Salamonie Reservoir

Looking at the events pile up on the fall calendar, we made a set-in-stone, weather-forecast-be-damned camping date. Which was why we were one of only 2-3 tent campers as the rain fell and the mercury dropped to just above freezing. We retreated home for the night, then returned in the sun for hiking, foil dinners, and a trip to the interpretive center. Well, if everything had gone perfectly, it wouldn't have been a camping trip. My youth experiences included butterfly bandages, swarms of yellow jackets, and falling out of a pop-up camper. I was reminded of how utterly toast we would be if we ever needed to live off the land again (post-apocalyptic style). I think I'll make a good environmental scientist, but I'd be a pretty poor survivalist WTSHTF.

We did manage to track down a very important family site. On a drizzly rainy Tuesday afternoon in October of '05 I asked Miss Crump to start a journey with me. Seven years in, and somehow it keeps getting better.







As I learn more about geomorphology (watersheds in particular), I thought the history behind the creation of this reservoir somewhat ironic, or comitragic, taking the long-view of natural history. Europeans came and, in one matter or another, stole the land from the Miami Indians. They drained the wetlands and chopped down the forests, both of which were crucial to natural flood control of the river. The subsequent floods (of increasing magnitude and frequency because of anthropogenic changes) posed a threat to the downstream communities of Wabash, Logansport, and Peru (in Peru, 78% of homes were built in the floodplain... I remember going there in college and seeing recent flood damage). So in order to save these towns, three towns in the path of the reservoir where bought out and moved (what wasn't moved was flooded). Three dams in the area were completed by the late '60's. Saving three towns by flooding three others. "Controlling nature" because we had made nature more uncontrollable. Creating recreation opportunities (lake-boating, lake beaches) and creating habitat by destroying recreation opportunities (river fishing, river canoeing, river sandbanks) and destroying natural habitat (the river ecosystem). Anthropocene indeed. But it remains somewhat natural nonetheless, even if heavily altered and constructed.

Due to the drought this year, several roads and building foundations of these drowned communities became visible:

Mars Rover landing late Sunday night

I wasn't really interested in the thing until I watched this 5 min video, "7 minutes of terror". I'll also have to get caught up with Stephen Colbert, who is promoting the rover landing on his show.

The amazing thing is that by the time NASA receives a signal from the craft that it has entered the atmosphere, it will already have been on the surface of Mars for 7 minutes, alive and ready or in pieces.

Tour de Cute

all 786 known planets

Credit: XKCD. Blow this image up and read the middle. Exciting times indeed. It strikes me that this is a very simple, elegant example of why science education is important, and why we must maintain a public commitment  to scientific exploration (read: taxpayer-funded).

 

Holland State Park

hottie with a body, cutie with a booty

First time at Lake Michigan.

para que siga gringuita

 

before you or me, this was

YTD on the NCT

170 flesh-powered miles in the last 4 months; 90 on foot and 80 on a bike

 

Route shown is an approximation, if you found the shortest point-to-point route on foot, which Google says is 110 miles.


Perspective is everything. Here's the same route:

This fictional route below is around 2,500 miles. If you walked 3 mph without ever stopping, you'd finish in a little over a month. Or, you could cover 75 miles / day on a bike and you'd finish in about the same time.

Motivation for early retirement I suppose...

Again, a God-eyed-view:

finally

I hadn't planted and harvested a garden, throughout the entire season, since 2008. Sadly, I won't be around to harvest much of this one either. Although, we did plant in the same garden in Marion for four straight years.

Digging in yesterday felt like... coming back to one's religion after a time of spiritual wandering.

In my adult life, I have dug asparagus beds into the property of every house I've owned - and some I rented - even tiny urban lots and student ghettos... I suppose in those unsettled years, I was aspiring for a stability I couldn't yet purchase.

-Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

North Country Trail - Rogue River Game Area

Forgot my camera, so no pictures. This was an early May hike/bike.

Hiking consistently about every other weekend for four months has really helped me appreciate the change in seasons. The beauty, subtlety, and quiet, timeless power of the forest is unchanging. This was the first time that mosquitoes became something of a nuisance, that I start worrying about poison ivy and ticks.

I slept in the woods a couple nights by myself. A little spooky looking at a trio of glowing eyes staring at me. Barred owls calling. Spotted what I think was a ruffed grouse, which was  a first for me. Coincidentally, it was the day after I watched The Big Year. Yes, Hollywood actually made a movie (mostly) about birding. Don't expect that again. I liked it.

