This year in Ann Arbor and New England, I started the year in Michigan and ended it back in the northeast. In January, I got my Covid booster, biked the Border to Border trail to see the geese and ducks (and a pair of hooded mergansers) wintering on the Huron River, made a belated gingerbread dinosaur nativity scene, celebrated National Peanut Butter Day with my daily lunch PBJ, and hemmed some pants. I also watched Addams Family Values and took a second stab at the Discworld with the Ankh-Morpock City Watch in Guards! Guards!. Perhaps most importantly, I submitted my thesis, had it accepted, and received official permission to graduate.
February began with a balmy 40 F day that once again saw me on the B2B. After spending five and a half years running simulations of surfactants, I finally put some surfactant solutions on the rheometer and produced some of my own experimental data. The Winter Olympics were held, and the New England Revolution kicked off their season with a semi-promising 2-2 tie in Portland. Other activities included baking banana pecan chocolate chip muffins, finishing a cross stitch project, starting the X-Wing books, and observing Twosday (22:22:22 on 2/22/22, which was a Tuesday).
Snow soccer happened not once, but twice for the Revolution in March. It was a rough season from then on. I baked rocky road cookies and cranberry orange muffins, and attended (what I referred to as) ChE’s State of the Department Address to hear about what was going on in the department. Our research group celebrated a defense by going out for lab lunch, and a few of us took a day trip one weekend for dim sum, cake, and stops at a couple parks.
I continued wrapping things up in Ann Arbor in April, starting the month off with a couple labmates at the house of another friend from a different lab for cocktails, snacks, and dessert. On the research front, I resubmitted my second manuscript a couple weeks later. Otherwise, it was more or less business as usual with group meeting, filing taxes, hiking my standard trails in search of birds and spring wildflowers, watching the Revolution ping pong between winning and losing, and baking double chocolate cookies and peanut butter cookies.
May was a busy month, my last in Ann Arbor. Before leaving, I made sure to meet up with a couple friends I hadn’t gotten to see much because of the pandemic, once spending an evening at Pinball Pete’s playing pinball and other games, then drinking a pitcher of sangria down the street. The lab had a cookout/potluck at our advisor’s house since a few of us were leaving Ann Arbor around the same time, and I invited the lab and a couple ChemE friends for one final happy hour at our favorite North Campus bar (it’s the only bar on North Campus). And then as the month came to an end, my parents arrived in Ann Arbor to collect me and all my things. Before cramming my belongings into the car, we drove to Sleeping Bear Dunes for a family vacation with my brother and his girlfriend. We spent a couple days hiking around the dunes, then returned to Ann Arbor. In my final days in Ann Arbor, we paid quick visits to the art and natural history museums while I also returned keys and spent an MDen gift card, and attended church so I could say my farewells. On the way back home, we stopped by Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and then I arrived back in New England.
Upon my return to the land of Wegmans, throughout June I unpacked some of my things and packed other things that had been sitting in my room for the past decade. I attended the last of our lab’s four dissertation defenses in the span of six months from home. After finishing the very, very good Star Trek: Deep Space Nine the month before, I began working my way through my next medical drama, Scrubs, and started a cross stitch birth announcement for nobody in particular.
I spent July working on a final (supposedly quick) manuscript while also doing jigsaw puzzles, watching the Revolution stumble their way through the hot, long middle of the season, and reading for my local library’s summer reading bingo. We went hiking a few times, once at a nearby state park, and another time at a nature preserve in town that was also holding an outdoor art exhibit.
August included more reading, more puzzles, and more Revolution-induced high blood pressure. We painted most of the deck. I tried baking focaccia for the first time. We borrowed a telescope from the library and spent a couple weeks observing the moon as it went through its phases. At long last, the lab started getting its code in order and put up all its open source code on a lab Github.
In September, when the weather went from hot and humid to nice for a few weeks, we hiked at Minute Man National Historic Park and the Parker River Wildlife Refuge and went apple picking (we got honeycrisp, gala, smitten, empire, and fuji, plus apple cider donuts). At the end of the month, I took a business trip to see collaborators in Cincinnati and visited the Cincinnati Zoo and art museum.
The yearly raking commenced in October, but before the leaves all fell, we took a few local hikes to enjoy the fall colors and weather. I finished my Singapore cross stitch, baked a Boston cream pie and a Swiss roll, and helped dig a hole so the septic tank could get accessed.
For the first time, I participated in NaNoWriMo in November and won, writing 50,072 words in thirty days. MLS cup was exciting, as was the USMNT making it out of the group stage at the World Cup. I baked pumpkin things and tried a recipe for ginger cookies (good, but could have used even more ginger), and we celebrated fake Thanksgiving a couple weeks early with stuffing, cranberry sauce, and some other Thanksgiving-ish foods.
To close out the year, in December I watched the USMNT get knocked out of the World Cup, then picked up watching again in the quarterfinals, leading to an absolutely crazy World Cup final that saw Argentina and France trade goals in regular time, then overtime, and go to penalty kicks to give Messi a World Cup. I finally started a dragon cross stitch for a friend, read The Sandman, watched pretty bad Christmas movies, and ended the year with roast lamb and wine.
Showing posts with label Michigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michigan. Show all posts
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Saturday, June 25, 2022
Sleeping Bear Dunes, part 2
For the second half of the trip, I had a couple more hikes planned. In the morning, after another round of sandwich making, we headed out for Alligator Hill. Alligator Hill has a total of nine miles of trails divided into three loops. We took the shortest loop to the Islands Lookout and back with a detour along the spur to the Big Glen Lookout, for a total of 4.3 miles, our longest single hike of the trip. The internet told me that Alligator Hill was a fun hike with great views of Lake Michigan and Glen Lake, but especially after the previous day the views were good but not amazing.
The dirt trail is mostly wooded, and Alligator Hill is indeed a hill, so there is some ascending/descending, but nothing overly strenuous. After 1.3 miles, you reach the Islands Lookout which does give nice views of Lake Michigan, including North and South Manitou Island. While we were stopped to snack on bananas and take photos, we saw a bald eagle in the wild for the first time, and I did get a not entirely in focus picture with my telephoto lens. Shortly after that point, we turned off the main trail to the Big Glen Lookout. It was a 1.6 mile detour, and when we got to the clearing in the trees I’m not sure I can say it was really worth it. About all I can say about it is that it was a view of a lake.
Back at the parking lot after a couple hours+, we piled back into the car and drove to the Dunes Trail to have lunch at the picnic area there. From there, we continued on to the last hike I had planned, Pyramid Point. Pyramid Point is another short trail that leads to a view of Lake Michigan. There’s a 2.7 mile loop, but we just did the 0.6 miles (one way) to the lookout and back. At the lookout, we had more large bird sightings – a small group of turkey vultures and a likely red-tailed hawk (the red tail was not visible in the photo I got). We took about an hour to hike up to the lookout, enjoy the lake from the top of the bluff, and hike down from the lookout.
At that point, it was midafternoon, and we’d completed all the hikes I had planned for us, so we drove around for a bit, stopped in Glen Haven (a former company town where you can still see the general store, cannery-turned-boathouse-museum, and blacksmith shop), then returned to the Airbnb early. After dinner, we walked to the beach for a Lake Michigan sunset, then closed out the night by watching Shrek Forever After.
We probably could have fit more into the trip, but we saw most of the main attractions, except maybe really getting to enjoy the beach and I’ve heard the Maritime Museum is interesting. It felt cooler than my Upper Peninsula trip back in October, but it didn’t rain. I’m really not a huge food/shopping person, so I didn’t mind the tradeoff of closed stores for no crowds. I shot the whole trip on my T6 with an ultrawide (10-18mm) and a telephoto (55-250mm) lens, and I think it works well for hiking trips, possibly not as good if we had been indoors more/at all. Overall, it was a good trip.
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| On the trail at Alligator Hill |
The dirt trail is mostly wooded, and Alligator Hill is indeed a hill, so there is some ascending/descending, but nothing overly strenuous. After 1.3 miles, you reach the Islands Lookout which does give nice views of Lake Michigan, including North and South Manitou Island. While we were stopped to snack on bananas and take photos, we saw a bald eagle in the wild for the first time, and I did get a not entirely in focus picture with my telephoto lens. Shortly after that point, we turned off the main trail to the Big Glen Lookout. It was a 1.6 mile detour, and when we got to the clearing in the trees I’m not sure I can say it was really worth it. About all I can say about it is that it was a view of a lake.
