#21: Deerfield Park, In Memory of Richard Bolton

On an overcast morning Andy Mytys pulled up and I hopped into his car for the drive to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to join dozens of others for the memorial service for Richard "Dick" Bolton. I was part of the small contingent of people who knew Dick through hiking activities focused on the North Country Trail and through the Great Lakes Hikes email group (hosted at Yahoo Groups as "greatlakeshikes"). We arrived not long before the service was meant to start and so were settled down in the basement (undercroft as the church pastor refers to it) amongst a couple dozen other people. The nave was full of everyone else. This modest sized, oldest continually used building, 1882 I believe was when it went up, was a fine place for the memorial service.

After the service people scattered to regroup at a nearby school for a nicely put together lunch. This was where people really had a chance I think to talk and perhaps share memories of Dick. I can't say if that really happened or not but I hope it did. For those of us from Great Lakes Hikes though the highlight of the day was after the lunch. We drove over to Deerfield Park (in Isabella County) to spend a few hours wandering through a perennial favorite place of Dick's throughout the years. This was the first time I had been to this 591 acre park and that added an extra special bit of pleasure for me. I can fully see why Dick enjoyed visiting the park and strolling the few miles of trails that wander through forests of beech, oak, and pine as well as along the banks of the Chippewa River. The afternoon weather had not cleared but when within the forest none of us really noticed the breeze. It was fun to talk through the woods and past things like Bailey's Rock which all have meaning for those of us who either talked with Dick about Deerfield Park or read his numerous missives about the park.



A reminder: You can click the title of this post to see the video in 720p HD. To be sure to receive the highest resolution version of the podcast you should subscribe to the Wandering Knight podcast via the iTunes link provided on the left.

#20: Great Lakes Hikes November 2010 Gathering

Since 1999 the members of the GreatLakesHikes email group hosted over on Yahoo Groups has held a gathering in early November the weekend before modern gun (rifle) deer season starts. For a weekend we take over the Schoolhouse owned by the Western Michigan Chapter of the North Country Trail Association. The Schoolhouse is located near the town of White Cloud at the intersection of 5 Mile Road and Felch. The North Country Trail is less than a mile away and other trails like the Birch Grove Loop are even closer. It's a great place to get together for a base-camping weekend where you can enjoy the company of friends in an indoor or outdoor setting.

This year the Gathering was held the weekend of November 12-14. People started arriving in the early evening of the 12th and so the fun around the campfire was well under way by the time Andy, Elwira, John, and I pulled in just before 11:00PM on Friday. The evening was chilly but their was little wind and the fire was burning bright and hot. People were comfortable and having fun. We joined right in once we got our shelters pitched. Of course, some people were already asleep for the night but when you remember that some of those people are young, very young, kids that's quite alright. Even the diehards, including me, packed it in around 1:00AM, after all we all knew we had a long fun day ahead of us Saturday.

What really makes the Gathering shine are the people who attend. We had our usual mixed-bag breakfast before getting ourselves sorted out for the various hikes Saturday. The longest of these turned out to be about 11 miles starting at Echo Lake Road and returning to the Schoolhouse. SHorter hikes used that same basic route just starting closer to the Schoolhouse. The weather was overcast and crisp, threatening rain. A pretty typical autumn day in Michigan's woods. By the time we were closing in on the end of the hike that threatening rain began to drizzle down upon us. It wasn't a storm but it was steady. More than enough to cause us, once back inside, to stay pretty much inside. Durning the evening the on-and-off rain kept us from making a second campfire but we made up for it throughout the night with the usual good varied food, excellent conversation, and impromptu live music from Chuck and Charlotte on guitar and violin with Chuck providing gritty vocals.

Sunday dawned colder but dry. Weather that would turn out to be ideal for what we had planned to do. People helped clean up the Schoolhouse and then went their separate ways. Several others decided to join Andy, John, Elwira, and myself and hike our section of North Country Trail and help us do our fall maintenance work. That help was quite welcome as we had a dozen or so major blow down of primarily oak trees stretching across the trail. Over half of them were too big to merely drag off and required us to saw through them first. Many of those required a few hundred strokes with the bow saw to cut through: oak is tough. But with the help we got through the 7 miles of trail in about 5.5 hours of good solid work. Thanks everyone.

This was a very good Gathering and perhaps one of the best attended.

My apologies for the problems in the audio. For those of a technical bent wondering what is going on it is a side-effect of using an external microphone with an iPhone left in regular mode. The iPhone must be in Airplane mode when doing such recording to prevent any chance of interference from the radios in the phone. This is annoying, but to be fair a smartphone isn't a dedicated recording device.



A reminder: You can click the title of this post to see the video in 720p HD. To be sure to receive the highest resolution version of the podcast you should subscribe to the Wandering Knight podcast via the iTunes link provided on the left.

Lunch spot

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Along the NCT doing trail work.

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The Gathering, 2010 - The Night Before the Day

The annual NCTA/GLH Gathering is taking place as late as it can this year. Friends of long standing get together the weekend before rifle deer season for a weekend of schmoozing and hiking. By the time I arrive with Andy, John, and Elwira the campfire fun was well under way. It will be a good weekend.
** Ken **

Sent from my iPhone

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TGO Challenge 2011: Waiting, waiting, waiting

On Monday morning I found myself up very early watching Twitter and being more drawn in than I usually am. The reason was simple: people in the United Kingdom were getting their letters informing them of their acceptance into the 2011 TGO Challenge. Colin Ibbotson (@tramplite on Twitter) was going further and checking if people he knew were on the list and passing out the sad news that some of us were not.I must admit to a much deeper sense of sadness that I did not get in. I was, perhaps unreasonably, surprised that I did not. Perhaps I had fallen into a mistaken belief, an Internet fostered legend perhaps, that applicants outside of the UK pretty much always got in. I hope that belief was mistaken because I'd hate to ponder the alternative.

