Ross Coastal Plain Marsh and Farview Park

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh in Van Buren County, Michigan is where Marie and I were able to go for a long walk, through the woods, on the first day of October 2013.  I had my eye out for Autumn Coralroot, which is an orchid and blooms into autumn, I have seen here before.

Parking on 44th avenue it is about one and a half miles  to  Mud Lake which is the largest lake at Ross Coastal Plain Marsh.  There are some house foundations here from the previous owners.

Remnants of a house at Mud Lake.

 At first I thought this vine was Poison Ivy but a closer look showed it was Virginia Creeper.

Then we saw an odd tan pile of something on the ground.  Directly above this pile we noticed hundreds of aphids on the branch of an American Beech tree.  Closer inspection told us it was a big pile of  aphid secretion.  We saw these piles a few times always under American Beech trees.  I guess these aphids are even called Beech Woolly Aphid or Beech Blight Aphid. I wonder why I never noticed this before? 

  

 We did find some nice looking Beechdrops.

We walked more than 3 miles, got back to the car and drove north.  In Allegan County, Laketown Township, we visited Farview Nature Park.  Another couple miles to walk, bringing our walk total to ~five miles for the day.

 Farview Nature Park

 That was it for this adventure, another fun time.

Hidden natural springs in Michigan

Recently my brother Chuck showed us some hidden springs he found north of Ludington, Michigan.  It was a long day but fun, and beautiful weather. 

It was difficult to capture this wondrous discovery in a photo, it just looks like mud.  There was water "springing" out of the side of this ravine in several places!

Our group consisted of three sisters, one brother, and one brother-in-law, we drove north for about an hour, then west for 20 minutes, followed a two-track, then another two-track, then walked down from a field through a wooded hillside into a beautiful ravine.

Cool place, but since this is "Chuck's Place" I won't give away the exact location.  I'm not sure I could actually find it again on my own anyway.
We saw all sorts of interesting things, fungi, liverwort, Beechdrops, trees, water...

  

 

  

Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) Broomrape family, with a bumble bee.





This plant is parasitic on beech trees ("Epifagus" translates to "upon the beech").  Note the lack of leaves. The dried stems of beechdrops can often be found through the winter.

This was a fun place and I'd like to visit again someday, maybe in the spring.

Our group also visited Nordhouse Lake which is in the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area, a 3,450 acre listed

wilderness area within the Manistee National Forest. It is located north of Ludington Michigan and is best known for its 4 miles of undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline.

 Nordhouse Lake

 Buttonbush





We walked all the way around Nordhouse Lake.  We also went out to lunch and visited some of Chuck's property near here.  A fun day.