Flowers and plants that we identified included Sessile Bellwort, Wood Anemone, False Lily of the Valley, Barren Strawberry, Star Flower, Native Honeysuckle, Partridge Berry, Leather Leaf, Bog Laurel, Bog Rosemary, Tamarack, Club Moss, Princess Pine.
Eleven hikers looked for wildflowers on the Raven Nature Trail south of Woodruff. We were early for the trail this day as some of the flowers were still in buds and we had to identify them by the leaves and stems.
We had 8 paddlers on the Bearskin paddle and spent several hours outdoors in beautiful spring weather on the water. Very relaxing!!
The Nose Lake Snowshoe Trail is relatively new but well marked and interesting as it sends up and down through aspen, birch, oak, pine and balsam woods.
The snow is firmly packed but not icy. This trail can be added to our repertoire of snowshoe trails.
Five Northern Paddle and Trail gals snowshoe/hike the Almon Reserve Wetland Trail. Fabulous sunshine and mild temperatures and many pauses along the trail to appreciate nature's beauty as well as Northern Paddle and Trail friendships. Much fun!
What a large turnout of snowshoers for this event! We counted 53 people just in the group we started out with. It was beautiful weather, it felt mild after the cold snap we had just experienced, and sunny. Not our average crowd, to be sure! Very encouraging to see so many people out enjoying the trail.
Our January 22nd Membership Meeting was a real success with 15 members attending. It was the first gathering like it since covid had shut things down. You’ll recall that this kind of all member gathering was once an annual event. It was great to visit together again. Thanks to Guy Hansen for securing the church for our use and setting up for the event. Thanks to those who helped cleanup after the meeting.
There was a nice variety of pot-luck items that were brought to share. Recipes for a couple of items are available. If others of you want to share a recipe send a copy to Maren. They can be posted on the website as part of the Event Highlights. Susan Watson’s presentation on Iceland was just great. There was lots of interest and questions about her travels to Iceland. Former First Lady of Iceland, Dorrit Moussaieff, said she was overwhelmed by “the colours and the contrasts, the visibility in all directions, the freshness of the air, the purity of the water, in rivers and lakes, floating over rocks and exploding from geysers”. Great place to visit.
Our hike on the Fallison Lake State Nature Trail, near Boulder Junction, on Saturday October 8th, was colorful, cloudy and cool to start but our small group didn’t seem to notice. We stopped to take pictures and enjoyed the large pines and hiked the somewhat hilly terrain around the lake.
The temps warmed and the sun peeked out partway along the way. We stopped for lunch on a bench by the lake in a protected spot. There seemed to be a record number of people on the trail, after all it was THRIVE OUTDOORS day! Enjoy these couple of photos from the hike.
The paddle this past Wednesday on Harrison Flowage was lots of fun and relaxing. We had beautiful weather as well. Lot of wildlife and aquatic plant observations created variety in our paddle. Swans and a otter family included. We also added a 4x4 pickup truck adventure to check out another lake. That was interesting!!!
On Sunday, July 31, a group of us met at the trailhead off Hwy 32/45 to bike the 3 Eagle Trail. We enjoyed a leisurely ride to the Sundsteen trailhead, stopping at the shelter for snacks and visiting before biking back, about 14 easy miles.
We stopped on the boardwalks to gaze out at the scenic sedge meadows. Sections of the trail have large pine that emit fragrant pine scent. We had a special guest in our group – Dave H’s sister. We hope she’ll join us again. Very nice ride on a summery day.
On Thursday, July 28, a group of us met at Perch Lake, a small 35-acre lake that many of us had seen from the Perch Lake Shelter. We had a leisurely paddle with time to visit and identify aquatic plants. We flushed a blue heron. For some of us this was our first paddle of the season. Very pleasant time.
We had a delightful experience hiking along the Wisconsin river just north of Merrill. The weather was mild and sunny. We didn't even need bug spray. Four of us set out with 3 wildflower identification books. Many of the flowers were familiar to us and some of them were a challenge to identify but, with the help of Ruby Jaecks from the Northwoods Chapter of the Ice Age Trail Alliance, we were able to figure out the names of them.
The snowshoe hike on the NORA trail system was super. It was a little cold to start with, but we warmed up quickly with the activity and the sun being out. We “shoed” along on sparkling sugar snow, saw tracks galore but no animals except for two eagles flying overhead that we could presume might be a pair checking out the real estate.
We stopped at Mary Lou Baribeau’s donated bench for a photo and reminisced about her love of snowshoeing on this trail. We had to bushwhack a short distance to return to the main trail when it seemed to have stopped but that wasn’t a problem with Dan E. in the lead. This “short but sweet” trail made for an enjoyable time for us as the smiling faces in the photo shows.
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