Sisters complete (a variation of) a triathlon!

2011 October 18  My sweet sister, Sugar, and I completed our first "triathlon"!  We began at Rosy Mound Natural Area (13925 Lakeshore Drive Grand Haven, MI 49417) dragging our bikes out of our cars all by ourselves, already some exertion! 

We rode south on the bike path along Lakeshore Avenue all the way to Palomita Reserve (10630 Lakeshore Dr, West Olive, Michigan 49460) owned by The Land Conservancy of West Michigan,  about a 10 mile (round trip) bike ride.
Returning to Rosy Mound Natural Area we stowed our bicycles into the cars, then off we went on the second part of the triathlon, taking over 1000 (stair)  steps to Lake Michigan and back.  

 While at Lake Michigan we completed the third portion of this trek by swimming (our finger tips) in the lake!

Fun time!
 We saw lots of Hepatica leaves along the trail.

Rosy Mound is a classic Great Lakes dune system including high wooded dunes, foredunes, beach and a dune blowout. A 0.7 mile (one way) hiking trail from the parking area to the Lake Michigan shoreline includes 1,000 feet of stairs up and down the dunes and scenic views of woods, the dune blowout and Lake Michigan. A unique shade canopy, dune boardwalk trail and pit toilets are located near the beach. Improvements to this 164 acre park were completed in April 2004.  No pets.

We are "triathlon-ers".  Ha Ha!

Down to the River

2011 09 19 It really isn't the river but one of many bayous connected to the Grand River. 
Little Robinson Bayou.  Long ago I spent much time here fishing, mushroom hunting, working in a big garden (actually I didn't do much of the work but played in the tall grass) and just wandering.


Today we parked at Clark School with permission of our cousin Joe, who now owns the school.  My Dad went to this school way back when, so did some of my brothers and sisters, but not me.

First, across the field near the school then into the woods.  In the past we had good solid trails through these woods, most of the trails had names, but since then the land has been logged off and several of the trails have been obliterated. 


It was a very wet day in September when we were here.  Very wet.  By the end of the day my sister Marie was actually pouring water from her boots.  Needless to say we were a bit out of our comfort zone but since we were in this place, special to us, we handled it.

We went toward the "boat path" which is near the "marl pit".  What is the marl pit?  Did they dig marl from here?  I don't know.  Some special plants grow in marl (like in calcareous fens), this place is not a fen though.  We didn't really know what we would find. 


It wasn't easy to get to the marl pit or for that matter to reach Little Robinson Bayou on the boat path.  It was a nearly impenetrable thicket, we fought our way through the tangled mass of verdant vegetation and found what is left of the marl pit. 

This is what we walked through to get to the marl pit (below)

Not much to see, hardly any water, choked with grasses but there were a couple of flowers blooming right in the middle of all this.  Bur Marigold and watercress. 


We had to back track, then bushwhacked our way over toward the field where the Fringe-tip Closed Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), grow.  It was so wet but we were having too much fun to notice and luckily it was around 64 degrees, so not too cold.

             Field where the Fringe-tip Closed Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) grow.
On our way to the field we found skullcap, False Climbing Buckwheat, Wild Basil, Tall Rattlesnake Root, Flowering Spurge,

                         Butter-and-eggs,
Cardinal Flower, and Turtle head, these were all blooming.


I rushed ahead to find the first of many Fringe-tip Closed Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) we saw that day. 

 This is the kind of place we need to look for flowers, wet meadows.  Sandhill Cranes were flying around being rather noisy.  Lots of Joe-Pye Weed,

                    Nodding Ladies' Tresses,
yellow composites of some sort, Bouncing Bet, White Campion,

  and we even found Deptford Pink flowering.

This snail was liking the rain.

  But this grasshopper was hiding out under a leaf.

We wandered down to the "bridge" - years ago there was a wooden bridge here, I guess to take cows across the water to graze on the other side.  In the past, we fished here many times.  It was beautiful even on this gray day.

I wanted to explore more and so did Marie even though we were getting tired, we pushed on.  We tramped along where we thought the garden had been.  We went way back in the field, it wasn't easy, and kind of scary since we were in grasses and shrubs well over our heads.