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| View from the Islands Lookout |
Back at the parking lot after a couple hours+, we piled back into the car and drove to the Dunes Trail to have lunch at the picnic area there. From there, we continued on to the last hike I had planned, Pyramid Point. Pyramid Point is another short trail that leads to a view of Lake Michigan. There’s a 2.7 mile loop, but we just did the 0.6 miles (one way) to the lookout and back. At the lookout, we had more large bird sightings – a small group of turkey vultures and a likely red-tailed hawk (the red tail was not visible in the photo I got). We took about an hour to hike up to the lookout, enjoy the lake from the top of the bluff, and hike down from the lookout.
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| View from Pyramid Point |
At that point, it was midafternoon, and we’d completed all the hikes I had planned for us, so we drove around for a bit, stopped in Glen Haven (a former company town where you can still see the general store, cannery-turned-boathouse-museum, and blacksmith shop), then returned to the Airbnb early. After dinner, we walked to the beach for a Lake Michigan sunset, then closed out the night by watching Shrek Forever After.
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| From left to right: bald eagle, turkey vultures, red-tailed hawk |
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| Sunset over Lake Michigan |
We probably could have fit more into the trip, but we saw most of the main attractions, except maybe really getting to enjoy the beach and I’ve heard the Maritime Museum is interesting. It felt cooler than my Upper Peninsula trip back in October, but it didn’t rain. I’m really not a huge food/shopping person, so I didn’t mind the tradeoff of closed stores for no crowds. I shot the whole trip on my T6 with an ultrawide (10-18mm) and a telephoto (55-250mm) lens, and I think it works well for hiking trips, possibly not as good if we had been indoors more/at all. Overall, it was a good trip.
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Sleeping Bear Dunes, part 1
Before leaving Ann Arbor, we took a quick family vacation to the west side of Michigan to see the Sleeping Bear Dunes, another one of the things you should probably see if you lived in Michigan for six years. Like Pictured Rocks, Sleeping Bear is National Lakeshore managed by the U.S. National Park Service; a weeklong pass for a private vehicle costs $25. We spent two full days at Sleeping Bear, and did four of the hikes in the Lakeshore, which covered most of the highlights of the area – climbing the dunes, spending some time on a Lake Michigan beach, and getting various views of the lake and dunes.
Our first day was primarily a travel day – we left Ann Arbor bright and more or less early, picked up my brother and his girlfriend in Kalamazoo, and arrived in Glen Arbor midafternoon after a stop for a lunch of pasties1 (another Michigan thing to try before leaving), an apple dumpling, and apple blueberry pie. The Airbnb we stayed at in Glen Arbor was nice, even if I was literally sleeping behind the closets of both actual bedrooms. After checking in and unpacking a little, we went out to explore Glen Arbor, walked to the beach, and had dinner at Cherry Republic.
The next morning, we set out on our second longest but most challenging and probably also most iconic hike, the 3.5 mile (round trip) Dunes Trail up the Dune Climb to Lake Michigan. We were at Sleeping Bear the weekend before Memorial Day, before the official tourist season started. Some amenities and restaurants were still closed for the winter, but enough was open that it was worth not dealing with crowds anywhere. The weather was cool (highs close to 289 K2) but clear throughout the entire trip, so shorts and jacket weather, plus extra jacket + glove-mittens for the wind off of Lake Michigan. There were about three cars in the parking lot when we got to the Dune Climb, and we eventually encountered a half dozen or so groups of people on our way to the lake.
The initial climb is the longest sustained incline, but you do have to climb and descend four more dunes on the way to Lake Michigan. The sand is indeed coarse, rough, and everywhere, but wasn’t too irritating. The entire route is on sand, though you pass through areas with dune grass, flowers, and small trees, and though the way is mostly straightforward, it’s marked with blue-tipped poles to steer people away fromalligators areas where they’re trying to prevent erosion. At a fairly leisurely pace and stopping a lot to take photos, it took us about eighty minutes each way. We had lunch, part 1, when we got to Lake Michigan, where it was windy and cold, so we didn’t explore the water much. Back at the parking lot, we had lunch part 2, featuring more of my favorite vacation anytime food, peanut butter and jam sandwiches.
After lunch, we stopped by the main visitor center, the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center, to pick up a park pass, map, and stamp, then continued on to our second hike of the day, the Empire Bluff Trail. The internet told me this was one of the most popular trails, so I guess we had to do it. It’s a relative quick 1.5 mile hike that goes through forest before coming out on a boardwalk that boasts views of Lake Michigan and the lakeshore. It was nice, worth doing, and only takes about an hour of your time.
Finally, we drove the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, a 7.4-mile loop with a dozen stops where you can get out for photos, though a few of the stops appeared to have views of nothing but trees. When we were there, I believe the drive had just opened for the summer (it’s closed in the winter). You are allowed to bike it, though the NPS website advises only expert cyclists to attempt it. The overlooks, complete with informational signs, provide views of Lake Michigan, the dunes, and the Glen Lakes, and there are also some hikes and picnic areas that are accessed from the drive. We spent about an hour and a half driving, stopping, getting out of the car, enjoying the views, getting back in the car, etc. before heading back to our Airbnb for the night. All in all, it was a successful first day of our trip.
1A pasty is a hand pie filled with meat and root vegetables (potatoes, rutabaga, etc.) brought to Michigan from Cornwall.
260 F/16 C
Our first day was primarily a travel day – we left Ann Arbor bright and more or less early, picked up my brother and his girlfriend in Kalamazoo, and arrived in Glen Arbor midafternoon after a stop for a lunch of pasties1 (another Michigan thing to try before leaving), an apple dumpling, and apple blueberry pie. The Airbnb we stayed at in Glen Arbor was nice, even if I was literally sleeping behind the closets of both actual bedrooms. After checking in and unpacking a little, we went out to explore Glen Arbor, walked to the beach, and had dinner at Cherry Republic.
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| Dunes Trail with Lake Michigan in the distance |
The next morning, we set out on our second longest but most challenging and probably also most iconic hike, the 3.5 mile (round trip) Dunes Trail up the Dune Climb to Lake Michigan. We were at Sleeping Bear the weekend before Memorial Day, before the official tourist season started. Some amenities and restaurants were still closed for the winter, but enough was open that it was worth not dealing with crowds anywhere. The weather was cool (highs close to 289 K2) but clear throughout the entire trip, so shorts and jacket weather, plus extra jacket + glove-mittens for the wind off of Lake Michigan. There were about three cars in the parking lot when we got to the Dune Climb, and we eventually encountered a half dozen or so groups of people on our way to the lake.
The initial climb is the longest sustained incline, but you do have to climb and descend four more dunes on the way to Lake Michigan. The sand is indeed coarse, rough, and everywhere, but wasn’t too irritating. The entire route is on sand, though you pass through areas with dune grass, flowers, and small trees, and though the way is mostly straightforward, it’s marked with blue-tipped poles to steer people away from
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| At Lake Michigan at the end of the Dunes Trail |
After lunch, we stopped by the main visitor center, the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center, to pick up a park pass, map, and stamp, then continued on to our second hike of the day, the Empire Bluff Trail. The internet told me this was one of the most popular trails, so I guess we had to do it. It’s a relative quick 1.5 mile hike that goes through forest before coming out on a boardwalk that boasts views of Lake Michigan and the lakeshore. It was nice, worth doing, and only takes about an hour of your time.
 |
| View from Empire Bluff Trail |
Finally, we drove the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, a 7.4-mile loop with a dozen stops where you can get out for photos, though a few of the stops appeared to have views of nothing but trees. When we were there, I believe the drive had just opened for the summer (it’s closed in the winter). You are allowed to bike it, though the NPS website advises only expert cyclists to attempt it. The overlooks, complete with informational signs, provide views of Lake Michigan, the dunes, and the Glen Lakes, and there are also some hikes and picnic areas that are accessed from the drive. We spent about an hour and a half driving, stopping, getting out of the car, enjoying the views, getting back in the car, etc. before heading back to our Airbnb for the night. All in all, it was a successful first day of our trip.
