Invasive Plants

 

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I like to volunteer to maintain or improve the trails that I hike near my home in Traverse City. Sure, I always pick up trash when I hike, but I also actively search for opportunities to work on these trails. One time I even got to help put in a new trail in one of Leelanau Conservancy's properties. 

This week, I joined with volunteers to help remove the invasive garlic mustard plant from Clay Cliffs Natural Area. This is one of my favorite trails within the Leelanau Conservancy.

Since it had rained the night before, pulling up these invasive plants was pretty easy and we cleared large patches of it.

Here are some photos from the work day:

Go HERE to view a tutorial on how to identify and remove invasive garlic mustard plants.

Platte Plains Trails

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

There are around a hundred miles of hiking trails within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I've hiked many of them, and, lately, have set out to hike them all.

There is a collection of trails at the southernmost part of the park called the 'Platte Plains Trail' that I recently began to explore. I've hiked the lakeshore here many times using the Esch Road access, but this time I hiked the 4.6 mile loop around Otter Creek. 

This is a fairly flat hike and part of it is on a dirt road. The wild flowers were in bloom:

Trillium

Marsh Marigold

The park had just completed a prescribed burn along part of the trail. In all, the parks service plans to burn over 2,000 acres in this area. 

These burns (according to press release), "burn off available fuel to boost fire-dependent ecosystems and head off wildfires." 

It will be fascinating to watch this area regenerate over the next year or so.

There was wildlife to watch, and I spent some time on the foggy beach, too.

Leland

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

One of my favorite lakeshore towns is Leland, Michigan. There is a lot of history here connected to the Lake Michigan fishery. 

Many boats used to come into the Leland River filled with Lake Michigan fish. The historic collection of small buildings used to process the catch are preserved here in Fishtown.

The Carlson family still fishes these waters and smokes the fish here. 

The Joy (below) is one of their fishing boats and is a trap-net tug.

Rising lake levels have recently threatened Fishtown structures and work is underway to elevate the most vulnerable structures. Fishtown Preservation is the group doing this work.

Here are some more shots along the Leland River:

If you go, make sure you get a sandwich at the Village Cheese Shanty. Amazing!

Clay Cliffs

 Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I live in Traverse City, Michigan, and one of the reasons I moved here was for the many hiking trails in the region. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is nearby and I've hiked most of the trails and all of the shoreline there. 

Northwest of Traverse City is the Leelanau Peninsula. This gorgeous area has its own conservancy organization working to protect and preserve natural areas. One of my favorite trails on this peninsula is Clay Cliffs Natural Area located just north of Leland.

The trail has two overlooks, one of Lake Leelanau and one of Lake Michigan.

Here's a video from the Lake Michigan overlook. Great views of the Manitou Islands.

Here's the view of Lake Leelanau:

The wild flowers were in bloom today...

the trout lily amongst the trillium...

And more views out on Lake Michigan...