Kendall Lake Trail

Today was a travel day, marked on the calendar for driving between Mary and Keith's house in Michigan to the next stop on our midwest roadtrip: Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  Keith had to work today, but Mary was available, so we dedicated our morning and early afternoon to spending time together.  The only thing driving our departure schedule was my desire to arrive at the Boston Mills Visitor's Center before they closed, so Frankie could pick up his Junior Ranger booklet.  This was important because we had limited time in the park, and we needed to be able to plan around any required ranger programs or specific sites he'd need to visit.  We also needed to pick up some groceries and check into the AirBnb I'd reserved in the little town of Peninsula, right in the center of the park.  So obviously we didn't have time for a big hike, but little hikes are good, too.  

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.

Castle Rock

Friends reached out a while back asking if we wanted to take over their campground reservations at Forked Lake over the long holiday weekend; they had reservations at two different campgrounds and could only be in one place.  I was immediately sold, and lobbied to get Erwin on board.  He was reluctant at first, as we'd had bad experiences with black flies camping in the High Peaks this time of year, but our friends assured us that at Forked Lake's lower elevation, the black flies are pretty much gone by this time.  Frankie was all in, of course, and eventually, Erwin came around, too.  Woo-hoo!  I was absolutely thrilled to be exploring a new part of the Adirondacks, to go canoeing and hiking and camping.  [And our friends were 100% correct in their assessment of the bugs having died out.  I got fewer bites up north than I would have at home.]

Azure Mountain

Ever since climbing Hadley a few weeks back, Frankie has been begging for another fire tower hike, asking to go even on days when common sense would indicate it was not very likely (e.g., on days I had to work).  Yesterday we went for a hike with Erin and Alden, taking them to Hemlock Glen and the USGS benchmark on Morgan Hill, a longer training hike for Alden in preparation for the High Peaks later this summer.  When we got home, Erwin had dinner waiting.  Immediately after eating, Frankie dashed out for some basketball with his neighborhood pals, but he didn't wait for me to call him in... he turned up at a reasonable time, saying he wanted to get to bed early so we could hike a fire tower today. Then he proceeded to set the alarm on his watch to make sure we were up in time for a long drive.

FLT: Shapley Road to Searles Hill Road

 

 

With school year almost over, my solo hike opportunities will soon be on hold for the summer, and I want to be mindful to make the most of my last few chances until September.  I determined that if I was aggressive with pace, I had just two more hikes eastbound on the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) before reaching the village of Bainbridge.  That seemed like a good goal for myself, so today I started off on Shapley Hill Road where I'd turned around on my last hike.  There is a small parking lot and kiosk here associated with Wiley Brook State Forest, which made it very convenient.

 

FLT: Brooksbank Road to Shapley Road

I had planned on resuming my eastbound exploration on the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) where I left off last time on Basswood Road, but when I arrived, I wasn't crazy about the narrow width of the available roadside parking.  Since the trail follows the road east from here, I decided to keep driving to see if I could find a safer parking spot.  As a rolled along, the notion of hiking the roadwalk in the boiling sun seemed less and less appealing.  There were more houses and more terrain than I expected; it would feel like an extra hot and sweaty neighborhood walk.  So I kept driving.  When I got to the spot on Brooksbank Road where the FLT leaves the road and enters the forest, the parking was manageable so I stopped here -- and then I entered the forest.  Ahhh!  I will have come back for that roadwalk during hunting season.  Today was a day for shade.

Hadley Mountain

Frankie has been begging to hike another fire tower, but I was unsure whether he would enjoy black fly season in the Adirondacks.  Things can get pretty dire up there and trip reports suggested thick swarms had been descending.  However, the weather seemed favorable.  We had a cold snap, and cold temperatures can set the bugs back markedly.  Knowing it would be even colder up there, I decided it was worth the trip up.  And the gamble paid off: we saw not one biting insect on the entire hike.