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| At the Lake Michigan Overlook on Pierce Stocking Drive |
1A pasty is a hand pie filled with meat and root vegetables (potatoes, rutabaga, etc.) brought to Michigan from Cornwall.
260 F/16 C
Monday, February 28, 2022
Copper Harbor & Mackinaw City
On our final full day up north, we had plans to travel to the northern tip of the Upper Peninsula before crossing back over the Mackinac Bridge to the Lower Peninsula to spend the night in Mackinaw City. In the morning, we decamped, cleaning up the cabin and repacking the car before heading on our way. We drove up to Copper Harbor to see the Copper Harbor Lighthouse and the Devil’s Washtub. Unfortunately, the land that the Copper Harbor light is on had been sold to a private owner and could only be viewed from across a bay and I’m not sure if we ever found the Devil’s Washtub. However, after planning our activities for the first three days of the trip, I was not responsible for this leg’s itinerary, and what we did end up doing was still good.
With the lighthouse under private management, the main way to see it is now from Astor Shipwreck Park. This park is across the street from Fort Wilkins State Park, which we didn’t have time to check out on this trip. There’s a small parking lot and a few steps down to a rock beach with a view of the Copper Harbor light. We spent some time on the beach, where we enjoyed the sun and bright blue skies for the first time on our trip, and ended up having an early lunch by the beach.
On the way back from Copper Harbor, we stopped right on Route 26 to try and find the Devil’s Washtub, a rock inlet on the coast of Lake Superior that’s supposed to be bathtub shaped, I guess? We walked along the coast for a bit and found something that looked vaguely bathtub-esque, but I’m not convinced we found it. But the sun and views and rock scrambling were nice.
Continuing on our way back, we paid a visit to the Eagle River Timber Arch Bridge, from where we also saw the Eagle River Falls. Across the street the Eagle River Museum was closed, but there was what appeared to be a public park next to it with sports fields, playground equipment, a garden, and a pavilion. When we saw that they had a merry go round, we had no choice but to try it out, because how often do you see a merry go round nowadays?
From there, we finished the long drive across the Upper Peninsula to Mackinaw City. After some hotel drama, we managed to check into our room. Before bedding down for the night, we went out for one final adventure of the day to stargaze at the Headlands International Dark Sky Park just outside of the city. When we arrived, the parking lot was busy (and we could already clearly see the big dipper), but as we set out on the paths, we hardly encountered any people. We found an empty beach to admire the sights from and looked up.
The moon was blazing bright, close to full if not full, so we didn’t see as many stars as we could have, but at least the sky was clear, and there were more stars than I’ve seen for awhile. With the help of an app (of course there’s an app), we identified several constellations. I also tried out some tripod-less astrophotography that pushed the limits of my hobbyist camera and only ended up a little blurry.
In the morning, we collected our sad Covid hotel breakfasts consisting solely of bottled water, an apple, and a single granola bar; checked out of the hotel; and drove to the Mackinac Bridge to enjoy breakfast in sight of Mighty Mac. From there, all that was left was the drive back to Ann Arbor. All in all, it was a great trip. I’m glad I got to see some of the Upper Peninsula before graduating and likely moving away from Michigan, and after a year and a half away from the office, getting to spend time with my labmates.
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| Baraga State Park mini cabin |
With the lighthouse under private management, the main way to see it is now from Astor Shipwreck Park. This park is across the street from Fort Wilkins State Park, which we didn’t have time to check out on this trip. There’s a small parking lot and a few steps down to a rock beach with a view of the Copper Harbor light. We spent some time on the beach, where we enjoyed the sun and bright blue skies for the first time on our trip, and ended up having an early lunch by the beach.
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| Copper Harbor Lighthouse |
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| Clockwise from top left: Astor Shipwreck Park, rock beach at Astor Shipwreck Park, Eagle River Timber Arch Bridge, shore of Lake Superior near the Devil's Washtub |
On the way back from Copper Harbor, we stopped right on Route 26 to try and find the Devil’s Washtub, a rock inlet on the coast of Lake Superior that’s supposed to be bathtub shaped, I guess? We walked along the coast for a bit and found something that looked vaguely bathtub-esque, but I’m not convinced we found it. But the sun and views and rock scrambling were nice.
Continuing on our way back, we paid a visit to the Eagle River Timber Arch Bridge, from where we also saw the Eagle River Falls. Across the street the Eagle River Museum was closed, but there was what appeared to be a public park next to it with sports fields, playground equipment, a garden, and a pavilion. When we saw that they had a merry go round, we had no choice but to try it out, because how often do you see a merry go round nowadays?
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| Eagle River Falls |
From there, we finished the long drive across the Upper Peninsula to Mackinaw City. After some hotel drama, we managed to check into our room. Before bedding down for the night, we went out for one final adventure of the day to stargaze at the Headlands International Dark Sky Park just outside of the city. When we arrived, the parking lot was busy (and we could already clearly see the big dipper), but as we set out on the paths, we hardly encountered any people. We found an empty beach to admire the sights from and looked up.
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| Tripod-less astrophotography (the handle of the Big Dipper is the bright stars in the lower right of the sky) |
The moon was blazing bright, close to full if not full, so we didn’t see as many stars as we could have, but at least the sky was clear, and there were more stars than I’ve seen for awhile. With the help of an app (of course there’s an app), we identified several constellations. I also tried out some tripod-less astrophotography that pushed the limits of my hobbyist camera and only ended up a little blurry.
In the morning, we collected our sad Covid hotel breakfasts consisting solely of bottled water, an apple, and a single granola bar; checked out of the hotel; and drove to the Mackinac Bridge to enjoy breakfast in sight of Mighty Mac. From there, all that was left was the drive back to Ann Arbor. All in all, it was a great trip. I’m glad I got to see some of the Upper Peninsula before graduating and likely moving away from Michigan, and after a year and a half away from the office, getting to spend time with my labmates.
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| Sunrise over Lake Huron |
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| Mackinaw Bridge |
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park
Day three dawned grey. Again. But it was not raining. Following a cold breakfast featuring shelf-stable ultra-pasteurized milk and granola bars, we drove the final hour to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. This park is managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, so requires a Michigan Recreation Passport, $17 for the year for instate vehicles if you buy one at a park entrance but less ($12) if you get it when you renew your license plates.
I planned for one not-too-long hike by the Lake of the Clouds, the one place everyone goes if you go to the Porcupines. When I asked my coworkers, they all said they’d be okay with some hiking, but I am aware that most people don’t casually go for three mile romps through the woods in all kinds of weather on an average evening, possibly after a full day of work. The internet told me that the Escarpment Trail, leading away from the Lake of the Clouds, had some of the best views in the park, and if we hiked it as an out and back, we could choose how long we wanted our hike to be.
When we arrived, it was foggy/misty/cloudy (again) with clouds rolling across the landscape. We went first to the Lake of the Clouds Overlook where we got our first look at the lake and surrounding mountains. Although it was supposed to be late in the season for fall colors, there were still a lot of yellow and even green leaves on the trees and the view, when not covered with clouds, was lovely. The overlook is located at the west end of the lake, facing east down the length of the lake with mountains sloping upwards from the north and south shores.
From the overlook, we found the Escarpment Trail that leads east along a ridge on the north side of the Lake of the Clouds. As I’ve mentioned already, it was pretty quiet because we were there past what’s considered peak timing for the fall season, and it got even quieter on the trail away from the overlook. At times the trail winds through trees, at others it comes out onto rocky ridges with spectacular views of the lake and surroundings. Would highly recommend this trail.
We ended up hiking somewhere over two miles down the trail past the eastern end of the lake and a little ways up the Upper Carp River. We stopped for a snack/lunch break right by the eastern end of the lake where we could enjoy the sights. As we hiked out, the weather cleared up a fair bit, but as we started on our way back to the parking lot, the clouds began to thicken yet again. At one point I think we walked through a cloud, but any rain held off.
