One of the most frustrating aspects of life in Monroe County is the lack of easy access to Lake Erie.  So, it caught my eye when the Monroe Evening News published an article that started like this…

The Monroe County Health Department has closed the public bathing beach at North Cape Yacht Club.

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070824/NEWS01/108230072/-1/NEWS

So, here’s my question.  Is that beach really open to the public?  Or was that just a misprint?  And if it is public, how does one access this beach?  Just curious.

The Point and Shoreline Journal News reports that there were 19 successful peregrine falcon nests in Ohio this year, resulting in 56 successfully fledged falcons.  Two of the successful falcon pairs were in the Toledo area this year.  Click below for the full article:

http://www.pointandshoreland.com/psj/psjnews.html

The Mining Gazette reports that the DNR and the U.S. Forest Service are negotiating deals with WE Energies of Wisconsin to purchase land along the Sturgeon River Gorge on the border of Houghton and Baraga Counties.  Click below for more details:

http://www.mininggazette.com/stories/articles.asp?articleID=8320

 

According to my 1998 Monroe County plat book, the Monroe County Community College owns over 100 acres of land along Dixon Road, near M-50/Dundee, on the River Raisin.  So, I am curious, why does the community college own this land?  And is there any chance of public access?

If anyone knows, I would appreciate the info.

BTW, here’s the rough boundary on Microsoft Virtual Earth:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!309&encType=1

 

A few months ago, I stopped at a garage sale in Deerfield.  I could tell that the lady who owned the home was clearing out a lifetime of accumulation.  We had a nice conversation and I ended up buying two boxes of maps.  In case you couldn’t tell, I love maps!  When I arrived home, I found this old patch mixed up with all of the maps.

The patch is felt and looks like it could be several decades old.  I thought that it might have something to do with the Vermont Trail.  But after an internet search, I’m beginning to think that it might have something to do with the U.S. military stationed in Korea.

If anyone has any ideas, I’d appreciate them.

Sometimes it’s just fun to look at a map and find a park that you’ve never been to.  A few years ago, I was looking at a map of Trenton and saw several parks that appeared to be linked along a waterway.

So, I decided to visit and, of course, I found a trail.  This isn’t a wilderness trail.  It’s just the kind of trail that people walk at night after work.  The trail follows the not-very-romantically-named Frank and Poets Drain.  The waterway is pleasant, but unspectacular.  It is a “drain” after all.  But it’s nice.

The path runs for just a bit over two miles in length.  It starts on the south near the intersection of Van Horn and Fort.  On the north end, the trail ends almost at the intersection of King and Westfield Roads.  The path passes through four parks: North McLouth, South McLouth, Kennedy and Lexington.

There are many parking areas along the trail.  There are several schools, some businesses, street parking and, of course, several parks and recreation lots.  The path is paved for its entire run as it passes by soccer fields, picnic areas and many subdivision homes.

Again, this is a city/suburban walk.  It’s not anything that I would go out of my way to hike again.  But it is quite pleasant for an evening walk in an urban setting.

I have never found any web sites related to this trail.  However, I have plotted the route on Microsoft Virtual Earth.  Here’s the link:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!307&encType=1

I am back in Michigan, but Seattle is not forgotten.  For your viewing pleasure, here’s a cool totem from the old section of downtown Seattle.

My mom was a devoted space watcher.  During my younger years, she would break out the sleeping bags and the whole family would gather on the back lawn watching meteor showers or comets or eclipses or whatever else happened to be hurtling towards our little corner of the universe.

I kind of picked up on this little habit.  My space-watching highlights include viewing a 98%-coverage annular eclipse of the sun.  And my personal favorite was watching the aurora borealis booming through the nighttime sky over Kelly’s Lake in the Irish Hills.  It was AMAZING!

One of the best places to find information about current celestial-viewing opportunities is spaceweather.com.  The site currently has neat video of a phenomena called carrot sprites.  These are bright, carrot-top-shaped flashes of light that explode into space from above particularly intense lightning strikes.  Pretty cool.

Check out the site:

http://www.spaceweather.com/

The recent, hurricane-inspired weather patterns that our area has experienced in the past few days has resulted in some fairly interesting phenomena.

Aside from the flooding, these storm systems have brought some unexpected guests to our area.  The Grand Rapids Press reports today that a black witch moth was blown into Michigan from the tropics.  The moth is 7 inches long and is, apparently, a prized catch for moth-collectors.

The moth, btw, is a traditional harbinger of death.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1187790716288620.xml&coll=6

Wikipedia entry about this moth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascalapha_odorata

The Falling Waters Trail is probably the strangest rail trail in this part of Michigan.  It’s an abandoned railbed that runs for 10.2 miles between the City of Jackson and Concord, MI.  Several local parks exist along the trail’s path and the Jackson Intercity Trail uses the same railbed on the eastern end.

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/expatriate/?p=125

What has always been strange about the trail is that it had a name and was well-known to area recreationalists before its ultimate purchase by the DNR.  Boy Scout troops even used it for hikes occasionally.

The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports today that a court ruling has cleared the way for a paving project along the trail’s entire length.  It is scheduled for completion in November.  This trail is an essential piece of a trail that will one day run from Lake Michigan to Lakes Erie and Huron.

http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1186826745310500.xml&coll=3