Birthday Weekend Wanderings

Over six months after coronavirus became a matter of global concern and social distancing and not showing your face anywhere became cool, the virus is still going strong, so a coronavirus birthday it was for me. I wanted to maybe see a couple friends outdoors, but apparently even that was too much to ask of 2020, because everyone was either busy or dealing with emergency situations. But the weather was too nice to stay inside, so I spent my birthday weekend wandering across Ann Arbor all by myself as usual. At least I had actual physical human contact for the first time in over half a year a few days before my birthday. One of us was wearing gloves the whole time, but at this point, I’ll take it. If you guessed I went to the dentist, you’d be right.

My so-called birthday weekend celebrations began on Friday after another enthralling day of research when I made my way to the Thurston Nature Center. The land, located behind Thurston Elementary School, is open to the public but co-owned by the Ann Arbor Public Schools and the neighborhood’s community pool association. There’s one main trail that circles the pond, and I often extend the walk/hike into the neighborhood behind the school to get to an Ann Arbor park. It’s another option for me to pick from when I’m deciding on the adventure of the day.

Thurston Nature Center

The previous month’s discovery of the shared-use trail through Parker Mill opened up the interesting possibility of an alternate route to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. As it turns out, you can bike the Border to Border (B2B) Trail to the end of Gallup Park, then bike through Parker Mill, cut under the road, and connect to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens Trail (MBGT) which leads to (surprise) the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. This route is almost twice as long as Google’s suggested route, but it also doesn’t involve weirdly cutting through neighborhoods, making left turns across traffic, and getting over the highway, and it’s much nicer looking. I no longer have any weekend commitments, not that I’ve ever had many while at Michigan, so I have time to take the scenic routes. This was my plan for Saturday.

Fall on the Huron River

It was a lovely warm and grey afternoon for a bike ride, made even lovelier by the Huron River and the fall colors. The stretch of the B2B between the two playgrounds at Gallup was a pain in the neck, but the rest of the ride was smooth enough. The MBGT was nice, well paved, not too heavily trafficked, and set off from the main road. When I got to the botanical gardens, I was only planning to take a few pictures by the pond because the bike ride was a little longer than usual, but since I came all that way I gave in and walked some of the trails. The conservatory and gardens are closed (thanks, corona), but all the other trails are open. The trail right by the (unnamed) creek (which flows into Fleming Creek, which flows into the Huron River) was somewhat crowded, but further along the trail and away from the creek it was much quieter (except for, of course, the traffic noises). No rattlesnake sightings, but I did see some fall colors. This trip was my first to the botanical gardens this year and first in fall.

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

A very orange tree

By Sunday, I figured my legs would be pretty done; however, I was still entertaining the thought of going to the Barton Nature Area for lunch on the dam after church. I did go to church, which ended up feeling crowded, with varying levels of distancing and proper mask wearing, but wound up at the arboretum afterwards instead. It was not my first visit to the arboretum of the year – I went a couple times in February – but I had avoided it all spring and summer thanks to the roving bands of sunburnt, drunk, music-blasting tubers. By this point, things had calmed down considerably, and I got to enjoy the very tall grass mostly in peace. When I made it to my apartment after one last bike ride back to campus, me and my bike were glad to get a rest.

North Campus from the Arboretum

So that was my birthday weekend. Including my bike ride to campus to get to the dentist (still avoiding the buses at the expense of my legs, heart, and lungs; soon the uncovered portion of my face and hands will join the list), I covered close to forty miles in four days. I saw lots of trees, spent some time in nature, but did not get any cake.