Hartwick Pines Hiking

I have driven past the sign for Hartwick Pines National Forrest hundreds of times.  And never stopped.  On this last trip north, I did exactly that.  I grabbed a trail map from the park office and set off down the road to the trail head where two different loops started.  I decided on the Forrest Trail that crosses the Au Sable river in two spots.

It was an incredibly beautiful day with sunshine, puffy white clouds and about 65 degrees.  Walking into the forrest is a bit enchanting with the needle lined pathway.

I found some unusual little plants here and there - this one was absolutely glowing against the dark ground.

Some areas had more deciduous trees.

Small things amuse me - and this little mushroom with it's upturned edges made me smile.  I could almost see it in Alice and Wonderland.

Not too surprisingly, some trees were already starting to turn even though this was just a couple days into September.

Tall, tall trees.

 I loved how sometimes the path didn't take the obvious route.

More interesting fungus.

And then I got to the part of the path that basically crosses a very swampy area. This had to be under water earlier this year when we had so much rain.  It was still pretty mucky.  I hunted around for a walking stick to use for balance and found nothing - they were probably all at the other end!  I made it all the way to the end of these logs before I slipped and sunk a shoe. Thank goodness they were waterproof!

It was like a little fairy garden!

This set of logs was a bit easier to traverse!

While the path meandered, there were no real hills.  The only negative was that you could still hear I-75 in the distance - probably about a mile away.

First crossing of the Au Sable river.

I'm not sure what I was expecting but the water was very clear.

Mini fairy trees!

 The path then followed alongside the river for a while.

There were some fall blooming flowers/weeds along here where there was more sunshine getting through the trees.

 I had passed a nice couple at one point and they told me about a tree down across the path and said it was a bit difficult to get over.  It wasn't exactly difficult but it was a bit awkward because of all the branches sticking out.

Not far from this point, the trail came back out to the parking area but I wasn't quite done yet.  It was just so darn nice out!  So I headed down the Mertz trail setting a timer for 20 minutes so I could turn around and walk back out the way I came in.

This trail was also relatively flat but a little more open and I didn't go through any wet spots.

Lichen, moss, fungus?  I guess I need to brush up on this stuff!

 Being alone makes it hard to do selfies but my trusty water bottle made a good lean-to along with the timer feature on the phone!

Legs!

These pics started out as a bit of a joke but I'm still amused by them.

I started out one morning in my painting jeans (another project started!) and old crocks.

Next I moved into riding breeches and boots.

And then later that same day, it was hiking shorts and shoes!

And then this cat...kinda hard to tell which legs go where!

Move in day!

Madison moved into her new apartment to start the fall semester at UofM!  It took two fully loaded Ford Escapes and Grandpa's fully loaded Lincoln SUV but we got it all there and the crew that unloaded the cars had it all up to the apartment before I could even park the car and get back up there.

It was a bit of a disorganized mess!

She's on the 5th floor with a beautiful view north over Kerrytown.  The building is just off the edge of campus and in a great location.

Huge hot tub on the rooftop balcony.

Fully equipped gym.  Much swankier than any apartment I ever lived in at college!

Wreck of a day

One morning Austin calls me at 7:30 a.m. to say he was in an accident.  After we got AAA on the way to tow his car to the repair place....

Madison calls me to tell me she's been sideswiped by a semi truck on her way back from Chicago.

What are the odds that BOTH of your kids will have car accidents (both are fine and nobody was hurt) within an HOUY of each other??

Trail Ride!

We often make plans to do trail rides but they often don't end up happening but this one did!

We loaded up 3 horses and a pony and hit the trails at Brighton Rec.

Rebecca brought Beezer.  He's a handsome boy - dressage horse all the way but does great on the trails!

Maggie brought Twix the pony in the background and behind Twix is Lyndsay with Sebastian.  We had no idea if Twix had ever been on trails but Sebastian is an old pro - he used to do fox hunting.

Mata Hari is awesome on the trails too.  She's been out to Brighton Rec several times.

The best view is always between your horse's ears!

Maggie and I took up the rear - Twix's little legs don't go very fast!

We only rode for about an hour but the weather was great and we have a lovely time.

Mata Hari was just happy to have grass!

Afterwards, we changed clothes and had a picnic at the barn.  Maggie's daughter McKenna joined us.

The happy trail riders - me, Maggie, Lydsay, and Rebecca.

And little McKenna hamming it up  in my visor!

UROP Internship

WCC gave Madison so many great opportunities and one of them was being able to do a research internship at University of Michigan this summer.  She worked on research revolving around "The Buddy Project" which is an online resource for kids to find other like minded kids with mental health issues to talk with.

All the UROP interns presented their research in posters that they exhibited at the end of the term.

And then they were presented their certificates of achievement.

 A picture of her team.  Behind them on the screen is the early summer picture of ALL the UROP interns.  These were the 60 kids selected from over 600 applications!

How does the garden grow?

I had one gardening goal this year - to get some sweet peas to grow here.  I had started some seeds last year and a couple small plants started growing.  I didn't have high hopes for them to come back but apparently they were biennials - I always thought they were annuals!

The ones growing along this little fence were those small plants that started last year and flowered quite nicely this year in front of the zinnia seeds I planted.

Zinnias make such pretty cut flowers. Just happy little faces!

I had also tossed a few sweet peas under the edge of the deck.  I didn't even notice that they had taken hold at all last fall. When they really started to take off I wasn't too prepared for them but found this wire mesh in the shed to staple to the deck.  I had to string up some wire to hold them up until they found their own grip but it worked!

Next year I think I'll get some chicken wire to run along this wall since I'm hoping they spread!