What surprised me was the depth of my sadness as I learned with increasing certainty that I had not made the cut. I was reconciled to the fact when I received confirmation that I was on the waiting list, number 20, from Roger Smith later in the day. It is remarkable I felt quite so strongly when you consider the amount of effort one has to put out, even if you live near the Scottish Highlands, to take part in the TGO Challenge. I don't think I have formed the deep ties that many other Challengers have formed, seemingly quite quickly in some cases, so I don't have a real good reason why I felt the way I did. I suppose the community feeling the Challenge engenders is stronger than I already knew.

I will still create a route for 2011 and hope that within the next couple of months I manage to creep up the waiting list into the select lucky few that will take part in the Challenge next year. It's not as if I would have made any reservations for plane flights or hotels right now so having to wait is not going to be horrible at least if it only lasts until early next year.


-- Post From My iPad

#19: Fall Fun Day, 2010

Generally the first weekend of every October you can expect a nip in the air and the leaves of trees to be turning. Autumn is just getting started and the burst of colors before the quiet stark beauty of winter is just beginning to appear in the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is a fine time to be outdoors and a great reason to spend time with friends. With that in mind the Western Michigan chapter of the North Country Trail Association holds an annual event they call Fall Fun Day. A day is spent doing some gentle hikes in the area of White Cloud, Michigan based out of the Birch Grove Schoolhouse. After the hiking is done those that are up for it spend a few more happy hours enjoying fantastic food that has been prepared by diligent volunteers of the chapter.

An Autumn Paddle

On Monday Steve and I put together our Pakboat Puffins to do a paddle along the Huron River. We were going to paddle the stretch between Flook Dam on Portage Lake down to Delhi. I have paddled a this section a few times in the past but not in the past few years. It features a few rifles and perhaps one small rapids though even that rapid is tiny especially when water is low. Another nice feature of this section, and why I had paddled it before with other friends, is the canoe campsite about 40 minutes down stream. Steve and I had no plans on stopping there. We were just out for the day to paddle and, with luck, enjoy cider at Dexter Cider Mill. We were not quite sure how long the paddle would be - we figured between four and six hours depending on how lazy we were about things. We had plenty of time so being lazy was definitely an option.

It was a glorious Fall day with just a few clouds adding texture to the blue sky. In the sun it was pleasantly warm. We set out just before noon and made the quick portage across the dam to start our paddle. We did not think we would see anyone on the river after leaving the boat landing and we were right. But we made up for the lack of people encountered by spotting numerous turtles, 3 osprey, a heron, and naturally numerous fish in the very clear water. The trees were beginning to show their fall colors, various birds besides what Steve spied were out and about calling to each other, and once in a while you would hear a croak of a frog.

We would eventually see one kayaker and late in the day a couple canoeing a small portion of the river. One fisherman out late in the day perhaps hoping to catch something as the afternoon waned. All in all, we were pretty much alone.

Overall the paddle would take us a little more than four hours. We paused for an hour at the Dexter Cider Mill to have lunch. The cider mill was closed but the pizza and sub shop across the street was open and although it took a bit longer to get our food than we thought it would the hot subs made a welcome lunch. To add a bit of excitement to that break I found that I had to re-assemble my Puffin a bit. The Pakboat Puffin is a folding kayak. It's probably better to say assemble-able kayak. You have a skin, I don't recall what the material is called now but it is tough, and their are several metal struts and ribs. You insert the long struts and ribs to create the kayak, fill the air tubes - sponsons - to increase floatation and stability, put on the spray deck, and you have a kayak that is quite serviceable in rivers and sheltered bays (I'd not use it in big open water). Pakboat is known for their folding canoes that are often used to paddle wilderness rivers so they have a good reputation and the Puffin 12 foot kayak is a tough boat. Steve has a similar boat, the Puffin Sport. I had a rib pop out on me at the lunch break. It probably happened when I got out of the boat, pushing down on the boat as I stood up. It's easy enough to fix but I had to first remove the spray deck, deflate the sponsons, and then reset the rib. Once that was done my Puffin was good as new.

One other aspect worth noting about skin-on-frame boats is that when you bump a rock you really feel it. Sadly I bumped more than a few rocks along the way. I'll probably never be a big whitewater paddler as I can't read the water from a distance. But then when the water is low even a sighted fellow like Steve will bump a rock now and then too. I can't swear to it but I suspect I have a sore spot on my rear because of the few rocks I bumped.

We had a very good day. We spent a few good hours paddling on the water and the time spent setting up Steve's motorcycle so he could ride back to the truck and then return to fetch me and his boat wasn't all that long. I since have taken a look at a map of the area and it looks like we may have paddled around 12 miles, perhaps closer to 13 miles. I was surprised by this and it makes me feel better about the sore thighs and butt.

One last little note about the photos taken on this trip. I used my iPhone 4 to take the pictures. I had put the phone inside an Aquapac bag which has an optically clear section of plastic that you can shoot through. They call it "optically clear" but unless you manage to keep things clean you are going to have slightly blurrier images than you would shooting with a naked lens. However, having the phone in the waterproof bag is definitely worth the price of slightly less clear photos.

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