From the Lake of the Clouds, we moved to the Summit Peak Scenic Area for a different view of the park. The trail here was 0.9 miles one way to the top of Summit Peak, the highest point of the park. The lower half is a nice walk through the woods that transitions into a wooden boardwalk and steps ending at a 50-foot observation tower. The views weren’t amazing, but it was worth a quick look and now we can say we’ve been to the park’s highest point.
Like the previous day, because of our limited time in the area, I opted for visiting a few places for a shorter amount of time rather than spend more time in one or two spots in order to get more of an overview of the park. That said, our last stop of the day was the Presque Isle Scenic Area to see waterfalls. This hike reminded me of some hikes through the gorges in New York’s Finger Lakes region. The trail wound through a gorge right off of Lake Superior with several waterfalls, smaller than the ones we saw the day before, and was a nice end to our day in the Porcupines. I think this area was where we encountered the most people in the day, but still nothing compared to some of the summer crowds I’ve seen.
We made the drive back to Baraga State Park, where we prepared another camp dinner (oatmeal and a banana for me) before enjoying a second night in the mini cabin. It was definitely cool at night, but the cabin with four people in it never even got cold enough for me to put on pants. (I wore shorts for the entirety of the trip.) There was a space heater provided, and at one point we turned it on to see if it worked, but we didn’t need it. The shared bathroom block was nice, and there were individual shower stalls, with nice hot water, at the back of the building. Overall, even with the traffic noise, $52 a night split between four people was well worth it for a fun experience that requires less vital equipment than tent camping.
I planned for one not-too-long hike by the Lake of the Clouds, the one place everyone goes if you go to the Porcupines. When I asked my coworkers, they all said they’d be okay with some hiking, but I am aware that most people don’t casually go for three mile romps through the woods in all kinds of weather on an average evening, possibly after a full day of work. The internet told me that the Escarpment Trail, leading away from the Lake of the Clouds, had some of the best views in the park, and if we hiked it as an out and back, we could choose how long we wanted our hike to be.
When we arrived, it was foggy/misty/cloudy (again) with clouds rolling across the landscape. We went first to the Lake of the Clouds Overlook where we got our first look at the lake and surrounding mountains. Although it was supposed to be late in the season for fall colors, there were still a lot of yellow and even green leaves on the trees and the view, when not covered with clouds, was lovely. The overlook is located at the west end of the lake, facing east down the length of the lake with mountains sloping upwards from the north and south shores.
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| Clockwise from top left: Lake of the Clouds upon arrival, Lake of the Clouds partway along the Escarpment Trail, the Escarpment Trail, close up of trees |
From the overlook, we found the Escarpment Trail that leads east along a ridge on the north side of the Lake of the Clouds. As I’ve mentioned already, it was pretty quiet because we were there past what’s considered peak timing for the fall season, and it got even quieter on the trail away from the overlook. At times the trail winds through trees, at others it comes out onto rocky ridges with spectacular views of the lake and surroundings. Would highly recommend this trail.
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| Upper Carp River east of Lake of the Clouds |
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| Clockwise from top left: View from our lunch spot, Upper Carp River, Lake of the Clouds post hike, view looking west from the Lake of the Clouds overlook |
We ended up hiking somewhere over two miles down the trail past the eastern end of the lake and a little ways up the Upper Carp River. We stopped for a snack/lunch break right by the eastern end of the lake where we could enjoy the sights. As we hiked out, the weather cleared up a fair bit, but as we started on our way back to the parking lot, the clouds began to thicken yet again. At one point I think we walked through a cloud, but any rain held off.
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| Big Carp River (from the Lake of the Clouds overlook) |
From the Lake of the Clouds, we moved to the Summit Peak Scenic Area for a different view of the park. The trail here was 0.9 miles one way to the top of Summit Peak, the highest point of the park. The lower half is a nice walk through the woods that transitions into a wooden boardwalk and steps ending at a 50-foot observation tower. The views weren’t amazing, but it was worth a quick look and now we can say we’ve been to the park’s highest point.
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| View from Summit Peak |
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| Observation Tower |
Like the previous day, because of our limited time in the area, I opted for visiting a few places for a shorter amount of time rather than spend more time in one or two spots in order to get more of an overview of the park. That said, our last stop of the day was the Presque Isle Scenic Area to see waterfalls. This hike reminded me of some hikes through the gorges in New York’s Finger Lakes region. The trail wound through a gorge right off of Lake Superior with several waterfalls, smaller than the ones we saw the day before, and was a nice end to our day in the Porcupines. I think this area was where we encountered the most people in the day, but still nothing compared to some of the summer crowds I’ve seen.
 |
| Presque Isle Scenic Area |
We made the drive back to Baraga State Park, where we prepared another camp dinner (oatmeal and a banana for me) before enjoying a second night in the mini cabin. It was definitely cool at night, but the cabin with four people in it never even got cold enough for me to put on pants. (I wore shorts for the entirety of the trip.) There was a space heater provided, and at one point we turned it on to see if it worked, but we didn’t need it. The shared bathroom block was nice, and there were individual shower stalls, with nice hot water, at the back of the building. Overall, even with the traffic noise, $52 a night split between four people was well worth it for a fun experience that requires less vital equipment than tent camping.
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore [part 2]
Barring the combination farewell present of possible heatstroke and/or getting hit by lightning that Cornell gave us at my graduation, most of my travels have not been strongly adversely affected by the weather. We had a couple marginal days at Acadia, and I have all sorts of transit stories, but overall it’s been awhile since we’ve gotten caught in a full on downpour in the middle of an outdoor activity. The forecast for our U.P. trip wasn’t great, and that combined with a fairly tight schedule and companions who probably didn’t want to trek 10 miles through the woods, led me to pick a few shorter/less involved sights to see at Pictured Rocks.
After hotel breakfast, we set out to our first destination, Miners Falls, a 1.2 mile round trip from a parking lot near the east end of the park. It was damp, misty, and a little drizzly when we set out on the short hike, but overall conditions weren’t too bad. There were a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and more arrived later, but because we were there late in the season, it was pretty quiet. The trail to the falls is more or less flat is it winds through the woods and leads first to an overlook by the top of Miners Falls where you can see the falls but they’re somewhat impeded by trees. There’s a second viewing area further down several flights of stairs with clear sightlines to the falls. Miners Falls is about 50 feet high, so not super tall, but a nice waterfall with a good amount of water falling down it. Including the walk to and from the falls, taking photos of the falls and misty trees, and discovering and observing various slugs, we spent about an hour at Miners Falls before heading further down the road to Miners Castle.
Miners Castle isn’t a castle building but a rock formation that looks kind of like a castle turret, I guess. There are also two viewing areas for Miners Castle, one off of the parking lot where you look over the lake at the cliffs and the whole rock formation, and one a short walk down some steps where you get to see the turret up close. This was a quick stop, just about half an hour for some photos as the mist rolled in.
Our last destination in this area of the park was Miners Beach, where you can get some views of the cliffs from the shore. By this time, it had started to rain more heavily, and the mist thickened, but we still spent about forty five minutes wandering up and down the beach enjoying the wet sand and lake.
Before leaving Pictured Rocks to head further west, we stopped for lunch sandwiches (that I made at the hotel before checking out) in the Munising Falls parking lot. We then made the short walk, all paved, to Munising Falls. The 50-foot falls are located in a sandstone cliff U of a canyon. The rain had let up a bit by this point so we were a little less wet as we explored the area around the falls.
Between the cruise the previous day and our stops on day two, I think we got to experience most of the big attractions at Pictured Rocks. There are plenty of other sights we didn’t get to see across the 42-mile lakeshore but we hit up some of the major locations with our limited time. Entry to the park was free when we went, but with increasing numbers of visitors and their accompanying environmental impact, Pictured Rocks, managed by the National Park Service, is soon to start charging entrance fees.
Our lodgings for the night was the mini cabin at Baraga State Park, and on the way we made a stop at Laughing Whitefish Falls State Park for one last waterfall for the day. Still slightly damp from the morning, we took another short half-mile hike through the trees to the falls. Finally, we finished the drive to Baraga State Park, about an hour east of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, and got settled into their mini cabin. When we booked the cabin, I didn’t realize the park was right off of Route 41, with its accompanying traffic noise, which was the main negative comment people had, but it didn’t end up being too bad with the windows and door closed.
