Kensington Metropark

When we visit my mother Mary and her husband Keith in the Detroit area, they always regale us with an endless list of attractions, far more than we could ever see in one visit.  It can be overwhelming, trying to decide between so many exciting choices!  However, this time I knew I wanted to visit Kensington Metropark, because of the opportunity to possibly see a sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis).  Mary has often sent me pictures of these striking birds, and I have written about them for work, but never had the chance to see one myself.  Mary and Keith explained that they don't see the cranes on every visit: Kensington is a park, not a zoo, and the sandhill cranes are wild animals.  But it was a risk I was willing to take, as it sounded like a lovely place to hike regardless.

Lake St. Clair Metropark

Since Frankie was born, my mother Mary has visited us in Syracuse every year around this time, sometimes carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating with us at Halloween.  Unfortunately, she had to have knee replacement surgery six weeks ago.  The surgery went well, and she is recovering nicely, already experiencing less pain than she did before the surgery, but it is a slow process.  Since she is still actively undergoing physical therapy and cannot drive yet, her annual fall visit was off the table this year.  However, Frankie's school was closed Thursday and Friday, so I bought tickets for the two of us to fly out to Detroit for a long weekend.  This way we wouldn't have to miss out on seeing Mary, and would get to see Keith, too.  Plus, we haven't visited Detroit in a few years and there is a whole lot to do here.  Thursday, we stopped at the Edsel Ford House on the way back from the airport, and hiked the short loop on Bird Island, and yesterday we went to the Detroit Zoo, where many animals were absent due to the cold, but we had notable encounters with an otter and a polar bear. 

Pinery Provincial Park: Pine Trail

The hiking trails at Pinery Provincial Park are generally quite short, but are very rewarding.  Mary and Keith have hiked all the trails at the Pinery, many times over, but Frankie and I still have some exploring to do.  Each time we visit, we hike a different combination of new trails and old favorites.  This year we hiked the Heritage Trail, the Cedar Trail, and the Pine Trail.  We have hiked the Heritage Trail twice, but it is definitely a favorite, and we didn't go there last year, so re-visiting it was a treat.  Although it was a bit sad for all of us that Mary's bum knee prevented her from completing the full circuit; she sent Frankie and I on ahead.  We have hiked the Cedar Trail only once before, and chose it again because we could take the park's trail wheelchair down it, enabling us all to stick together.  The Pine Trail was our "new trail" for this trip.

Canoeing: the Old Ausable Channel

Frankie and I returned to the Pinery Provincial Park to camp with Mary and Keith for our fourth consecutive Memorial Day weekend.  The park is located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario, and it is a really special place.  Mary and Keith always make reservations months in advance, and secure a fantastic camp site with a private path to the beach.  The facilities are top notch, and the oak savannas are an unusual ecosystem that provide habitat for plants not commonly found in the northern hardwood and succesional communities near my home.  I truly treasure our time here.  This year was a little different because Mary is suffering grievous knee pain.  X-rays have showed that both knees are bone-on-bone, and recent steroid shots didn't seem to help much.  I suggested canoeing or kayaking as a way to get outside together without Mary having to be on her feet the entire time.

Searching for Bobolinks at Three Rivers

My Dad's birthday was this past week, on a work/school day, and we didn't get together then; he had dinner plans with extended family.  I suggested we get together for a hike today and go look for the bobolinks at Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area.  Bobolinks are migratory birds that return to the area this time of year.  They nest in grasslands and the big open fields east of Sixty Road are a good place to find them.  Bobolinks are funny little birds, the way they perch on plants bobbing in the wind.  Bruce and Debbie always enjoyed birding together, and looking for bobolinks on his birthday has long been a fun way to mark the season.  I haven't accompanied them/him on such a mission since Frankie was born, and we weren't sure how much luck we'd have today... would two noisy little boys and a rambunctious dog keep the bobolinks away?

New Year's Day at Woodchuck Hill

Another cold day, colder even than our Bog Trail hike the other day.  Too cold for Erin, Alden, and Keith, but Mary and I both wanted to get out, and Frankie always has energy to burn.  My mom and I were waffling about whether to drive somewhere or just walk in the neighborhood.  This issue resolved itself tidily when Erwin spoke up and volunteered to drive us to Woodchuck Hill Preserve.  Like the rest of us, he had cabin fever and wanted to get outside.  Plus, we'd gone to Woodchuck Hill a few weeks ago with Frankie, and found an interesting crossing: a passage.  We started exploring the other side of the drainage, but had to turn back as we approached White Lake.  Erwin and I were both very curious about what lay beyond our previous turnaround point, and were eager to explore further. 

