Beavers Make a Dam Mess

A few weeks ago while on an overnight hike my brother and I stopped to admire the handiwork of some furry little engineers.

While we were initially amazed at the pond that the beavers had created we were more than a little bummed when we discovered that their calculations were just a little off in determining how much area they would flood with their project.

The next section of the North Country Trail was flooded as a result of their dam. What a mess. In order to keep our shoes dry for the rest of hte hike we had to "ford the river" barefooted. 

After drying our feet we stopped to check out the area below the dam that continued to flow. To our surprise there were fish making their way up to spawn. 

Once their business is done the fish expire and give themselves over to help sustain other creatures of the forest. It is such a beautiful little drama.

More on the remainder of our hike later.

-j

 

Animal Engineering

I know, I know, NO NEW UPDATES! What's up with that hey?

Super busy catching up with the first week back at school. But the updates are coming, I promise. Just trying to finish up a piece for Grand Traverse Mountain Bike, and I have a horrible case of writer's block.

In regards to this picture. On our Christmas Eve Hike Chels and I found this cool little natural bridge that various critters were using. What was most interesting was that all of the tracks at the "base" of the bridge were very similar to the curvature that planners put into on/ off-ramps. More proof that nature has it right most of the time.

Time to keep plugging away at the school thing. Catching up this weekend. Quite a bit of new gear over the holidays, plus new stories and maybe even a new hobby or tow.

-J

Friday Photo

My brother, hard at work getting our tinder bundle ready.

We cooked a beautiful pot of ramen on this.

-J

A Float with my Frater

A lot of outdoorsy people are constantly asked by family and friends why they go out and do the things that they do; why subject yourself to getting blisters, scrapes, bug bites? Why eat salty freeze-dried pouches when you could just hit up McDonald's? In essence, why deprive yourself and risk injury by doing things in the outdoors? The answer: I have no clue, but I do. However I am lucky enough to have a brother who is not one of these people, Zach.

(photo by Jeannette Ware)

He understands the primal feeling of starting a fire without matches, and the pride in making do with the materials that you have. That is why we had such a great trip this past week down the Big Manistee River.

We put in at Tippy Dam and snaked out way through the combat fishermen who were eagerly casting within 15 feet of one another. After a few bends we were rid of the mass of people and only ran into the occasional boat, or group of guys on the shore.

When I made this trip the Monday before, I did so alone, and in doing so I was very cautious in my actions. I did not search the log jams for hidden treasures or spend too much time out of my kayak. That trip was mostly a personal time trial and endurance run.

Zach happily dodges the combat fishermen. (photo by Jeannette Ware)

(photo by Jeannette Ware)

However when there are two people you can take more liberties than when you are alone. Zach and I shot up into the jams searching for whatever treasure we could find; bottles, lures and bobbers mostly. Doing such adds considerable time on to the run but what it adds in time, it multiplies in enjoyment. Between the two of us we found about 20 bobbers, and 15 crank-baits, not a bad day at all!

A bit of treasure from one plentiful jam.

We were lucky enough to have had a large sampling of wildlife on our trip. Among them were many ducks, geese actually quite a few trout swimming in the shallows. We also saw 6 or 7 muskrats both on shore and swimming in the water, funny little creatures and quite fearless too, Zach had one swimming directly towards him while he worked on a lure stuck in a jam. The coolest animal sighting of the day personally was a weasel, or maybe it was mink, either way we saw it atop a log on a bank. Very cautious little bugger.

Look at this little fellow who was searching for some minnows.

Zach scans the log jam to determine if it will be fruitful.

When it was time to fix lunch we opted for some Chicken Ramen and canned beans. We decided to start a small blaze to boil the ramen water sans lighter/ matches. 

It started with small pit with wood shavings as kindling:

Then we made a Les Stroud inspired tinder bundle and struck at it with out flint like to sorcerers until we saw a faint wisp of smoke. Zach quickly grabbed the bundle and coaxed a flame:

Welcome to Yonkers' riverside cantina; you want beans or soup?

Chef Zach stirs the river-water based Ramen. MMMMmmmmm

With out stomachs full of the kind of meal that as Zach put it you take a nap after, we continued to travel with the current.

Lucky for us we had favorable conditions. Great day of paddlin'!

Checkout that knife: ready at all times.

Sweet reflection caught while checking out one of the larger tributaries.

We had a great trip, I look forward to doing it again. Maybe next time the thermals will not be necessary!

I am thinking about doing a trip in August; Arcadia to Onekama via Lake Michigan, or Arcadia and back from Onekama. I would prefer the latter with a start early in the morning.