A couple of my coworkers had never been camping in any form, and it being the middle of October 4 degrees further north from my usual environs, the camper cabin was a better decision than tent camping, which we very briefly considered. But without much equipment and night temperatures starting to drop towards freezing, we would not have had as good of a trip. The cabin was pretty small, maybe 12 feet square, and had some counter space, a microwave, a mini fridge, a queen bed with a twin lofted over it, and a cot. I slept on the cot (in my sleeping bag). After unpacking bedding and food, we prepared a ramen dinner, then settled in for the night.
After hotel breakfast, we set out to our first destination, Miners Falls, a 1.2 mile round trip from a parking lot near the east end of the park. It was damp, misty, and a little drizzly when we set out on the short hike, but overall conditions weren’t too bad. There were a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and more arrived later, but because we were there late in the season, it was pretty quiet. The trail to the falls is more or less flat is it winds through the woods and leads first to an overlook by the top of Miners Falls where you can see the falls but they’re somewhat impeded by trees. There’s a second viewing area further down several flights of stairs with clear sightlines to the falls. Miners Falls is about 50 feet high, so not super tall, but a nice waterfall with a good amount of water falling down it. Including the walk to and from the falls, taking photos of the falls and misty trees, and discovering and observing various slugs, we spent about an hour at Miners Falls before heading further down the road to Miners Castle.
 |
| Miners Falls |
 |
| Slugs, misty trees, and lichen |
Miners Castle isn’t a castle building but a rock formation that looks kind of like a castle turret, I guess. There are also two viewing areas for Miners Castle, one off of the parking lot where you look over the lake at the cliffs and the whole rock formation, and one a short walk down some steps where you get to see the turret up close. This was a quick stop, just about half an hour for some photos as the mist rolled in.
 |
| Miners Castle |
Our last destination in this area of the park was Miners Beach, where you can get some views of the cliffs from the shore. By this time, it had started to rain more heavily, and the mist thickened, but we still spent about forty five minutes wandering up and down the beach enjoying the wet sand and lake.
 |
| Miners Beach |
 |
| Also Miners Beach |
Before leaving Pictured Rocks to head further west, we stopped for lunch sandwiches (that I made at the hotel before checking out) in the Munising Falls parking lot. We then made the short walk, all paved, to Munising Falls. The 50-foot falls are located in a sandstone cliff U of a canyon. The rain had let up a bit by this point so we were a little less wet as we explored the area around the falls.
 |
| Munising Falls |
Between the cruise the previous day and our stops on day two, I think we got to experience most of the big attractions at Pictured Rocks. There are plenty of other sights we didn’t get to see across the 42-mile lakeshore but we hit up some of the major locations with our limited time. Entry to the park was free when we went, but with increasing numbers of visitors and their accompanying environmental impact, Pictured Rocks, managed by the National Park Service, is soon to start charging entrance fees.
Our lodgings for the night was the mini cabin at Baraga State Park, and on the way we made a stop at Laughing Whitefish Falls State Park for one last waterfall for the day. Still slightly damp from the morning, we took another short half-mile hike through the trees to the falls. Finally, we finished the drive to Baraga State Park, about an hour east of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, and got settled into their mini cabin. When we booked the cabin, I didn’t realize the park was right off of Route 41, with its accompanying traffic noise, which was the main negative comment people had, but it didn’t end up being too bad with the windows and door closed.
 |
| Laughing Whitefish Falls |
A couple of my coworkers had never been camping in any form, and it being the middle of October 4 degrees further north from my usual environs, the camper cabin was a better decision than tent camping, which we very briefly considered. But without much equipment and night temperatures starting to drop towards freezing, we would not have had as good of a trip. The cabin was pretty small, maybe 12 feet square, and had some counter space, a microwave, a mini fridge, a queen bed with a twin lofted over it, and a cot. I slept on the cot (in my sleeping bag). After unpacking bedding and food, we prepared a ramen dinner, then settled in for the night.
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore [part 1]
It took until I was about to graduate, but I finally made it up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.) back in October. By the beginning of the school year, my coworkers and I had started to return to the office more frequently (because of staggered schedules and a small group size, our office was operating between low and no density, and that plus vaccines and no huge delta spike meant that people were feeling pretty okay about being there). One day they got to talking about taking a trip up north to see the fall colors, and I got roped into the conversation and soon found myself agreeing to head for the Upper Peninsula with half the lab.
We left on a Monday morning and arrived at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in time for a late afternoon boat tour. The next day, we spent the morning and early afternoon at Pictured Rocks before driving further west to our lodgings at a state park about an hour away from the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. On Wednesday, we hiked around the Porcupine Mountains, then on Thursday drove up to Copper Harbor before heading back across the U.P. to spend the night in Mackinaw City. On Friday morning, we made our way down to the palm, arriving in Ann Arbor by early afternoon.
For reasons, I ended up planning the majority of our activities with input from my coworkers, similarly to my Acadia trip in the summer. The first day, we agreed to get on the road early so we could arrive at Pictured Rocks by early afternoon with time for a cruise. Everyone held up their end of the deal, pickups started at 7 am, and we were heading north out of Ann Arbor by 8. We stopped at a gas/service station for a brief lunch before continuing on our drive. It was six hours to the Grand Sable entrance at the east end of Pictured Rocks, then another hour through the park to Munising, where the cruise would leave from. We were there at the tail end of fall colors, but the drive through the park was lovely and there was a mix of trees with green, changed, and fallen leaves.
The cruise was scheduled to begin at 4 pm, and even though we arrived about half an hour early, there were already a number of people lined up for boarding. I’m not a huge fan of cruises and other touristy guided tour type activities, but my labmates wanted to go and there are some landmarks that can only be seen from the water so we did it. The company was Pictured Rocks Cruises, and we were actually there during their second to last week of operation for the season. We took the classic cruise that ran for about two and a half hours and cost $40. The boats have two decks, with the top deck open and the right side of the top deck most desirable for photography reasons. We ended up on the left side of the top deck, which worked out fine because on the way back that’s the side that’s closer to the Pictured Rocks’ namesake rocks.
The cruise passes by the East Channel Lighthouse, Miners Castle, the Caves of All Colors and Rainbow Cave, the arches Lovers Leap and Grand Portal, Battleship Row, a Flower Vase, and Chapel Rock, among other things. On the way out, a guide described what we were passing by and gave some historical and scientific facts about the rocks. The colors come from minerals leaching out of the rocks – orange and red come from iron, blue and green from copper, brown and black from manganese, and white from limonite.
It was coolish at the beginning of the cruise, then got windy as we got out on the water and a little cold as the sun started setting. Would definitely recommend a jacket (which I had), especially late in the season and the day. The light was somewhat challenging, with the overcast sky being bland while also both blocking ambient light and being bright enough to blow out. I had my camera with both my wide angle 10-18 mm lens and the 18-55 mm kit lens (roughly equivalent to 16-28.8 mm and 28.8-88 mm in the “standard” full frame/35 mm format). The wide angle was generally too wide for how far we were from the rocks and I ended up needing the zoom from the kit lens most of the time. Also, we were continuously moving, it was cold, and I was shooting over and between people for most of the trip. Anyway, if you don’t find the price too steep, don’t really like hiking and/or don’t have much time, the cruise is a good way to see a lot of the big attractions at Pictured Rocks, and you often get better views than you would from land.
After we docked, we had dinner up the street from the cruise headquarters, then drove back toward the park to spend the night at a hotel, which ended up being the most expensive lodgings for our trip. In the morning, we enjoyed our hotel breakfast before heading into the park to explore a bit on foot.
We left on a Monday morning and arrived at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in time for a late afternoon boat tour. The next day, we spent the morning and early afternoon at Pictured Rocks before driving further west to our lodgings at a state park about an hour away from the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. On Wednesday, we hiked around the Porcupine Mountains, then on Thursday drove up to Copper Harbor before heading back across the U.P. to spend the night in Mackinaw City. On Friday morning, we made our way down to the palm, arriving in Ann Arbor by early afternoon.