Back to the Bog

Since my mom moved to Michigan, she and her husband Keith visit after Christmas and we celebrate the holidays together at New Years.  Between numerous other previous holiday engagements, Mary and Keith's long drive, and a long stretch of unusually cold weather, everyone had been cooped up inside way to much.  We were all eager to get outside.  But it is still very cold, and it's hard to generate heat moving at a toddler's rate, especially when said toddler is necessarily thickly bundled.  We decided to try a short trail with proximal warming opportunities.  Where else?  The Bog Trail, of course.  It always delivers.

Kayaking: Cassique Boathouse to Captain Sam's Inlet

Every year, we travel to Kiawah Island, South Carolina to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with Erwin's mom, Ellen.  Kiawah is known for its golf and tennis facilities, which are apparently top notch, but are of little interest to me personally.  There is an extensive network of paved bike trails, which we make good use of, but these trails are exclusively along roadsides and through residential neighborhoods.  It is also great fun to bike at the beach.  Except at the highest of tides, there is wet sand firm enough to ride on, right next to the crashing waves and sandpipers.  However, the beach is lined with mansions as far as the eye can see, along with condos and a big fancy hotel.  The island is completely over-developed; there are virtually no opportunities to get out in nature.  There are zero hiking trails in the area, not on Kiawah or anywhere else remotely close by. 

Rainy Day Walk at The Quarry

Although there is no official public access, the abandoned Skytop Quarry is a popular spot for outdoor recreationalists, particularly mountain bikers and hikers.  There is a warren-like maze of single track trails through the rocky woods fringing the quarry, and old roads going though the quarry proper.  There are some cliffs and steep spots that are apparently dangerous to the careless, and people occasionally do manage to get themselves hurt here, causing the owners to periodically crack down and issue trespassing tickets.  We have been going here for more than two decades and have never had problems.  However, one group of friends was ticketed a number of years ago.  I tend to avoid the main entrance from Skytop Road for that reason.

Three Generations on the Bog Trail

Frankie was in the midst of one of his epic breakfasts, where he grazes and nibbles intermittently, but mainly focuses on reading drifts of Highlights and Ranger Rick, when I noticed a text notification.  I had a message from Erin that she was heading to Beaver Lake and had also invited our Dad, Bruce.  Apparently Alden was sad that we weren't coming.  I casually mentioned this to Frankie, and he wanted to leave -- immediately.  I told Erin we might come and find them, but not to wait for us, as we were still in pajamas and have a much longer drive.  It was obvious where they would go.  Alden is two and I remember those days: the Bog Trail is the only trail that matters. 

Pinery Provincial Park: the Cedar Trail

At 4.0 kilometers (2.5 miles), the Cedar Trail is the longest hiking trail at the Pinery, an interesting loop with spurs to both Lake Huron and the Old Ausable Channel.  It starts at the parking lot for the Visitor's Center, and heads west through oak savanna interspersed with red cedar.  After a short distance, the trail splits and we turned right, and then turned right again at the next intersection, as well, to take the spur trail toward the lake.  The main loop is wide and gravel-surfaced to provide accessibility, while the spur to the lake is narrower with slightly more topography, including a long staircase climbing over an old forested dune.  The trail crosses over a park road before traversing more boardwalks over the dunes that lead to a viewing platform with benches and stairs down to the beach.

Pinery Provincial Park: the Riverside & Wilderness Trails

 
Frankie and I spent Memorial Day weekend at the Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario.  We met Mary and Keith for a long weekend of camping, hiking, and playing in the sand along the shores of Lake Huron.  Mary and Keith have been coming here for many years, often staying a week or more.  This is the third year in a row Frankie and I have joined the fun and it's starting to feel like a tradition, which is just a terrific feeling.  Yay for outdoor adventure traditions!

Clark Reservation for the Win

My Mom, Mary, has been visiting from Michigan the last few days, staying first at Erin's house, then here.  On Friday morning, after dropping Frankie off at school, I drove out to Beaver Lake and caught up with Mary, Erin, and Alden on the Deep Woods Trail.  Yesterday, we had a picnic in the cold wind at Onondaga Lake Park, then the boys played on the playground eternally and we visited the memorial bench for my late grandparents.  Erin and Alden aren't available Sunday mornings, so we made plans to meet up this afternoon to hang out after Alden's nap and have dinner together.  Then Mary, Frankie, and I packed lunches and headed out for a short hike at Clark Reservation.

