Founder's Corner

This was my first day on the NCT in 2016, April Fools Day. It was a day of brilliant, clear and sunny skies, slightly cool, perfect for walking.

Today was a 9.1 mile walk in just over three hours along paved country roads.  Two point six miles was on the White Pine Trail.  It was a perfect Michigan autumn day with the temperature at 65, brilliant sunshine with not a cloud on the horizon.  The oaks were just starting to get a tinge of color while the maples were just shy of being at their peak.                     

I started at the intersection of the White Pines Trail (An old rail bed converted into an asphalt bicycle and walking trail) and the no longer existing town of Edgerton on 13 Mile, four and a half miles East of Sparta.  I walked North and East ending at the Kent County Long Lake Park off M-46.  There was nothing special about today, yet everything was spectacular.  The silence was penetrating, the color was mesmerizing, the sky brilliant. 

Strange Sights are not uncommon.  Here was one.  Along the road, in front of a home set way off the road was a boat.  It hung in the air about ten feet off the ground with a dummy sitting in it with a fishing pole.  As I stopped and looked a car approached, slowed, went passed, and stopped.  As I paused he turned around, came slowly back, and then turned into the drive, slowed down even more, and watched me looking at this strange piece of artistic expression, smiled, waved, and went up his drive. 

Several miles further I came to a farm house with two young teenagers with leaf blowing machines strapped to their backs creating an awful howling noise heard for several hundred meters.  With more than 90% of the leaves still on the 10 Sugar Maples trees they were blowing every single leaf off their yard.  I stopped, pointed to the trees, and said, “You have a long way to go!”  He shrugged, and said, “Yes, I know.”  It must be some kind of punishment.  I cannot imagine them doing this for the next six weeks.

As I turned on to the White Pine Trail I saw a 14 inch snake, thin as a pencil.  I nudged him along so he would not be rode over by the racing bicycles.  He was delighted to get into the grass after I had a good look at him.  Three yards further on, I found another, only eight inches or so.  It made me wonder where the nest was.

Milk weed seed was popping out with the wind catching the cotton type filaments attached to the seed.  Road side trees were largely Red and White Oak, Weeping Willow, Maple, Sassafras, Walnut, Poison Sumac, Hardy Catalpa, Norway and Blue Spruce, Australian, Scotch, and White Pine, among others.

Today’s walk was worth several visits to a counselor.  I am ready for another week.

Yesterday was perfect in so many respects.  It started off with a great night of sleep, attending our group at church.  It was our congregation’s 25th anniversary.  We spent an hour talking about these questions: 1) What brought you to this church?​ 2) What keeps you at this church?  Great discussion.

Jan and I then went home and I put on my walking shoes and we drove up Rockford where I walked 9.7 miles as part of the North Country Trail.  I walked from Wabasis Lake to Edgerton, a town that no longer exists, just east of I-131.  I saw what looked like a pair of white storks in a swamp.  There was an abundance of Banded Woollybears on the road.  They tend to be plentiful in the autumn.  It hibernates as larva and pupates in the Spring.   

For some reason I walked passed a lot of Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) and picked up some acorns.  They are eaten by turkey, blue jay, and ruffed grouse. 

Jan had gone to a restaurant and had lunch.  She brought me a Mellow Yellow and an hour later I was at the intersection of the White Pines Trail and Thirteen Mile.

On the way to our monthly small group (Four couples and growing friendship) we stopped at Robinette’s Apple Orchard and purchased some fudge.  We had a dynamite discussion on what it is we do when we pray.  Three pages of notes.  Great stuff.  We had a wonderful but simple meal and then went over to our daughter and celebrated our grandson’s 15th birthday.  Finally, at 10:00 P.M. we got home and I watched one of my few tv shows, The Good Wife. 

I went to bed about an hour after Jan and found her warming up my side.  A day like this does not come every day combining the Spirit, friendship, nature, family, physical exercise, food, stimulating discussion…and acorns in my pocket. 

I started walking about 4:10 P.M.  It was late but still got in about 6.7 miles.  Today I did it alone.  I took a bicycle with me, hide it at the start of off point of Green Lake and Ashely Road and then drove up to Wabasis Lake Road and Twelve Mile, left the car and starting walking back.  Arriving at the starting point it took me only 30 minutes or so to bicycle what took me 2.5 hours to walk.