For reasons, I ended up planning the majority of our activities with input from my coworkers, similarly to my Acadia trip in the summer. The first day, we agreed to get on the road early so we could arrive at Pictured Rocks by early afternoon with time for a cruise. Everyone held up their end of the deal, pickups started at 7 am, and we were heading north out of Ann Arbor by 8. We stopped at a gas/service station for a brief lunch before continuing on our drive. It was six hours to the Grand Sable entrance at the east end of Pictured Rocks, then another hour through the park to Munising, where the cruise would leave from. We were there at the tail end of fall colors, but the drive through the park was lovely and there was a mix of trees with green, changed, and fallen leaves.
The cruise was scheduled to begin at 4 pm, and even though we arrived about half an hour early, there were already a number of people lined up for boarding. I’m not a huge fan of cruises and other touristy guided tour type activities, but my labmates wanted to go and there are some landmarks that can only be seen from the water so we did it. The company was Pictured Rocks Cruises, and we were actually there during their second to last week of operation for the season. We took the classic cruise that ran for about two and a half hours and cost $40. The boats have two decks, with the top deck open and the right side of the top deck most desirable for photography reasons. We ended up on the left side of the top deck, which worked out fine because on the way back that’s the side that’s closer to the Pictured Rocks’ namesake rocks.
 |
| East Channel Lighthouse |
 |
| Miners Castle |
The cruise passes by the East Channel Lighthouse, Miners Castle, the Caves of All Colors and Rainbow Cave, the arches Lovers Leap and Grand Portal, Battleship Row, a Flower Vase, and Chapel Rock, among other things. On the way out, a guide described what we were passing by and gave some historical and scientific facts about the rocks. The colors come from minerals leaching out of the rocks – orange and red come from iron, blue and green from copper, brown and black from manganese, and white from limonite.
 |
| Lovers Leap |
 |
| Battleship Row |
It was coolish at the beginning of the cruise, then got windy as we got out on the water and a little cold as the sun started setting. Would definitely recommend a jacket (which I had), especially late in the season and the day. The light was somewhat challenging, with the overcast sky being bland while also both blocking ambient light and being bright enough to blow out. I had my camera with both my wide angle 10-18 mm lens and the 18-55 mm kit lens (roughly equivalent to 16-28.8 mm and 28.8-88 mm in the “standard” full frame/35 mm format). The wide angle was generally too wide for how far we were from the rocks and I ended up needing the zoom from the kit lens most of the time. Also, we were continuously moving, it was cold, and I was shooting over and between people for most of the trip. Anyway, if you don’t find the price too steep, don’t really like hiking and/or don’t have much time, the cruise is a good way to see a lot of the big attractions at Pictured Rocks, and you often get better views than you would from land.
 |
| Chapel Rock |
 |
| Rocks and trees |
After we docked, we had dinner up the street from the cruise headquarters, then drove back toward the park to spend the night at a hotel, which ended up being the most expensive lodgings for our trip. In the morning, we enjoyed our hotel breakfast before heading into the park to explore a bit on foot.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
The Year in Ann Arbor [2021]
Well, “year 2 of the pandemic” wasn’t what anyone wanted to hear after 2020, but here we are. For a couple blissful weeks in July, it looked like we might be able to slowly start reducing Covid restrictions thanks to vaccines and declining cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, then along came the delta variant, followed closely by omicron.
January was a quiet month for me. I went on a winter adventure for the sake of photographs and walked over 8 miles in snowy weather. It was completely worth it. Otherwise, I hung around my apartment, cross stitched for the first time since 2013, played the library’s special pandemic winter version of the Summer Game (aptly called the Winter Game), organized four years of research files, and started watching Kim’s Convenience on Netflix.
In February I worked on my big Acadia National Park cross stitch project and (re)discovered audiobooks and podcasts as a good side activity for cross stitching. I used to listen to audiobooks on cassette tapes, but I never could get into podcasts because I’d either be doing something, get distracted, and stop paying attention to the podcast or not be doing something, get distracted by the need to do something, and stop the podcast. Selections for February included Jane Eyre, Persuasion, and the Office Ladies podcast (an episode by episode recap and behind the scenes look at The Office). With my first paper (finally) accepted and published, I began working on and finalizing simulations for my next paper.
As the semester went on and the university continued transitioning back to in person classes and activities, during March all students in on campus housing, including grad students, were required to participate in weekly asymptomatic Covid testing. I strategically scheduled my tests for the same morning engineering would give out free donuts on North Campus so I could pick up a donut on my way back to my apartment. With my bike still out of action with a flat tire, I hiked the trails around my apartment for the 94,858th time. To celebrate one year of the pandemic, I gave in to the likely pandemic-induced brain melt and requested Twilight from the library.
April turned out to be one of my more eventful months of pandemic life. Although Tax Day 2021 was delayed, I filed in April because I had no reason not to. MLS and the New England Revolution also started up their 26th season, and I got my bike tire tube replaced (it was punctured by a metal wire, likely in a gutter masquerading as a bike lane), began the saga known as writing my second manuscript, finished the Acadia cross stitch, and received my first Covid vaccine (Pfizer).
With the weather warming up in May, I continued hiking as usual and also took my bike on an extended ride down the Border to Border trail into Ypsilanti. When a friend from Cornell was in Michigan to visit family, I met up with them at the arboretum for my first in-person social activity in months. Other notable goings-on: baking a carrot cake, finishing Star Trek: The Next Generation, watching soccer.
I kicked off summer in Ann Arbor on the second day of June by baking some quintessential summer staples, pumpkin cranberry bread and pumpkin muffins. At the beginning of the month, I staked out the peony garden, and that was followed by a hunt for periodic cicadas. Midmonth, the AADL Summer Game started, I checked in with Cornell ChemE at my virtual 5th reunion, and I worked on the incredibly tedious tasks of making manuscript figures and compiling the world’s longest Supporting Information section. Later in June, I baked the famous Doubletree cookies, then while on Reddit, read a post that discussed Dungeons & Dragons, wondered how exactly D&D worked, remembered a blog post from years ago about Critical Role (an internet show in which voice actors play D&D), and started in on Critical Role’s second campaign. Similarly to podcasts, it’s a great cross stitch side activity because you don’t really need to watch half a dozen people sit around a table and talk for four hours straight, but it’s an entertaining background for the repetitive nature of cross stitch.
The back and forth editing process with my advisor started on my manuscript in July. Thanks to the aforementioned vaccines, I attended outdoor church for the first time since the pandemic began, and the library reopened for browsing. The lab had its second virtual defense, I stopped by Art Fair to watch the chaos, and the Revolution unbelievably was having what was shaping up to be their best season ever. At the end of the month, I took two buses and a plane to go home for the first time since December 2019.
I spent most of August with my family at home, where I got to go to Wegmans, see a Revolution game, hike a fair amount, and take a road trip up to Acadia National Park. I planned most of the Acadia itinerary, and we hiked some of our usual favorite trails as well as some new to us.
Back in Ann Arbor for another semester, my first achievement of September was catching up on all 17 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. I also made my return to my office and started making preparations for graduation while finishing Star Trek: The Original Series before it left Netflix.
In October, I jumped right into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and my research group took a road trip up north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We visited Pictured Rocks, the Porcupine Mountains, Copper Harbor, and Mackinaw City. Upon our return, I got back to work because I had my data meeting scheduled for the end of the month.
By November, the defense countdown was on. I submitted my second manuscript and NaNoWriMo-ed my thesis in the office while enjoying the weather outdoors when possible. After closing out the MLS season as the Supporters Shield winner (best regular season record) for the first time ever and setting an overall record for most points in a season, the Revolution lost in the first round of the playoffs, ending the hopes and dreams of Revolution fans yet again.
Finally, the time had come, to talk of many things, but actually just my micelles. In December, I got my thesis written and distributed to my committee, and shortly before Christmas, at long last, held my dissertation defense. After passing, I celebrated Christmas and New Year's in Ann Arbor with The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Night Before Critmas, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a bike ride along the Ann Arbor portion of the B2B trail when it hit 40 degrees on the last day of the year.
January was a quiet month for me. I went on a winter adventure for the sake of photographs and walked over 8 miles in snowy weather. It was completely worth it. Otherwise, I hung around my apartment, cross stitched for the first time since 2013, played the library’s special pandemic winter version of the Summer Game (aptly called the Winter Game), organized four years of research files, and started watching Kim’s Convenience on Netflix.
