National Trails Day 2021

  It was a great time with 15 hikers showing up to participate. Nice low-key planning without a lot of fuss.

I went early to take the coolers and stuff to our lunch site. That meant I got to see Bowman Lake in the early morning light. Just one more reason to love this place.

The lupine is just about in full bloom.

I also saw Common Speedwell. Much less showy, but easily recognizable.

Here's a slightly better shot of the little blue blossoms.

I didn't do a very good job of picture taking. Just a couple of candid shots at lunch, and I didn't even manage to get everyone.

But I think we had a great time. One group did a 3 mile loop, and another did 6 miles. We saw a red-headed woodpecker, and a blue racer. Some people got pics of the snake, but I missed it.

And!!!! We saw Jon, hiking from north to south, and Liz hiking from south to north! How cool is that- to run into both of the long-distance hikers on the same day?

Because I hiked out and back twice before the event ever started, I hiked just over 7 miles. 4 of mine were on the NCT side of the loop. North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 342.

North Country Trail and Bowman Loop Trails, Lake County, Michigan. Total 7 miles.

See All Ready for National Trails Day

All Ready for National Trails Day

  Today was super busy, including getting ready for a small National Trails Day event tomorrow. The Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA is leading 3 and 6-mile hikes tomorrow. 10 am at Bowman Lake Trailhead!

BYO lunch, but we are providing dessert and drinks. Here are brownies and butterscotch brownies. Note that each has been quality tested. I'm happy to report that they pass inspection.

We have stickers to give out to participants.

I have to get up early to get the supplies out to the lake where we'll meet for lunch, so I'm keeping this short.

In other news: I edited, I wrote, I went to the store, I baked, I filled coolers with drinks. Hopefully, I got it all right. See you tomorrow. Oh yeah, and I had an author event this evening. Whew.

See National Trails Day 2018

It Doesn't Get Much Better

  It doesn't get much better than today, folks! I hiked 14 miles and finished collecting data for Newaygo County on the North Country Trail. The weather was beautiful. It was sunny and the high was 83, but there was a slight breeze that kept it from feeling too hot. And the humidity was low.

There are too many pictures in this post, but what should I leave out?

First of all, lets talk about a little geology. Most of the hills in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan are remnants of a huge glacial moraine that has eroded away in interesting patterns. There is a surviving ridge that runs somewhat N-S throughout Newaygo County. Just east of this ridge, and sometimes cutting through it are holes and channels that have become a series of lakes and wetlands. The NCT threads it's way along that ridge. Today, the southernmost lake in the series that I passed was Nichols Lake. It's also one of the largest.

Next one north that you can see from the trail is Leaf Lake. I think it gets its name from the odd shape.

That lake transitions into a long, long strip of wetlands that follow one of the eroded valleys. If this was Ohio or Pennsylvania, I'd suspect they were old mining pits. But I think these are just natural.

Condon Lake is a long, thin teardrop. You climb a hump in the ridge after a mile-long strip of wetlands, and it suddenly appears.

My hike today only took me a little north from here. But Highbank Lake, that you've seen a few other times, is in this same line. Then the trail veers west and leaves this geologic feature.

One very cool thing I found is one of the very few remaining Manistee Trail markers. That trail pre-dated the North Country Trail. And it looks like the porcupines don't care anything about history.

Best flower finds of the day are Frostweed, Helianthemum canadense,

And a Maple-leaf Viburmun, now with the flower fully open. But this picture wins because the sun helped make it a little artsy. I love the shadow on the leaf.

It was a great dragonfly day, especially along Nichols Lake, where I was "wading" through hundreds of zooming and flitting dragonflies. Getting any pictures at all was really hard. But I think most of them were Chalk-fronted Corporels. You can't see the distinguishing marks in this picture, but I did see a lot of them from better angles. I just couldn't get any pictures. There were other kinds as well. Notably some small blue ones, but no certain ID on those.

I just was trying to get lucky with a picture of this one perched on the grass. Couldn't tell what it was at all until I got home. I'm pretty sure it's the Calico Pennant, which I learned a couple of years ago.

And finally, I just like this picture. This was the edge of a wetland that wasn't terribly attractive, but the twisted shrubs and the lighting transformed it into something mysterious.

I met another long-distance hiker on the trail! Liz Jones is hiking from Croton Dam to Munising. Good luck, Liz! It's amazing that I actually encounter hikers multiple times a year, now. This is a relatively new phenomenon for the NCT!

It was also a good day for bullfrogs and mosquitoes and gypsy moths. The only negative for the whole day is that the gypsy caterpillars are hanging on their threads everywhere. I had "silk" threads touching my face all day long. I really could have done without that. But I prefer to emphasize how perfect the day was!

