Jeptha Lake Fen, Paw Paw Prairie Fen

June 2013 Jeptha Lake Fen east of Breedsville in Van Buren County, Michigan

 Jeptha Lake Fen
In June my sister, Marie, took me on an extra adventure for my birthday.  One of the places we visited was Jeptha Lake Fen in Columbia Township, Van Buren County, Michigan. (49 acres).

On a side note:
My sister, Sugar, sent me a birthday card.  The same birthday card she sent 35 years ago.  When she sent it 35 years ago, she forgot to sign it and on the envelope she wrote "To My Sister".  Well, of course, the next year I sent it to her for her birthday since it had no name on it.  That's how it started and has gone on for 35 years now.

Now back to the adventure at Jeptha Lake Fen...
"Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy acquired this preserve in an effort to protect the high quality wetlands found along the shores of Upper and Lower Jeptha Lakes.  The high alkalinity and low nutrients of the spring fed fens support showy and unusual wildflowers such as pitcher plants and marsh blazing stars.  A boardwalk allows visitors close-up views of this wetland system preventing wet feet while protecting the fragile soils of the fen. In addition to fens, this preserve has a narrow strip of rich wet forest and large old fields with seasonal pools that are home to a variety of wildlife, including some unusual grassland birds such as bobolinks and savanna sparrows.  In all, 148 species of wildflowers, 97 species of birds, 26 species of butterflies, eight species of frogs, and all sorts of other wildlife and plants have been found at Jeptha Lake Fen."

Here is what we saw...

                          

Jeptha Lake

We also made a visit to Paw Paw Prairie Fen Preserve east of Lawton, Van Buren  County, Michigan.

Also we stopped in the middle of a four county convergence! 



Portal View looking east - driving on
County Line Road -Z Avenue.



Wow!  There it is - four counties coming together at one point.
The four counties- clockwise starting at the left -
St Joseph, Cass, Van Buren, Kalamazoo. 
Marie was especially excited about this.
A fun day.

Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve

Mud Lake at Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve

We explored Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve two weeks in a row. Parking at the south lot on September 26, we traipsed for 5 hours.  First down the main trail then to what we call Meadow Beauty Corner, called that since we found Meadow Beauty there in 2010.

                 Meadow Beauty Corner

 We found a special plant in this area, it's called Coastal Plain Flat-topped Goldenrod. I was on the look out for Autumn Coralroot,  a wild orchid.  We found it here in 2010 but on the last day of August, so I wasn't sure it would be around.  It was! 

                Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza)

We saw a frog and a toad. A caterpillar fell out of the trees near Marie, I haven't ID'ed it yet.

                         Puff Balls. 

We have been seeing these tiny pinwheel mushrooms with a white parachute collared cap, and a dark wiry stem, growing on fallen oak leaves.  I think it might be Marasmius capillaris.

Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana ) with Cobweb spider, maybe Theridion frondeum.

We followed the trail west toward the nearby highway U.S.196/31 here we found some clay tiles so we now refer to this spot as "clay tiles corner" and here the trail goes north but we, like the crazies we are, turned south to follow a deer trail. 
Up and down we went on the non path, it wasn't easy but we were exploring new territory.  Finally we came to a point where we had a creek on our left and a highway wire fence on our right.  Oh Oh!  We didn't want to go back the way we came, no fun, and I wasn't going near the highway.  Then it got worse the creek crossed in front of us to go toward (and under?) the highway. 

We found a narrowing in the creek and a bit of a sandy spot, we had our boots on so it was just a few steps through the stream and up the bank on the other side.  Whew.
Now we were close to the road we started on (44th  Avenue), we had to go a half mile east and some of that was through the "Ancient sand dunes from the shores of preglacial Lake Nipissing".

The next week (October 3rd) went to Ross and walked ~5 miles, we were out there almost 5 hours.  We headed north on the main trail then west to Meadow Beauty Corner, we found lots of branches and some trees across the trail, it had been quite windy this past week.  And most of the pretty colored leaves were gone at Meadow Beauty Corner.

Both weeks we found the orchid, Nodding Ladies' Tresses.  The first two photos are from September 26th.  The third photo is the same plant one week later.

Nodding Ladies' Tresses September 26

Nodding Ladies' Tresses on October 3

This time we kept to the trail and went north at clay tiles corner, we walked all the way past Mud Lake and to the east, to 38th Avenue. 

Along our hike we found  Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blooming!

There is another entrance to Ross here but it is much less traveled.  In 2009 we came to this 38th Ave. road end and under the tall grass found a wooden sign for Ross, now three years later the sign was up against a tree.

Now we turned back to head west to Mud Lake, here you can find the old partial foundation from the Ross family home.   There is also a map sign of the trails here. 

We sat in this scenic place and had a snack while watching a Mourning Cloak fluff its wings.  After skirting the lake a bit we went back on the main trail (one and a half miles) back to the car.  Total hike according to my pedometer 4.16 miles!  According to Bing maps 5 miles, I think it was definitely, at least, 5 miles!  A beautiful day!

   Turkeys hogging the road.

First Blooming Marsh Marigold

April 4 2011 We have crossed from Allegan County into VanBuren County on highway US-31/I-196 many times and noticed a boardwalk down below the bridge over the Black River.  We checked it out and found the boardwalk to be part of the Kal-Haven (Kalamazoo to South Haven) Rail to Trail.  So this week we went to South Haven, parked off North Bailey Avenue in a parking lot ( do they charge a fee here in the summer?) and walked east on the trail.

We walked a total of 3 miles all the way to 71.5 Street 

and Baseline Road then back.  In the first mile the trail follows along the Black River,    

                  goes under Blue Star Memorial Highway,

                            then under U.S.196/31

                       to a covered pedestrian bridge.

Why was I wearing my mud boots, no mud, mostly pavement and hard packed trail material to walk on.  It was a good walk, cloudy and gray but no rain.  Cool and windy too.
After this we drove through a couple city parks, then east ~ 10 miles to Grand Junction (so named because it is located at the junction of two railroad lines) where along the Kal-Haven Trail there is a camelback bridge.  There is a cemetery on 53rd Street, we parked here and it was a mere stretch of the legs to the bridge. 

         The camelback bridge was unremarkable really.
What is not right about the sign in the picture below?

Back in the car driving north and east we came to three small bridges, they were old, no plaque with a date. The first one we came to was on 54th Street between 102nd Avenue and 103rd Avenue crossing over Barber Creek. 

We are going to check out 133rd Avenue looking for blooming wildflowers.  Marie spotted the yellow first, Marsh Marigold in bloom!  We jump out of the car, walked into the swamp (ah that mud feels good beneath my boots) and we enjoyed the somewhat bedraggled flowers.

                                           Marsh Marigolds

Marie also found some Hepatica blooming but it too was rather pathetic.  It is a slow Spring and that's OK.

River Bluff Park was on our way so we popped in there, nothing but the garden flower Snow Drops blooming.  Lots of gray and brown, trees, leaves, bridges, and sky.  Oh wait just then we got a bit of sunshine. 

That was our day and, here it comes...It was FUN!