The Good/Bad News- No Rain

I spent half the day writing a submission to Unsent Letters, and even though it was nothing sad, it was emotional enough that I really needed to go for a hike. All the rain that was predicted for the weekend never materialized. That meant that I could head for the woods. But we better get some rain here soon, or the grass fires will be popping up all over.


Maggie and I headed for a section of the North Country Trail south of Bowman Lake. You have to understand that this is my very least favorite time of year to hike. Everything is brown and gray. Nothing in the woods is pushing up green shoots yet. There aren't going to be any fantastic pictures today. But the trail does cross this small un-named creek. I noticed on the map today that the creek comes from a small pond that shows on the map. I think that exploring that could be fun, and it's all National Forest property so I won't be trespassing!


This was kind of interesting. There was just one fairly large burned-out stump here. Some parts of the tree were nearby, also burned. But none of the surrounding trees showed any evidence of fire. I wonder if it was struck by lightning and was gutted, then burned itself out.


This is about the prettiest picture from the walk. It's a small wetland that stays wet all year long, so our trail chapter put in a log bridge so you can get across the area. With the reflections, and some blue sky, it's not bad.

Anyway, we walked about 6 miles. The temperature was perfect- about 50 degrees. The sun was shining! I cleared a lot of brush from the trail and a lot of cobwebs from my brain.

Writing March 18-21

I've written 2 more reviews at Shared Reviews. You can see my list of this month's writing at Just Throw Money.

I wrote one poem just because.

I wrote an entry to submit for a blog, and possibly a book, called Unsent Letters.

Kitchenhenge- Spring Equinox 2010

 



Welcome to Spring! We didn't get more than a dusting of snow, but the temperature cooled down a lot. It was cloudy this morning, but I took a picture of the sunrise on Thursday, suspecting that there might be a bit of a problem with today.

Despite my efforts to be consistent with these pictures, I zoomed this one a bit. Also, I've learned that as the sun rises it doesn't ascend perpendicular to the horizon but drifts off to the south.

Variables are: the zoom of the camera, the time of the picture relative to official sunrise time, the exact location where I was standing, the exact angle at which I pointed the camera, not to mention that when it is cloudy I cheat by a day or two. That is WAY too many to be scientific. Still, I manipulated these to make the two trees about the same size in each picture from the last four equinoxes.

You can see that as the sun gets higher it moves to the south. I think I am going to try to take a series on one day to show that track. Don't hold your breath! It will need a clear morning that I am both up in time and remember. But it's an interesting project.

See Kitchenhenge- Winter 2009 See Kitchenhenge- Fall 2009

Two Lighthouses and a Trail

 

Since today was the last warm and dry day we are supposed to have for a while, I just had to go for a good hike. I decided to do the Lighthouse Trail at the Ludington State Park.

It's not my favorite trail. It's very cold in the spring and fall because of the wind, and very hot in the summer as you cross open dunes. The loose sand is hard to walk in. Nevertheless, Maggie and I had a great time, and I updated this trail section on Get Off The Couch. It runs from the Big Sable Lighthouse, east and then southeast across the park to end at the Lost Lake Trail on Hamlin Lake. Then you have to take other trails to get back to your car. Of course the lighthouse is very nice.





We saw a few critters too! Just some whitetail deer and a gray squirrel, but it was nice to know that the wildlife is moving around in the nice weather. (OK, I also saw gulls, geese, and a pair of swans.)



This view comes after you climb over some of the dunes on the trail and look back to the west. It's very typical of the open areas in the park.



This picture has a long story. Prior to May 1998 the valley you can see here was filled with full-grown trees. We had a storm with devastating straight-line winds. Every tree in that valley was flattened. It looked like Mount St. Helens without the ash. As a result, the trail through it was closed for years. Only two years later the white pines you can see down there had started to grow. A few years after that the park put in the steps which now lead down to the valley floor, cleared a lot of trees and hardened that section of trail. It must have been a huge job! But now you can walk that way again.



Finally, on the way home, I stopped at "First Curve" and got a decent picture of the Ludington Lighthouse. You wouldn't think that this is so difficult, but the light on the lake, or choppy water, or haze often make it really hard to get enough contrast for the small light to show up well. I like this shot a lot!

Hope you enjoyed the hike!

See Ludington Beach in January See What Maggie Saw

Winter to Spring

 



We've had some lovely weather the past couple of weeks, but this weekend we are supposed to return to at least early spring, if not winter. Here is how it looked on the morning that I left for New York, on Feb 24.




By March 12, the snow was almost all gone, and it was so warm this morning that the remaining snow was changing directly to steam- called sublimation. Here's a closeup.



I took a couple of video clips, but didn't catch an interesting shot. When the breeze was just right you could see the mist just blowing into the trees.



It's been so warm this week that most of the critters are coming out to play. Here's a wary red squirrel.

I hung out more laundry today, but it was cooler than yesterday, and by tomorrow night it's supposed to be raining. Well, rain is good- don't want grass fires!

See A Quiet Morning See A Michigan Sampler- Stitched in Steps