Chicago is blessed to have some of the world’s great museums.  It makes for a great weekend or even extreme day trip from southeast Michigan.  One exhibit has recently caught my eye.  The Field Museum has just opened an exhibit focused on the life and times of Charles Darwin.  Check it out…

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/darwin/

If I get the chance, I’m going to check this one out.

There are a few natural areas in our region that have a less than savory reputation.  One of these is Gull Island in Lake St. Clair’s Muscamoot Bay.  Gull Island is four acres in size and is located at the meeting point of Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River shipping channel.  The Walpole Island First Nation of Canada is just a few hundred feet away.

I have never been to the island, but it is a popular spot for picnics and parties due to its sandy beaches, remote setting and gradually sloping lake bottom.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains the immediately adjacent shipping channel, owns the island.

If you have been watching the news lately, you probably have seen coverage of the annual “Jobbie Nooner” party.  This is a traditional, late-June, summertime fest for the region’s boating community.  I have never been to this party, nor do I wish to.  It is a bit on the wild side.

For several years, officials from the Army Corps and elsewhere have tried to place limits on the party.  These efforts have done little to keep the estimated 5,000 or so revelers from the festivities.  The party went on as scheduled this year.  One can only hope that the party-goers picked up their trash.

Here are some news links that describe this year’s event:

http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/062107/loc_jobbie001.shtml

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/METRO/706230389/1014/METRO03

This is a Detroit News article from 2005 that includes a good general-area map:

http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0506/13/D01-212856.htm

Here is the Microsoft Virtual Earth image of the island.  It actually looks like an interesting spot:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!262&encType=1

 

My wife is from Wisconsin and one of our favorite pasttimes during family gatherings is exploring the language variations that are present between southeast Michigan English and northern Wisconsin English.

And, of course, my father - who can’t say “th” or “r” because his first language was Flemish - often gets in on the act.  It makes for some surreal conversations.

Anyway, on a hot day like today, my wife won’t ask to stop at the drinking fountain.  She’ll want to go to the “bubbler.”  The middle school students in her classes have caught wind of this and now ask to go to the “bubbler” during classtime.  They get a real kick out of it.

Another cool variation involves ATM machines.  One company, Tyme, runs pretty much all of the ATMs in NE Wisconsin.  So, when I first started dating my wife, she would ask to stop at a “Tyme Machine.”  The first time I heard it, I tried to ignore it because she seemed like a pretty good date and I didn’t want to think that she was crazy.  But after a while, I finally asked her about it and we had a good laugh.

So, if a friendly person with Wisconsin plates ever asks you for directions to the nearest time machine, you can tell them that it’s down the street right next to the bubbler.

 

You know that it is going to be a good day when you see a sign like this.

 

It is a reality of life in our region that some of the more intriguing natural areas are closed to public access.  This is true of much of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge complex in Ohio.  It is true of the E.S. George Reserve near Hell.  And it is true of many sites within the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.

One site of particular note is the land adjacent to the DTE Energy (Detroit Edison) Monroe power plant.  DTE has, in the past, used its surplus land on that site as a walleye fishery.  It has also worked to encourage the nesting of larger raptors like bald eagles.  In addition, DTE has enrolled large blocks of its Monroe County holdings into the new Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.

I’m not sure if this outweighs the brown streak in the sky, the mercury emissions, the aesthetic pollution of the power plant stacks or the high-security fencing along areas of our shoreline, but DTE is certainly trying hard to make sure that we think it does.

Recently, DTE has announced plans to partner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore additional wetlands at the Monroe power plant.  See a description of this effort here:

http://www.wildlifehc.org/news/membernews/index.cfm?Page=1&NewsID=35092

There are some opportunities to see some of this nature.  DTE participates in the annual December Audubon Society Christmas bird count.  I believe that the Lotus Garden Club also visits the site sometimes during its summer lotus tours (Note: If anyone knows when this event will be, I’d sure appreciate it.).  I would also be curious if DTE sponsors tours of the natural habitats at its plants.  I’d like to go on one if they do.

