Sandy Edges

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

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

A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach  [A Heartland Indie Bestseller]

A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk   [Winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award] 

A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure  [Long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize]

 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I have walked thousands of miles on sandy shoreline. One of the perks of walking on sand is that you can often see who was there before you.

Here are some of my favorite shots of tracks along the sandy edge.

Gull gathering

Deer

Black bear

Crayfish

Small bird

Racoon meeting

Horse!

And a beach walker

Critters in the Upper Peninsula

The Upper Peninsula is a wild place and many creatures make their home in this 

often harsh wilderness.

Here are a few I captured with my camera.

Large toad freezes, thinking: "You can't see me when I hold still."

The setting sun lit up this bunny's ears

These stable flies were a nuisance, biting any exposed flesh 

A great blue heron flies along the lakeshore

Bald eagle takes flight

Very large beetle

This beetle had special grippers on its front legs and it emitted a strong-smelling secretion in protest of being held

Common mergansers take flight

Track of a small cat...bobcat?

Slugs were plentiful and often raced down the trees

Up close slug

Chipmunks ruled the lakeshore, scurrying everywhere

I also saw scat from larger predators (coyote and bear) and heard deer crashing around at night.

Tracks in the Sand

There were all sorts of tracks in the sand where I left the prints of my boots. Often, I stopped to take photos as evidence of who had been walking the shoreline ahead of me.

There were scads of deer tracks (below) and at least one bear prowling the shoreline (above).















This track puzzled me for awhile until I saw a crayfish walking the sand leaving these marks behind.





An occasional hoof print where people had ridden in the surf and sand.















There were raccoon tracks, especially near streams.

























And, of course, many types of birds left their marks as they wandered the shore.