Woodchuck Hill Preserve

While driving home from our hike at Cazenovia Gorge yesterday, we passed a sign for Woodchuck Hill Preserve, which I've driven by many times but never visited.  I asked my Mom about it, and she'd never been either.  However, she reminisced fondly about long ago hikes at nearby White Lake, which is on private land and hasn't had public access within my memory.  Last night I looked Woodchuck Hill Preserve up online, and found a trail map.  I remembered that I'd done this research before, but never ended up actually going because the trail system is so limited.  The preserve is small; the longest trail is just 0.8 miles.  However, for my Mom with her bad hip, it looked pretty ideal.  She was particularly intrigued by the blue trail, which is illustrated as an extremely short spur running to the western property line.  It is marked on the map as a hiking trail, and appears to head directly in the direction of White Lake.  So we decided to go and check it out today.

North Country Trail: Cazenovia Gorge

Mary and Keith are visiting over the long weekend for our annual late-Christmas/New-Year celebration.  Well, hiking is one of our favorite ways to spend time together (of course).  Unfortunately, Mary's osteoarthritis has worsened, and she is in the midst of scheduling hip replacement surgery.  She is still determined to get out for daily walks, but needs to be mindful of terrain and distance due to the pain. 

Post-Halloween Hike at Clark Reservation

My mother Mary has been visiting.  She stayed with my sister a few nights on this trip, so that she could spend some quality time with my adorable nephew.  Frankie loves visits from Grammy, so wasn't necessarily excited to share her, but we arranged it so she would be here with us for the Halloween excitement, and could stay with Frankie while Erwin and I attended a parent-teacher conference at his school.  Pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating are very important to my five-, almost six-year old.  We didn't get in as much hiking as we sometimes do, but we did have fun!

Great Bear in October

My mother and her husband are in town briefly, on their way back from their annual fall tour of New England, visiting family in Maine and friends in New Hampshire.  It is a long drive from Maine to Michigan, so they stopped here in Central New York for two nights, giving us two dinners and one full day together.  The weather was autumnal perfection, so after some lazing about this morning, with Frankie reading books aloud and showing off his school work, we headed out for a hike.  Alden was napping, so Mary suggested Great Bear, in hopes Erin could come join us when Alden woke up. 

Pinery Provincial Park: Carolinian Trail

I fretted all week watching the weather forecast.  I desperately wanted to join my mother Mary and her husband Keith again on their annual Memorial Day camping trip to the Pinery -- Frankie and I met them there last year and had so much fun!  I was worried though, because storms were forecast for the entire weekend.  I knew we'd be OK if it rained a bit while we were there, but was concerned about getting the tent set up in the rain... it just seems like everything would be soaked right from the beginning.  As the weekend approached, storms were still forecast every day, but it seemed like they would be hit-or-miss, the kind of big storm that can pop up in the afternoon on hot muggy days.  And it was HOT!!  Ultimately, I decided to risk it, and I'm so glad we went.

Berm Trail North, Three Rivers

Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area is one of the few places close enough to Erin's house that a hike can be sandwiched between Alden's morning and afternoon naps.  It is also a place my Mom used to frequent when she lived here, making it a good choice for another family hike on this visit.  We decided to make another Berm Loop, following the banks of the same drainage ditch we hiked last month, only this time going north of Potter Road instead of south.  Once again, we parked at the gate on Potter Road and headed east, but then in short order took the first left onto a dirt road heading northwest.  This is a service road that passes a number of sunken bunker-like structures.  We crossed over another service road about a half mile from the car.

Great Bear in April

As I've mentioned before, my mom lives in Michigan.  Mary is not at all fond of driving in the snow, so aside from an annual holiday pilgrimage when her husband Keith gets stuck with the driving duties, she doesn't visit much in the winter.  Despite the storm earlier this month, snow never lasts long around here in April, so she planned a trip back east.  The weather forecast for the weekend was perfect, so of course we all wanted to hike.  As the guest of honor, I thought Mary should get to select the destination (from the suite of options nearest Erin's house).  However, Frankie overheard me suggesting she choose, and insisted on Great Bear.  Luckily, Mary hadn't been there in a long time and was on board.  Win-win.