The funny noise of loud cackling that sound unlike anything I have head turned out to be a group of wild turkeys on the corner of Jenks and MacArthur.  The harvested wheat field had what looked like 18 Blue Herons walking around, perhaps a group of newly hatched young.  

As I started to walk down Wahasis Lake Road I stopped at a self serve sweet corn stand.  $3.00 for a dozen ears of corn, twenty five cents each.  I realized again the reason I have a garden is not because I save any money but rather the pure enjoyment of seeing the miracle of a seed turning into a fruit or vegetable.   I tried something this week I read in the magazine Organic Gardening.   When your beans start declining in production, cut everything back, and let it all resprout and it will grow a second crop.  I see the new buds already.

I really enjoyed walking pasted the Ashley one room school house.  It was built in 1863 and was used as a school until 1966.  That is almost identical to the one room school house (Celery Center) I attended from 1951-1959.  Nothing matches the aroma of fresh cut alfalfa.  Even better was walking past acres and acres of apples.

A couple outstanding flowers today was March Felswort, Stinging Nettle, and Typha Latifolia which is Cattail.  I just discovered the young stems are a tasty food source.  

Today, a week later and I did another ten miles, almost exactly.  I am up to the corner of Ashely Avenue and Green Lake in the State of Michigan.  Today’s hike was not an adventure rather, it was pleasant, very pleasant.  I had plenty of water.  It was sunny with some clouds but not overly warm, maybe mid to high 70s.  I figured out how to carry my water bladder in my day pack hooked to a Sawyer filter in case I needed to source water from a creek or lake.  

Along Lincoln Lakeside Highway I saw a canvas lawn chair that obviously had blown off a trailer or pick-up.  Someone had put a large rock in a plastic jug and set it in the chair hoping the owner would drive by and reclaim the chair.  I removed the jug, sat in the chair and waved at traffic as I had a drink.

Most of the North Country Trail today was on Ashley Avenue which is a gravel road.  Little traffic, lots of woods and farms.  It was quiet.  About five miles into the hike I thought I would rest at the junction of Five Mile Road and Ashley.  I looked for a spot to sit for a moment.  There was a swing in the tall grass of this giant Red Oak.  What?  Where did this come from?  Across the road was a farm house but it was like two hundred yards to this tree.  Nothing was landscaped or groomed around this tree.  Well, it worked for me.   

There were two vacant houses on the corner of M-44 (Belding Road) and Ashely.  I stopped to have another drink.  As I got up, I thought I heard my phone ring.  Nope.  It kind of sounded like chimes ringing on the back porch of our home.  I stepped into the road and turned North and glanced back one last time.  There, through the trees, was an ice cream truck with the bell ringing.  I waved it over.  She told me she drives through the country on Saturday afternoons.  That ice cream sandwich tasted terrific.  I gave her a nice tip as well.  

I walked passed two rural cemeteries today.  I also stopped to read a sign on a Centennial Farm, a farm owned by one family for over 100 years, in this case, since 1850.  Just up the road, I saw one of the larger tombstones with the same name as the farm.  

One cemetery was at Alton Corners.  The only functioning building was a very nice Bible Church and an old township hall that has become a museum.  During the Civil War it was another thriving community (http://www.commoncorners.com/kent/kent_alton.htm).

It is hard to believe this rural area could have been more populated than it is now, 150 years ago.  I wonder if anyone even thinks of the people who used to live here.  The one household where I asked directions certainly did not.  She told me they had only lived there a short time.  She did not even recognize Ashley Avenue, just down the road from her place.  

The yellow flowers were out.  I identified Goatsbeard, Groundsel, and Golden Rod.  Jan picked me up and took me back to the Fallesburg Park Covered Bridge.  I loved the day.  I hope it was a great day for you as well.  

It was tough getting out of Lowell, MI and heading North. I initially went South thinking it was North. Then I could not find the marked trail out of town. I ended up talking to the Oak Wood Cemetery care taker to find the right road. It got me to the trail marker. Instead of walking further down the road, I turned down the marked path and ended up back in Lowell. An hour had gone by and I was right where I had started…back at the cemetery. Had I turned left instead of right, as he instructed, I would have been on the right trail.