infection- we'll see if I can knock it out this way). And I worked on the current puzzle. It was a beautiful day- I wore shorts!

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