Friday, May 21, 2021

Kayaking, biking, hiking, and wildflowers in Ottawa County Michigan


Kayaking on Stearns Bayou May 14 2021



We often walk at Stearns Creek Park, an Ottawa County park in Robinson Township.   In the picture below you can see one of the beaver houses along this area.  The land behind the beaver house is part of Stearns Creek Park.
We put the kayaks in at the Odawa/Battle boat launch, see start on the map.  We paddled until we were starting to get stuck on posts/trees, something just under the water.  It was time to head back anyway.  It was a beautiful calm evening.  I’m glad we went.




May 17,  I was lucky to be able to ride bikes with my sister, Sugar.  I started from North Cedar Drive at the M 231 trailhead.  I pedaled north over the bridge and Grand River, Spoonville Trail, then met her at the new trailhead off 120th Ave just south of Leonard Road.




Grand River from M 231 bridge.

      M 231 bike path on bridge also called Spoonville Trail.

     New bike trail going around Terra Verde Golf Course



We rode on this new section and it was beautiful.  We counted 5 bridges along here.
We continued over I 96 into Nunica.
I 96 at Nunica Exit

For now the paved bike trail ends near the Nunica post office, it will continue east.  And from Nunica the paved trail goes west into Spring Lake.   Sugar and I have biked that part too, it is called North Bank Trail.

That same evening as the bike ride, Mike and I walked at Crockery Creek Natural Area. We kayaked this Creek a few weeks ago.




Flowering Dogwood 
The Wild Geranium were going wild!

A beautiful Herb Robert.

Crockery Creek Natural Area - Ottawa County Michigan 

I made this post almost completely on my iPad and all the photos are from my phone.  Ugh technology makes my head spin!  But I did it.
Thanks for stopping by. 




8 comments:

  1. Thanks Marie. One thing missing in this post is you! Sugar is a fun sister too.
    πŸ™‚

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  2. I've always thought that you people in Michigan do parks better than anyone and you've proven it again. What beautiful wilderness.
    Even your bike paths are over the top! Here we're lucky if we have a white line designating a bike path.
    My favorites of course were your beautiful flowers. I didn't know you had native dogwoods there. We used to but they've pretty much died off I think.
    Thanks for showing such beauty!
    (You're much better with technology than I am, too.)

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  3. Thanks Allen
    So many parks, and luckily I am able to visit one almost ever day. There is a network of paved bike paths along many roads, and they continue to add more. There are lots of Flowering Dogwood here, and they have been loaded with flowers this year. As kids, my siblings and I would play in the woods and we had names for different places. One place was Sawdust Circle and I think there were Flowering Dogwood at Sawdust Circle. Yesterday we walked at Stearns Creek Park and I saw a Pink Lady’s Slipper blooming. It was transplanted last year before they cut down hundreds of Red Pine. Also in the disturbed areas there, we found batches of Blue Toadflax, it was beautiful.
    Tonight we walked at Conner Bayou and saw many Columbine blooming, Mayapples, Wild Geranium, and so many Bladdernut blooming.
    It was a hot 88 degrees and has been mostly dry, so the plants are looking thirsty.
    πŸ™‚

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  4. Nice post! Haven’t visited here in a long time, maybe over a year! Lots to catch up on!

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  5. Great job! Looks like some fun and interesting trips! πŸ˜€πŸ‘πŸ»πŸŒ²☘️🌼🌸

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  6. AM I have a draft made of the fun from last summer but haven’t fine tuned it yet. Higgins Lake trip, and all the other fun things we did last summer. Now it is almost summer again!

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