To the far point

2012 02 19  It is a hike to the far point at Bass River Rec Area, but not much of a trail anymore. What trail is left is overgrown and strewn with dead trees, branches, and trash brought here by flooding. To get there you have to cross a creek, not Bass River, usually there is a fair amount of water in this creek.  For years there have been some large logs to cross on.  Still it was scary, I think that I would die if I fell into this dark murky water.  Of course I wouldn't die, but it gives me the creeps.  This walk, round trip, is about 3.5 miles.

Map

Creek Crossing

Creek

    Bass River, way over there

Bass Lake

 Bass River meeting Grand River

 Overgrown trail

Tangled trail

These next four pictures are of a Honey Locust, Gleditsia triacanthos tree, I think. 

Thorn, this one is ~ 3 inches long.  Mike some how got poked by one, ow.

Legume (pod) of the Honey Locust, ~6 inches long

Honey Locust tree pictures above and below 

 Bass Lake, some places I have seen this lake called Max Lake.

 Bass Lake

 Bass Lake

 Woodpecker activity, no woodpecker

 Lichen on a tree (at least I think it is lichen)

 This looks like liverwort, but I don't know...

I just liked it.

Bass Lake on the right, Grand River on the left, this is a narrow piece of land, don't get off the trail here.

 Across the Grand River is Bur Oak Landing (Ottawa County open space land) you can see the boat launch.

That's a sycamore tree, and a willow tree.

 I think this might be a Cecropia cocoon.  Here is a site to find out more,

http://www.wormspit.com/cecropia.htm  

In the center of this picture you can see a car parked at the end of North Cedar Drive (about 9/10ths of a mile away).
 

Where Bass Lake and the Grand River meet, the sandy point is Riverside Park. 

 Sign on the point
 

 Now we are heading back, and we pass the sycamore and willow again.

Grand River
 

A very nice Sunday afternoon walk.

Where, oh, Where are we going?

January 10 2011

Marie observed that the temperature was 2 degrees on her way south to my house, so we decided to stay in the van until the temperature outside warmed up a bit.

Marie with her endless interests and hours of research had a few places to check out.  First we went to a road end, it was just the end of a road that didn't connect to another road but we were there.

Next we went south then east, not far to see, another road end.  Where are the plants, where are the wildflowers!  I like winter I really do, it's cool and fresh, quieter than summer, but sometimes I feel like I can't wait until spring and blooming wildflowers.

                                       

                                       Our route for the day

We went south to Holland, then northeast on Chicago Drive to find a part of some bridge Marie had read about on the http://www.historicbridges.org/  website.  We were going to find Chicago Drive Buttermilk Creek Bridge, and we did find it. 

Yep that's it, yawn.  After this we went on to seek out our original destination - the mouth of Bass River.

OK this might be another yawn, the mouth of the Bass River where it drains into the Grand River.  Everything was iced up so it is hard to see in this picture what is Bass River, or the Grand River, or just a field.  But it was a fun walk, we had to cross a rushing stream on logs.

Well this is where we crossed, doesn't look like much of a rushing creek. Hm.  But the sun was shining.

                               Bass River Rec Area Parking

                             Dried Queen Anne's  Lace 

Dried Teasel

           
Frozen Bass Lake (or Max Lake, I've always called it Bass Lake although Bass River doesn't flow directly into this "lake" which was dug when this area was mined for gravel). 


The last two photos are from the van as we drove through the countryside.

Maybe two more months, probably three months until we see wildflowers bloom here in Michigan.