If you want an overhead view of DTE’s Monroe Power Plant, click below:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!260&encType=1

 

The Sharon Short Hills are an interesting geologic feature of western Washtenaw County.  They are roughly contained within a square formed by Sharon Hollow Rd., M-52, Grass Lake Rd. and Pleasant Lake Rd.  If you squint from a distance, you can almost get yourself to believe that you are approaching a mountain range.

Well, I might be going overboard on that one, but the area is worth a visit.  The Sharonville State Game Area, Nan Weston Preserve and Sharon Mills County Park are all close to the hills.  So are Manchester and Chelsea - each with a vast array of natural and cultural opportunities.  The area lends itself to a nice weekend afternoon drive.

And that’s what Kathy and I decided to do on Saturday afternoon.  We drove for a bit with the intention of going for a little walk at the Sharon Hills Preserve on the east side of Sharon Hollow Road between Walker and Washburn Roads.  I just love the up-and-down nature of the roads in this area. 

And given the proximity of Chrysler’s Proving Grounds just to the north, you never know what kind of cool new wheels will scream on by.  It’s that speedy traffic over blind hills and curves which stops me from recommending road hiking in this area.

However, a stop at Sharon Hills is just great.  The trails are not long.  They probably total about two miles overall in a figure-eight style layout.  But the trails have a nice up-and-down flow to them.

Some sections of the trail pass through dense older forests.  Others pass through remnant oak savanna and tall-grass prairie.  The trails in this preserve are marked with white triangles as they pass over sandy and rocky glacial deposits.

The preserve itself is 69 acres in size and it is owned by the Washtenaw Land Trust, a really great land preservation organization.  The preserve has a nice parking area with a kiosk depicting the trail system.

Near the trailhead, a visitor will also see some ruins from previous habitation.  A walker can scout the foundation of an old house and several other nearby structures.  It makes for a mysterious historical touch to this beautiful and hilly section of southeast Michigan.

Before I end this post, I’d like to thank the family who donated this land to the Washtenaw Land Trust.  It is a really nice place to hike.

Here is the official preserve website:

http://www.washtenawlandtrust.org/preserves.htm#sharonhills

I plotted the location of the preserve on virtual earth here:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!258&encType=1

Here are two Washtenaw Land Trust articles about the preserve:

http://www.washtenawlandtrust.org/numay1505.htm

http://www.washtenawlandtrust.org/docs/WLTJournalSu06_web7.pdf

Here is the birders’ take on the preserve:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/se_mich/locations/sharhill.txt

Check out this topographic map of the area to see the bunched up contour lines.  Hiker porn!

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=42.21291&lon=-84.07177&size=l&symshow=n&u=4&datum=nad27&layer=DRG

Here’s a short hike report that I originally posted on the Great Lakes Hikes Yahoo Group:

http://extremesouthmichigan.blogspot.com/2007/06/sharon-hills-preserve-hike-report.html

I’ll file this one in the “You Learn Something New Every Day” category.  I figured that I had a pretty good handle on the land preservation organizations that work in the southern tier of counties, but this one is new to me.

Apparently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a program to partner with local land preservation organizations to purchase critical waterfowl nesting habitat.  A recent purchase has created Michigan’s fourth Waterfowl Production Area.  All locations are a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.  They are quite obscure.

Here’s the information that I’ve been able to glean about each:

1) Malan Waterfowl Production Area: 138 acres on Tophith Road in Jackson County adjacent to the Waterloo State Recreation Area.  Click on these links for articles and an area map of the site:

http://www.washtenawlandtrust.org/docs/WLTJournalSpr07_web.pdf   (PDF file, P.6)

http://www.ducks.org/states/24/news/pub/article1126.html

http://www.washtenawlandtrust.org/numalan07.htm

2) Schlee WPA: 160 acres in Jackson County

http://tinyurl.com/296lem

http://www.fws.gov/Midwest/Planning/shiawassee/shiccpch3.pdf  (P.5-7)

3) Schoonover WPA: 95 acres in Lenawee County:  From the USFWS: “The Schoonover Waterfowl Production Area, in western Lenawee County, is located on Medina Road, approximately 3 miles south of Hudson and 8 miles east of U.S. 127.”  This place seems to be adjacent to the Lake Hudson State Recreation Area.

http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=31731

4) Kinney WPA: 77 acres in Van Buren County

http://www.fws.gov/Midwest/Planning/shiawassee/shiccpch3.pdf  (P.5-7)

From what I’ve been able to gather, these sites are open to the public for hunting and nature study.