In February I worked on my big Acadia National Park cross stitch project and (re)discovered audiobooks and podcasts as a good side activity for cross stitching. I used to listen to audiobooks on cassette tapes, but I never could get into podcasts because I’d either be doing something, get distracted, and stop paying attention to the podcast or not be doing something, get distracted by the need to do something, and stop the podcast. Selections for February included Jane Eyre, Persuasion, and the Office Ladies podcast (an episode by episode recap and behind the scenes look at The Office). With my first paper (finally) accepted and published, I began working on and finalizing simulations for my next paper.
As the semester went on and the university continued transitioning back to in person classes and activities, during March all students in on campus housing, including grad students, were required to participate in weekly asymptomatic Covid testing. I strategically scheduled my tests for the same morning engineering would give out free donuts on North Campus so I could pick up a donut on my way back to my apartment. With my bike still out of action with a flat tire, I hiked the trails around my apartment for the 94,858th time. To celebrate one year of the pandemic, I gave in to the likely pandemic-induced brain melt and requested Twilight from the library.
April turned out to be one of my more eventful months of pandemic life. Although Tax Day 2021 was delayed, I filed in April because I had no reason not to. MLS and the New England Revolution also started up their 26th season, and I got my bike tire tube replaced (it was punctured by a metal wire, likely in a gutter masquerading as a bike lane), began the saga known as writing my second manuscript, finished the Acadia cross stitch, and received my first Covid vaccine (Pfizer).
With the weather warming up in May, I continued hiking as usual and also took my bike on an extended ride down the Border to Border trail into Ypsilanti. When a friend from Cornell was in Michigan to visit family, I met up with them at the arboretum for my first in-person social activity in months. Other notable goings-on: baking a carrot cake, finishing Star Trek: The Next Generation, watching soccer.
I kicked off summer in Ann Arbor on the second day of June by baking some quintessential summer staples, pumpkin cranberry bread and pumpkin muffins. At the beginning of the month, I staked out the peony garden, and that was followed by a hunt for periodic cicadas. Midmonth, the AADL Summer Game started, I checked in with Cornell ChemE at my virtual 5th reunion, and I worked on the incredibly tedious tasks of making manuscript figures and compiling the world’s longest Supporting Information section. Later in June, I baked the famous Doubletree cookies, then while on Reddit, read a post that discussed Dungeons & Dragons, wondered how exactly D&D worked, remembered a blog post from years ago about Critical Role (an internet show in which voice actors play D&D), and started in on Critical Role’s second campaign. Similarly to podcasts, it’s a great cross stitch side activity because you don’t really need to watch half a dozen people sit around a table and talk for four hours straight, but it’s an entertaining background for the repetitive nature of cross stitch.
The back and forth editing process with my advisor started on my manuscript in July. Thanks to the aforementioned vaccines, I attended outdoor church for the first time since the pandemic began, and the library reopened for browsing. The lab had its second virtual defense, I stopped by Art Fair to watch the chaos, and the Revolution unbelievably was having what was shaping up to be their best season ever. At the end of the month, I took two buses and a plane to go home for the first time since December 2019.
I spent most of August with my family at home, where I got to go to Wegmans, see a Revolution game, hike a fair amount, and take a road trip up to Acadia National Park. I planned most of the Acadia itinerary, and we hiked some of our usual favorite trails as well as some new to us.
Back in Ann Arbor for another semester, my first achievement of September was catching up on all 17 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. I also made my return to my office and started making preparations for graduation while finishing Star Trek: The Original Series before it left Netflix.
In October, I jumped right into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and my research group took a road trip up north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We visited Pictured Rocks, the Porcupine Mountains, Copper Harbor, and Mackinaw City. Upon our return, I got back to work because I had my data meeting scheduled for the end of the month.
By November, the defense countdown was on. I submitted my second manuscript and NaNoWriMo-ed my thesis in the office while enjoying the weather outdoors when possible. After closing out the MLS season as the Supporters Shield winner (best regular season record) for the first time ever and setting an overall record for most points in a season, the Revolution lost in the first round of the playoffs, ending the hopes and dreams of Revolution fans yet again.
Finally, the time had come, to talk of many things, but actually just my micelles. In December, I got my thesis written and distributed to my committee, and shortly before Christmas, at long last, held my dissertation defense. After passing, I celebrated Christmas and New Year's in Ann Arbor with The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Night Before Critmas, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a bike ride along the Ann Arbor portion of the B2B trail when it hit 40 degrees on the last day of the year.
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
The Year in Ann Arbor [2020]
2020 was not the year most people thought it would be, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20, right? To document life during a pandemic, unlike other years I’ve been writing monthly posts since March, so this post will be a summary of summaries. [Find each month here: March April May June July August September October November December.]
For the third time in four years, I began the new year at the airport, flying back to Detroit at the beginning of January. I reread The Fellowship of the Ring, ate pineapple tarts delivered from Singapore and picked up at home at Christmas, had a band concert in which I made my debut on the triangle, and was recruited to attend a couple ChemE seminars and have lunch with faculty candidates.
In February, reports of a new virus in China were circulating, but it was believed to be localized and people didn’t need to be concerned unless they had recently travelled to China. We procrastinated and complained in the office, our lab had group meetings, band rehearsals for our third concert of the season continued, I watched the end of Cornell men’s hockey’s very successful season and the start of MLS’s 25th season, and I started Star Trek: The Next Generation.
By March, it was becoming clear that the coronavirus was not contained in China. Days before classes went online, conferences and visit weekends were cancelled, churches stopped meeting in person, and sports were delayed, I performed in what might end up being my last concert with the Ann Arbor Concert Band. Later that week, our lab had our last in-person group meeting, and I went to my office for the last time to pick up books and notes before non-essential research (anything not virus-related or necessary to keep cells/animals alive) was shut down. As Michigan got an official stay at home order, I finished watching The Office.
I worked from my apartment through the month of April and started exploring the neighborhoods and parks of Ann Arbor on foot. Community came to Netflix, MLS re-aired old matches while the season was on hold, and I baked peanut butter cookies and cinnamon rolls, assembled jigsaw puzzles, read from my bookcase, and finished writing the first draft of my manuscript v2.0.
During May, businesses started reopening with cleaning, mask, capacity, and distancing requirements. As a computational researcher, I continued computing in my apartment, though the university tested opening a limited number of labs for experimental researchers. I began my quest to visit every park in Ann Arbor, which turned out to be a great pandemic activity. Basically free, essentially infinitely ventilated, can be done alone, generally easy to remain distanced, is a source of vitamin D, reduces cortisol (stress hormone), and produces endorphins (can lower symptoms of depression and anxiety).
With coronavirus numbers looking much better, the stay at home order was lifted in June. I spent the month on my bike in all corners of Ann Arbor hunting parks down. The Ann Arbor District Library put on the 2020 pandemic version of the Summer Game. My baking masterpiece of the month was a pineapple upside down cake, and I finished the available Great British Bake Off episodes, started rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and ate, slept, and did research.
July was hot and humid, just like summer should be. While I sweated my way through dozens of parks and miles on my bike and avoided the oven, Jeopardy! opened up their vault and aired old episodes, and MLS started back up after four months. They bubbled up in Orlando for the MLS is Back tournament (the Returnament), where each team played three group stage games that would count in the standings followed by knockout games that didn’t factor into the standings but would earn the team a mostly meaningless trophy. The Revolution picked up a win and two ties, then were knocked out in the round of 16 (the first knockout round).
Students returned to campus in August for a limited number of in-person classes and on-campus activities. I didn’t think it was a great idea, but covid numbers in Washtenaw county looked pretty good, so I wasn’t vehemently against it. The MLS regular season picked up again with regional games (with the three Canadian clubs stuck in Canada only able to play each other), no fans, and regular testing. At the end of the month, I submitted edit 927 of version 2 of my manuscript and had my first day of 21st grade.
The university’s (lack of) coronavirus plan was a major point of contention in September, as minimal covid testing and quarantine housing conditions, among other things, drove the grad students to strike, the RAs to strike, the dining hall workers to want to strike, and the faculty senate to vote no confidence in the university president. Matters were somewhat resolved and people settled in for the semester. In other news, I finished Parks and Recreation before it left Netflix, met up with a couple individuals for the first time since March, picked up my clarinet very briefly, and saw goats.
