Fall is for leaf-peeping, cider sipping, wine tasting, romantic getaways, whimsical road trips, serendipity, and renewal. It’s also for mushroom peeping! In northern Michigan, spring is the more famous fungi season, thanks to morels. But fall is the grand finale when the forest floor pulls out all…
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A couple of weeks ago, I was chilling at a favorite watering hole when I met a nice young lady, a visitor who was up here to hike. We started discussing the best trails. And she complained, “You know, they’re all too short. Like, a couple of miles. Where are the long ones?” I realized she had a good…
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Today I found my first morel mushrooms of the year. A friend had texted me earlier in the day saying she’d found some. Had she not texted me, I wouldn’t have been on high alert during my hike, and I might’ve missed them. They were exactly where they should’ve been: in a mossy patch on the side of a…
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You’ve heard of skiing. You’ve heard of snowshoeing. But have you heard of…yaktracking? We’re familiar with Yaktrax — those criss-crossing coils that fit over our boots and protect us from slipping on ice. But I’d like to make the case that they’re more than just a safety accessory: they’re a…
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Here’s the question. If you’re blessed to be working from home these days, how do you get out of the house and go on a daily hike — especially this time of year, when the days are so short? There are two possible answers. You can go on an early morning hike, before work. Or…you can strap on a…
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The goldenrod is browning. Queen Anne’s lace is closing up shop. The milkweed pods are bursting. Bloodroot — one of the earliest and loveliest spring wildflowers, the heart-shaped leaves of which stand tall through summer heat and storms — is starting to collapse under its own weight. Fall is…
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Last April, in a post about early spring, I wrote, “Fact is, spring will always find you. There is no repressing spring, no stopping it. It is a promise that is always kept. It is a wish that always comes true. How many things in life are like that?” What a different April we found ourselves in this…
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To live on the northern shores of Lake Michigan is to frequently confront the ancient past — whether in the form of Petoskey stones, or the glacial topography of dunes, moraines, erratic boulders, and kettle bogs. As a kid, I vacationed with my family on the Atlantic, where life is teeming…
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The trick to living up north, I used to think, was not hating the long winter. You didn’t have to like it. But if you didn’t actively hate it, the other three seasons (which are so freakin’ gorgeous) completely justified the hard months. But thanks to my growing love of snowshoeing, my chilly…
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This was supposed to be a different post. I was all pumped up for a 10-mile hike on the wonderful Otter Creek / Platte Plains Trail, by Esch Beach. I’d been there when the early spring wildflowers were blooming, and this was going to be my autumnal bookend. But when I got there, my heart sank. The…
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