Scarier still was the old arrow I found propped against my car tire when I hike the 50 yards out from my campsite in the morning. What. The. Hail. I got out of there quick, not knowing what it signified. The land is a state game area. Though it's multiple-use, it's funded by and specifically designed for hunters. Any idea what that arrow meant?

Snakes! I saw another blue racer. He was a little guy, apparently battle-worn as he had a blunted, scarred tail. As such, he could not try to scare me with a fake rattle (as the first one I saw did). He coiled right up and stared me down as I approached. Kids, don't try this at home, but I try to grab him. He bit me - lightning fast - then scrambled off. Only one little drop of blood to show, and hardly as painful as a thorn-prick. Note to self: wild animals are always faster than you. Always.

Five seconds down the trail, I saw his much bigger (and intact) cousin. Not learning my lesson, I slowly approached. He gave me the leaf-rattle warning, elongated and looking over his snake shoulder at me. I took one step closer and he sped off like his name suggests.

I'm now up to about 90 miles hiked and 50 miles biked on the North Country Trail.

North Country Trail - Manistee National Forest (Croton to 3-mi rd)

April 22-23 in the Manistee National Forest. Twenty-five miles hiking in about as many hours, plus about as much biking. I like the "bike north, lock bike to tree, hike south to car, drive north, hike south to bike, repeat" method to cover as many miles as possible solo. Camping was easy (low of 32 degrees, no rain, and a very quiet night actually - just one screech owl). It was breezy, but very sunny. High in the 50s.

Hartwick Pines S.P., 2006

These public parcels were acquired after a deforestation so complete that some have called it a rape of the land. It's hard to argue that those words are too strong. There is no other way to more effectively and completely destroy this ecosystem (and thus the people who live within it). It was the 19th century lumber industry. Perhaps it's hypocritical for me to whine, as one could argue that I benefit today from the economic progress built by the sale of all that timber. But the land was not an investment, it was pillaged by companies who then sold the useless soil to families as "prime" farm land. After they all went broke, it came back to the state. It is now managed for multiple uses - recreation, hunting, timber, hiking, biking, and scientific research. One hopes that we truly learned our lesson the first time. Anyway, check out the Logging Museum at Hartwick Pines State Park, along with the insanely large pine trees there.

It was good to find a trail where I could walk for 7 straight miles (2.5-3 hrs) without even crossing a gravel road.

Sorry for the deluge of pics. The world is just too awesome to summarize.

So much easier with a road bike.

Trail maintenance never ends.

Small is beautiful.

Sunrise through the bark.

Here be woodpeckers.

Someone tell me what this is. I say it's a combination of tree excavation (the wood fiber itself) and dung. But a close look showed a lot of pellets. Could that all be dung? That whole pile? Who lives in there?![2015 update: I think a porcupine lives in there]

I wrote a poem (while going over internal rhyming on a sub job) on occasion of this Blue Racer snake:

I saw a snake, 'twas not a fake,

A warning sound I did perceive.

I heard a rattle, thought he'd bite my saddle,

But 'twas naught but his tail in the leaves.

It's the biological equivalent of you putting up a home security sign by your front door without installing any actual security. It wards off 90% of your enemies and costs you nothing.

North Country Trail - Barry Game Area, Yankee Springs, and road connectors

This next section was over 3 hikes/bikes in March/April, totaling 13.6 miles in the woods and 22 miles on two wheels.

Further north and west out of Battle Creek, you come to the Kellogg Biological Station pasture dairy center. You can watch robots milk the cows. No joke. I did. I believe the facility is even unmanned at night. I think each machine can do 60 cows, thrice daily. The set-up is also trying to maximize the cows' pasture time as well, depending on the weather/soil/alfalfa.

Even though the North Country trail was established in 1980, it's not nearly as developed as the better-known Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails. It will take decades more to cultivate donors and volunteers, get easements from land owners, and cut and maintain trail. Until then, road connectors are a reality. So I break out my bike. Given the rural nature of trails, you'll see a lot of roads like this:

Lot's of farmers' fields, obviously. Can you spot the lone sandhill crane? I've heard or spotted these beautiful birds about every week since early March.

The trail passes through, and along, several state game areas. There was evidence here of some slaughter, but not knowing much about hunting culture and practices, I can't say whether or not what happened was legal (given that several carcasses appeared to have been gathered together and dumped right on the side of the road).

 

Ready to go. And yes, that's a camo IWU cap. Thanks Joey V. Wearing hunter orange because I still hear some folks in the woods firing off something or another.

Walk on.

Very large (wide) ant hill in the middle of the woods. One of some 22,000 species that I know little about.

La primavera ya esta!

Longevity. Slow persistence seems to be the way of nature.

Boardwalk for a soggy section bearing skunk cabbage.