Tippy to White-Fence a Solo Trip Down the Big Manistee River

After a stressful semester I decided to take to the woods and connect with the life-force. My first trip of the week took place on the Big Manistee River. 

 It was a cold gray Monday morning when I was dropped off at Tippy Dam. After dodging the lines of combat fishermen standing no more than 8 feet apart from one another I was off. Once I rounded two more bends I saw three boats and then nothingness. It was great.

The water was high, cloudy and moving quickly, no doubt a result of the rains of the weekend. An hour into the trip I spotted a Bald Eagle, but could not maneuver my camera out of my pack with the numb digits. The mental picture is enough for me.

My view for the trip.

I ran into my fair share of these types throughout the trip. I even happened upon a few pairs. I think that they must be hatching out the little ones. When I was lunching on an island I noticed that over the hill there was a female sitting on a mound that I can only assume was her nest. In fact I would have stepped on her had it not been for her mate making me aware of their presence with his hissing.

I could not identify this duck while out there but they were a lot of them and they were pretty. I got buzzed by four of them at once, it was very cool.

Here is one of the mumma gooses sitting on her nest.

This was where I decided to lunch. It was the first time that I got to use my new Primus ultra-lite stove; it worked great. Nothing like some corn and baked beans when you have been on the water for a few hours.

Had the weather been a little more favorable I would have liked to sling my hammock up while my food digested, but there will be warm days to take advantage of in the future.

-J

Updates and a busy year ahead of me

Ok, so as with everyone of my other posts I will start out by saying that I have not updated in a while. Got that out of the way. Since the pre-4th of July post I have been on many adventures, and picked up a new hobby or two and taken some adventurous trips!

So to start out:

4th of July: We took the first, of what is to hopefully become an annual event, hike along the shore from Onekama to Arcadia.

It was a looong nine miles, and we braved a mini rainstorm but the things taken from the trip were well worth it.

The journey started out by finding an infinity shaped clump of seaweed which was a symbol that nature is everything. Further down the beach we came upon a true rarity, the remains of a sturgeon. This was quite possibly one of the coolest thing that I have ever seen in my whole life, due to their near extinction sturgeon sightings are definitely unique. It's a shame that this one was dead.

Nearing the end of our trip we feared that we would only leave with pictures and blisters, however much more was in store. Beneath the Arcadia Bluffs we happened upon two huge Petoskey Stones while searching for golf balls.

-one of the two large Stones we found

Following the Onekama-Arcadia trek I showed Chels the joy of kayaking on several short excursions in Portage Lake. During one of the trips we found ourselves in the middle of a sailboat race. Below are a few shots from our trip.

The fall brought a few hikes and trips home, but nothing too adventurous as I was studying for the LSAT and trying to get things in order for the upcoming year. However we did get the chance to walk around some family property and snap a couple shots of the beautiful fall color before it was blanketed by snow.

Finally with the LSAT behind me we celebrated a wonderful Christmas in the company of our great families. In fact, this could possibly have been the best I have ever had. Chels got me a Wii, which we have made good use of in the cold months, my grandparents got me a handgun and Chels's mom gave me money that I used to fuel our new favorite wintertime hobby; snowshoeing!

Talk about a healthy addiction, if you have never tried this relaxing sport you need to strap a pair of them on and go explore the places that are usually unreachable in the winter. Great investment.

With the passing of winter and spring upon us my brother and I decided to make good use of a decent day during our spring break and take to the Manistee River.

The trip took much longer than originally planned, you see we thought that it was 5-8 miles when in fact it turned out to be more like 22 miles and took about 6 hours. However it was a great trip, the ice cold river was refreshing. Found a few rapalas, fished a while and endured on and off sprinkles.

All in all it was a good trip.

This brings you up to date with the major outings of the past year.

For the future, I will be graduating from FSU in a few weeks, and going to law school in January. At first I was a little put off by the later start, but I now see the time off as much needed, and a chance to breath. Chels and I will also be using the time off to take as many adventures as we can. Some ideas include: Manistee River Trail Hike, as many kayaking trips as possible, multi-day camping in the UP and a trek to the East Coast around D.C. If you have any other ideas for us to try out I am happy to hear of them, preferably in the Northern Michigan area.

That is all for now, hopefully I will post frequently more on here, but time will tell. We also plan on beginning to review products as well under HopeThisWorks Productions, with links for the best places to find gear that we trust.

Take care, and remember that some of the bes adventures are not half way around the world, they are right in your backyard.

-j