 

Kathy and I were driving down M-52 between Chelsea and Manchester yesterday when nature called.  Luckily, a gas station mercifully appeared at the intersection of Pleasant Lake Rd. and M-52.

The station is owned by the Wacker family and it has been in business for 75 years.  They serve as something of a general store for the area nearby.  They also sell stone statuary.  Interestingly, they were the fifth gas station to start selling biodiesel in the whole nation when it first became available.  They supply places like the City of Ann Arbor.

The station also stocks a very strange assortment of goods inside.  I’ve purchased smoked fish from the U.P. at the gas station before.  And during this stop, I picked up a bag of Trenary Toast, just for kicks.

If you don’t know, Trenary Toast is made by the fine folks in Trenary, MI.  It is not an extraordinary concept.  A combination of cinnamon, sugar and bread is toasted into a treat widely loved across the vast expanses of the U.P.  The bread is packed into air-tight brown paper bags and shipped to exotic locales like Marquette, Ishpeming, Baraga and Escanaba.

How on earth this particular bag ended up on the troll-side of the bridge is beyond me, but there it was on the countertop.  I can’t say that the stuff is really good.  In fact, it kind of rubs the inside of your mouth raw.  But I had to buy a bag because of the toast’s mythical power.

G.E. Wacker 75th anniversary article in the Manchester Enterprise (motto: “To go where no newspaper has gone before.” - No joke.):

http://www.manchesterenterprise.com/stories/062107/loc_20070621005.shtml

Here’s the home page of the Trenary Home Bakery:

http://www.trenarytoast.us/

The internet is a very strange place.  From one angle, it is a place of business.  Websites are technically owned by various companies and individuals.  From another angle, it is a social gathering place.  People meet, fall in love and debate important issues like what color prison uniform Paris Hilton is wearing.

I’ve been posting on a bulletin board named www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk since about 1999.  I started posting there because I love to hike and travel.  Anyone who has read this blog knows that.

When my mom was dying of cancer in 2000, that site gave me a place to pursue my love of the outdoors even when I was sitting in a hospital waiting room or at home helping my dad.

Over time, I got to know the regular posters.  And, remarkably, many of the regular posters started to hike together and plan trips.  A handful of the posters have become in-the-flesh friends.  We meet for dinner and sometimes hike together.

thebackpacker.com/trailtalk even started a decade-long rivalry with another hiking/backpacking board, forums.backpacker.com .  Regular posters would jaw at each other and argue about which board was better.  It was like two small towns before a high school football game.

So, it was a bit unsettling last week when thebackpacker.com was sold by the wonderful man from Georgia - Matt - who created it.  He sold to trails.com.  Trails.com is big and corporate.  And, of course, everyone on the board is worried that the site will change for the worse.  You can see that discussion here:

http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/thread/48437,1.php

http://forums.backpacker.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/852107219/m/9171089303

It’s just an interesting event.  Unlike the real world, website administrators control the terms of interaction on the internet.  And, in many ways, a website can become the location of a friendship and an archive of interactions over many years.  It’s unsettling to see that get sold.

As a lifetime University of Michigan fan and a graduate of the school, there aren’t too many things that give me more chills than watching the winged-helmeted players burst through the tunnel and leap towards the M Club banner at the 50 yard line at Michigan Stadium.

If you’ve ever wondered what that run feels like, sign up for the Big House Big Heart Run.  It is a 5K race and fun run that takes place on Sunday, September 30th at U of M Stadium in Ann Arbor.

Participants pay a basic entry fee.  For Fun Runners, the fee is $10.  These fees go to help the Mott Children’s Hospital and the UM ALS Research Center.  Runners and walkers can also gather pledges for the charity of their choice.

This sounds like a great event that will raise lots of money and provide a chance for many to fulfill a childhood dream.

http://www.bighousebigheart.com/

Oh, and one more thing.  Go Blue!