The only other news is that there was a Reading Regatta Zoom event in the evening.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 335.

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Michigan, FR 5633 almost to Tank Creek and back for a total of 14 miles

See MNF Challenge Hike #5

Mash-Up Trail Day

  All day was spent doing trail stuff, but there was a variety. First, I helped spot John, who is going to hike the whole Manistee National Forest. He left his car at Croton Dam, and then I took him to Hodenpyl Dam. He got a much later start than he had hoped. First, he got caught in a traffic jam coming here. Then, I did not realize the Manistee River Bridge on M-115 is closed. Yikes. We had to go all the way back to Coates Highway to get across the river. But eventually, there he was... ready to hike. Wish him well!

Then I spent some time on my ongoing trail signage project. There were two possible routes to where I wanted to go. Because I hadn't seen it for a while, I took the spur from the Marilla Trailhead. This used to be the main NCT. But when we got those lovely miles along Hodenpyl Dam Pond, this became just a spur to a trailhead. Nice deciduous forest.

There are some really nice vistas from this piece of trail. The Manistee River is down in the bottom.

Here's Briar Hill again. Highest point in the lower peninsula.

My project involved checking the posts at the junction of the spur with the main trail. I was carrying the shovel, because there was supposed to be a Carsonite post a little farther on to remove. However, one of the 4x4 posts at the junction had broken off. Since I had the shovel, I re-buried it. It's just a little shorter now, but it's OK for a while.

Then I went on to remove that other post. It's no longer there. At least I sure couldn't find it, and I had the GPS coordinates. Anyway, I made it to Eddington Creek, so I knew I was past the location.

And Eddington Creek bridge.

Turned around and went back. Then replaced the shot-up Carsonite post and all its stickers at Marilla Trailhead. By then it was 5:30. I decided to just come home. There's lots more to do up that way, but at least I did a little bit. Because most of what I hiked was on a spur trail, not much of my walking counts as NCT miles. But my total for the day was about 3 miles. Hardly a hike, but the day was about projects, not miles.

In other news: Believe it or not, I did manage to sneak in a load of laundry!

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 321.

North Country Trail, Manistee County, Marilla Trailhead to Eddington Creek and back. Total 3 miles

See Hodenpyl Dam in Winter

Lopping, No Loping

  Cathy and I went out to do some trail work today. We haven't done a selfie for a while, so here you go.

Turned out it was pretty slow going- no loping. This was my section, which I had cleaned up a few weeks ago for spring, but the greenery has gone nuts in the past week. So we took the loppers and trimmed back encroaching branches. There were a lot. We got 2 of my 2.5 miles done, but then we were out of time. Made it to FR 5514, where we fixed the stickers on those Carsonite posts. Note the consistency with what I showed you yesterday at a small road crossing. Then we turned around.

This is pretty interesting. After having such an exceedingly wet year last year, this year things are very dry. The bottomland hardwood swamp isn't usually this dry till late summer. There was almost no water there today. I could go exploring for sedges without getting wet.

Nice looking cinnamon ferns.

I had never seen this patch of rattlesnake plantain, Goodyera pubescens, on my section before. There is a LOT of it, so maybe I can find some in bloom later this summer. You may remember it's a wild orchid. I love the leaves.

Best find of the day- Indian Cucumber Root, Medeola virginiana. I see these from time to time, but this was a big patch, and I hadn't noticed it in my own section before. This is a high quality plant. Coeffiecient of Conservatism is a 10- the highest number on the scale. Woo hoo! You may think it looks a lot like starflower, and you are right, but the leaves of this tend to be wider, and starflower does not grow in two tiers like this plant. This also gets larger than starflower.

There is a bud! Maybe I'll be able to catch it in bloom next week. I've never seen the flowers. I do have pictures of the berries somewhere.

And I'll end with a trail alert. Over the last two years, there has been a relocation of a snowmobile trail. It now cuts across Freesoil/8-Mile Road at the same place as the trail. This has been a total mess, but it looks like they have finally finished. However, they have made it quite difficult to find the trail if you are crossing from south to north. I'll get a Carsonite post in there next week, and a couple more blazes. There is a small laminated sign, but the burst of greenery has made it hard to see. The trail continues across the snowmobile trail and enters the woods at the yellow arrow.

In other news: It was a productive day. I cleaned up the kitchen, did a load of laundry, did some editing, wrote about 400 words, did some other volunteer work, and then the trail work.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 320 for me. Cathy's Hike 100 NCT miles are at 46.5.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Freesoil TH to FR 5514 and back. 4 miles

See Little Things