Then up into the woods, here were tall Pokeweed growing. 
I found the green leaves of hepatica, we called it Mayflower when we roamed these woods long ago, and I think we even ate the petals of the flower. 

Hepatica blooms in the early spring and has a wonderful purple flower. 


Back to the car at Clark School.  Then home to get dry. What fun!
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A day earlier I had a Monarch butterfly emerge from his chrysalis.  These photos were taken about one hour apart!

              He has one foot on his old home.

Howard Christensen Nature Center and Long Lake Park

April 16 2012 Marie chose our destination for the day - Howard Christensen Nature Center 16160 Red Pine Dr NW, Kent City, MI 49330, this is northeast of Kent City Michigan.

               Trail Map

 Overlook Tower

Looking down from the overlook tower

Fringed polygala (Polygala paucifolia) Milkwort family,  has such vivid color.  Mike and I had seen one of these up north just the day before.  First time this year.

 Trees reflected in the hand lens

We also stopped at Long Lake Park, we wandered a bit then Marie spied some miterwort on the other side of the road.  There was this sign on a pole,

so we poked our noses in and found a wonderful wet woods area.

We even found a hepatica blooming  here in northern Kent County.

Probably the last hepatica we will see blooming this year.  It rained a little then bright sunshine to end the day.

Spring Wildflowers in Ottawa and Allegan Counties 2014

This post will be several adventures combined.  I hope to give you an idea what is blooming in West Michigan, places in Ottawa County and Allegan County.

Riverside Park at Max Lake

         Bloodroot

                      Bloodroot

 Along the trail at Riverside Park in Ottawa County, Michigan
Then a stop at Connor Bayou, another Ottawa County park.

 Connor Bayou on a rainy evening.

 Along the Grand River at Connor Bayou Park, Hepatica was blooming but it was closed up due to the cloudiness.

A trip to Minnie Skwarek Nature Preserve in Spring Lake Township revealed no wildflowers blooming except for Skunk Cabbage.

Then the next day Marie and I went to Allegan County, Silver Creek County Park, and Happy Boots Corner.  Silver Creek County Park, (3900 - 134th Ave., Hamilton, MI)   is primarily an equestrian park and has both day use facilities and a primitive campground. Silver Creek is 320 acres in size and connects to over 25 miles of horseback riding trails. There are 75 campsites in the park, 65 of which are available for horse camping. Silver Creek also has 450 feet of frontage on Silver Creek, which is a spring fed trout stream. You will also find picnic tables and grills available in the day use area. The most beautiful and unique thing about Silver Creek is that the entire park is primarily wooded, providing for plenty of shade in the hot summer months and some spectacular foliage color in the fall. In keeping with the primitive setting, there are no modern restrooms or running water, but there are hand pumps and vault toilets. Silver Creek Park is open year round and has some spectacular fall and winter camping available.
We went here to see if the Trailing Arbutus was blooming. 

      Trailing Arbutus

     Trailing Arbutus

 Silver Creek in Allegan County

Along the road to Happy Boots Corner, we saw a fair amount of snow in the ditches, this was April 22, this is late in the spring to still find snow here.

 Happy Boots.  No, you won't find that name on a map.  We named this place.  There were several plants blooming here.

                                        Spring Beauty

 Spring Beauty

 Spring beauty, some are almost white, these were shouting pink!

 And we found more Golden Saxifrage!  This time I put a quarter by it to compare for size.  The flower is tiny.

 This is a photo of our bench, which we rested upon and listened to frogs!

 We saw Marsh Marigold blooming!

 Skunk Cabbage
We enjoyed Happy Boots for a few hours, then moved on to another special place with warm, sunny, south facing hills to see Trout Lily, the white variety.

                   Squirrel Corn

And one Large-flowered Trillium that was really blooming.  When we got back to my house I checked on my very own Round-lobed Hepatica.  It was blooming too.

It was a fun day with great weather.  The wildflowers are coming along just fine, if a bit slow.