Spring Tease

 
Today was pretty wintery again. But there are little teases that we may be approaching spring. I still have a couple of plants that come up and bloom. Here is a common primrose.



And my 'Jetfire' mini daffodils seem to hang in there. The trumpets are orange, but it never records that way on the camera.



On my walk yesterday, I saw willows with catkins. Not sure what kind of willow. ID's of those are really tough.



And someone's daffodils are in full bloom. Beautiful! Mine are still in tight buds.



In other news: I worked on various projects today. I'm a little cranky, so I'll just say... see you tomorrow.

See Spring for a Day

Two Puzzles Solved

 
Today was super windy again. I went for a road walk this afternoon, and came across this little guy crawling across the blacktop.



It's not a good idea to touch hairy caterpillars. Many of them can cause skin irritation or rashes. But I touched it with a small rock and it rolled up.



I had to get some help to identify it. Turns out I also took a picture of one in March of 2016. That one was paler, but clearly the same kind of caterpillar. And also crawling across the blacktop.



Turns out it's a moth one actually sees fairly often, although I don't have a picture of one. If you've seen the sleek, smooth moth about 1.5 inches in length that has blue-black wings and an orange head with feathery antennae, this is the caterpillar. It's called Virginia ctenuchid. (say ten-UH-kid). You can see one on Bugguide.net

Puzzle one solved!

Puzzle two... This may be a first. Given my history with puzzles, I'm not sure it is, but I don't recall ever doing this. Although my murder-mystery puzzle has 1000 pieces, it was pretty easy. I completed the entire puzzle yesterday! The picture is not the picture on the box at all. You read the little book, and then find the clues in the puzzle itself (mostly the written notes you see on the countertop), and solve the mystery. It was fun.



In other news: Well, my road walk was 6.6 miles, so that took a while. Other than that I worked on some of my personal and volunteer projects. Oh yeah... a cleaned up the kitchen a little bit. It's hard to care. I know you clean freaks don't get that, but I'm basically a slob.

See Puzzle Puzzle

Treats from Yesterday and Today

 
Edited: This has been confirmed by someone who knows birds much better than I do as a pine warbler.

I promised to show you some of the little details from yesterday's hike. I'll do the big one first. This isn't a great picture, but I'm sure glad I got it. When I spotted a yellow bird and tried to get a picture, I figured it was just a goldfinch. But when I got the image on the computer... Whoa! It's a warbler. I'm not a great birder to begin with, and warblers are pretty much a mystery. But I think this is a blue-winged warbler. New bird on my life list!



And, finally, finally, we are seeing some spring flowers here. Hepatica is always one of the first. I saw quite a few of them.



One lonely trout lily was open. But more will come soon.



This isn't a sign of spring. I just thought it was an interesting fungus.



Oh yeah, and I saw my first tick of the year- a deer tick. It was just crawling around- not on me.

Today's treat? I made pancakes. I have mine with elderberry syrup- a gift from Ester. Om just likes the regular kind



Surprisingly, astonishingly, I am not sore or stiff from yesterday. Maybe a tiny bit achy in the hips and lower back, but not enough to affect anything.

In other news: I did laundry and blow dried it on the clothesline. Can you say windy? And I started my mystery puzzle. Stay tuned.

See Pancake and Goof Off Day

A Test Along the Manistee

 
So, you know I'm trying to get ready for this hike I hope to take in May. I plan to really challenge myself on it, and in order to be ready to do that I have to be seriously in shape. This was the test. Today I hoped to hike 14 miles with the 25 pounds in Teeny. I did it! 14.5 miles. I can still walk although there are parts that don't feel so good. (But nothing deadly awful) We'll see if I can move tomorrow.

The hike was defined by the Manistee River. I began at Chicago Avenue. I like how the trail just slips down off the road. People don't even know it's there.



The first bit of water you see below is a backwater of the Manistee, known as Blacksmith Bayou. There is a National Forest Campground there, and the trail crosses the road that leads down to it.



You pop out onto Highbridge Road to cross the Manistee River. I wonder how many pictures I have of this exact same spot, looking downstream from the road bridge. It's never the same, and I always seem to stop and snap a photo.



There's a little roadwalk, and then you head into the woods on the north side of the river. Here's the scenic view from near where we did the archaeology sampling five years ago. You get the unobstructed view because of the power line crossing!



From there on, for a long way (farther than I went today) the trail follows this river. Where I was today it sticks quite close to the edge of the hills. See the high hump on the left and the river snaking away below the level ridge? The trail is headed right for that hump. I want it to have a name, but it doesn't.



I love how the trail hugs the edge of the humps. Not sure if this is the one in the last picture or another similar one.



One of the really special things about this section is a glacial esker that's about a quarter mile long. The trail goes right along the top! See how steeply both sides drop away?



The next thing that happens is you descend on several sets of switchbacks down to river level.



This grassy floodplain is known as Leitch Bayou, and the trail traverses it for 2.5 miles. It's very different from the dry forested sand hills.



Then the trail climbs back to the top of the bluff near another campground called Sawdust Hole. This is where I took a rest and turned around.

It was a beautiful day, although the wind picked up in the afternoon to levels that impacted my hiking. I saw a tree fall on the other side of the road as I was coming back. Had to squint to keep the dirt out of my eyes. But I managed the 14.5 miles in 6.75 hours, which time includes rests, and talking with several other people. Not bad.

I have some lovely little details to share, but I think I'll save them for tomorrow. This is enough pictures for today.

NCT total miles in 2020 is 140.

North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI. Chicago Avenue to Sawdust Hole and back 14.5 miles

See More Archaelogy

Shanty Boy - NCT Loop

 
Today I went back to Manistee County and connected with the place I left the North Country Trail for the Udell Fire Tower.

It was cool and only partly sunny, so a little gloomy. But I can't complain. I started at Udell Trailhead on M55 and went south to the Big M Shanty Boy trail. I hadn't hiked any of this. It's primarily a mountain bike trail, but walking it is allowed. I took the Shanty Boy trail west. Passed this glacial erratic rock. Fairly big for here. We have more sand than rocks.



I did see a smaller rock that was quite pretty with all the mineral stripes. What the photo can't show you is that the white stripes have quartz or something in them, so they glitter in the sunlight.



Once again, the Avenza app makes it really easy to bushwhack. While I was on the Shanty Boy Trail, I could look left and estimate that the NCT was on top of that ridge.



Can't tell where it is? I've marked the top with a yellow line.



The distance between the two trails where I chose to cut over was minimal. However, the elevation change was impressive. I cut across the slope, and that way it wasn't bad. Now I'm up on the ridge- the NCT was right at the top, and the Shanty Boy Trail is down in the valley. You can't even see the bottom in this picture.



I am really enjoying seeing "my" trail in this time of year. I don't think I've been on much of it with the leaves off before. I had not really appreciated that the NCT follows this ridge through Udell Hills for about a mile and a half. Really "on top of the world."

So I did 6 miles in the pack, and then dumped it and did 3 more. NCT miles this year is at 126.

In other news: Not much- a little volunteer stuff and then I went hiking.

North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI. Udell TH south to Big M Shanty Boy Trail west about 2 miles, bushwhacked to NCT, continued west to mile 810.1, back to Udell, then north to Huff Rd and back. 9 miles total

See Udell Fire Tower