October was my birthday month, and to celebrate and enjoy fall before everything froze over for six months, I visited several parks in Ann Arbor in search of fall colors. Covid cases at the university rose enough for the county to issue a shelter in place order for the undergrads, and nationwide cases and hospitalizations were trending upwards (again).
I was finally forced to put on pants in November when temperatures dropped, but I continued my outdoor wanderings (in shorts) whenever possible. The election happened. One of my coworkers defended via Zoom, I watched a livestreamed wedding, and the Revolution finished the regular season with enough points to make the playoffs. To the surprise of many people, they won a play-in game, beat the number one Eastern Conference seed in the round of 16, and emerged victorious in their conference semifinal game, earning themselves a spot in the conference final. Also, I baked molasses cookies and cranberry orange scones, made cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, had breakfast for dinner, and my manuscript, after a couple rounds of revisions, was accepted. One of those things is not like the others.
And finally, we made it to December. The Revolution lost in the conference final, but that means they made it to the conference final. I tried to venture outside a few times a week, it snowed (and melted), and I started cross stitching again. And my paper was finally, after many trials and much tribulation, published.
For the third time in four years, I began the new year at the airport, flying back to Detroit at the beginning of January. I reread The Fellowship of the Ring, ate pineapple tarts delivered from Singapore and picked up at home at Christmas, had a band concert in which I made my debut on the triangle, and was recruited to attend a couple ChemE seminars and have lunch with faculty candidates.
In February, reports of a new virus in China were circulating, but it was believed to be localized and people didn’t need to be concerned unless they had recently travelled to China. We procrastinated and complained in the office, our lab had group meetings, band rehearsals for our third concert of the season continued, I watched the end of Cornell men’s hockey’s very successful season and the start of MLS’s 25th season, and I started Star Trek: The Next Generation.
By March, it was becoming clear that the coronavirus was not contained in China. Days before classes went online, conferences and visit weekends were cancelled, churches stopped meeting in person, and sports were delayed, I performed in what might end up being my last concert with the Ann Arbor Concert Band. Later that week, our lab had our last in-person group meeting, and I went to my office for the last time to pick up books and notes before non-essential research (anything not virus-related or necessary to keep cells/animals alive) was shut down. As Michigan got an official stay at home order, I finished watching The Office.
I worked from my apartment through the month of April and started exploring the neighborhoods and parks of Ann Arbor on foot. Community came to Netflix, MLS re-aired old matches while the season was on hold, and I baked peanut butter cookies and cinnamon rolls, assembled jigsaw puzzles, read from my bookcase, and finished writing the first draft of my manuscript v2.0.
During May, businesses started reopening with cleaning, mask, capacity, and distancing requirements. As a computational researcher, I continued computing in my apartment, though the university tested opening a limited number of labs for experimental researchers. I began my quest to visit every park in Ann Arbor, which turned out to be a great pandemic activity. Basically free, essentially infinitely ventilated, can be done alone, generally easy to remain distanced, is a source of vitamin D, reduces cortisol (stress hormone), and produces endorphins (can lower symptoms of depression and anxiety).
With coronavirus numbers looking much better, the stay at home order was lifted in June. I spent the month on my bike in all corners of Ann Arbor hunting parks down. The Ann Arbor District Library put on the 2020 pandemic version of the Summer Game. My baking masterpiece of the month was a pineapple upside down cake, and I finished the available Great British Bake Off episodes, started rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and ate, slept, and did research.
July was hot and humid, just like summer should be. While I sweated my way through dozens of parks and miles on my bike and avoided the oven, Jeopardy! opened up their vault and aired old episodes, and MLS started back up after four months. They bubbled up in Orlando for the MLS is Back tournament (the Returnament), where each team played three group stage games that would count in the standings followed by knockout games that didn’t factor into the standings but would earn the team a mostly meaningless trophy. The Revolution picked up a win and two ties, then were knocked out in the round of 16 (the first knockout round).
Students returned to campus in August for a limited number of in-person classes and on-campus activities. I didn’t think it was a great idea, but covid numbers in Washtenaw county looked pretty good, so I wasn’t vehemently against it. The MLS regular season picked up again with regional games (with the three Canadian clubs stuck in Canada only able to play each other), no fans, and regular testing. At the end of the month, I submitted edit 927 of version 2 of my manuscript and had my first day of 21st grade.
The university’s (lack of) coronavirus plan was a major point of contention in September, as minimal covid testing and quarantine housing conditions, among other things, drove the grad students to strike, the RAs to strike, the dining hall workers to want to strike, and the faculty senate to vote no confidence in the university president. Matters were somewhat resolved and people settled in for the semester. In other news, I finished Parks and Recreation before it left Netflix, met up with a couple individuals for the first time since March, picked up my clarinet very briefly, and saw goats.
October was my birthday month, and to celebrate and enjoy fall before everything froze over for six months, I visited several parks in Ann Arbor in search of fall colors. Covid cases at the university rose enough for the county to issue a shelter in place order for the undergrads, and nationwide cases and hospitalizations were trending upwards (again).
I was finally forced to put on pants in November when temperatures dropped, but I continued my outdoor wanderings (in shorts) whenever possible. The election happened. One of my coworkers defended via Zoom, I watched a livestreamed wedding, and the Revolution finished the regular season with enough points to make the playoffs. To the surprise of many people, they won a play-in game, beat the number one Eastern Conference seed in the round of 16, and emerged victorious in their conference semifinal game, earning themselves a spot in the conference final. Also, I baked molasses cookies and cranberry orange scones, made cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, had breakfast for dinner, and my manuscript, after a couple rounds of revisions, was accepted. One of those things is not like the others.
And finally, we made it to December. The Revolution lost in the conference final, but that means they made it to the conference final. I tried to venture outside a few times a week, it snowed (and melted), and I started cross stitching again. And my paper was finally, after many trials and much tribulation, published.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
One Hundred Days of Solitude
Well, we’ve reached over a hundred days since I intentionally went to a public place to interact with real live people. Besides a five-minute visit to my office to pick up my books before labs were shut down, I’ve been to exactly two indoor locations – the grocery store and my apartment. I haven’t ridden the bus, been driven in a car, or flown anywhere for the better part of four months. We’re technically allowed to go places now, but I’ve stuck to my apartment and outdoor locations while waiting to see how reopening goes. Approaching the end of the month, the numbers in Michigan looked pretty good, both in terms of cases and deaths. Michigan Medicine posts the number of COVID-19 positive inpatients they have every day, and they hit a low on June 17/18 since this all started in March. However, that number then rose 50% in 4 days. Time to lock everyone back in their closets? Not quite yet. They went from 6 to 9 patients, and only time will tell if this is statistically insignificant or the start of another wave.
At the beginning of the month, Governor Whitmer lifted the stay-at-home order, effective immediately on Monday, June 1. Indoor gatherings with less than 10 people and outdoor gatherings with less than 100 people and social distancing were permitted. As this was only a week after Memorial Day and its unknown numbers of barbeques with unknown quantities of people practicing unknown degrees of social distancing/facial covering, I declined to do anything other than stay at home and do research and watch Netflix. On Sunday, June 7, my church restarted in-person services outdoors. I didn’t attend because 1) I didn’t want to bike there and 2) unknown quantities of people practicing unknown degrees of social distancing/facial covering. I did, however, bake a pineapple upside down cake. It was a midcentury-esque masterpiece.
By Monday, June 8, retail, restaurants, pools, libraries, museums, offices, etc. were all allowed to be open with varying social distancing and capacity restrictions. The places that were left closed at this point were things like gyms, bowling alleys, movie theaters, and nail salons, where groups of people congregate and/or are in close contact for not strictly essential activities. I did my roughly biannual intensive floor washing on Tuesday, June 9, because turns out dust is a thing. On Wednesday, June 10, I finished watching all of the Great British Baking Show episodes available on Netflix. Friday, June 12, the Ann Arbor library started the coronavirus/socially distanced/virtual summer 2020 Summer Game and I started rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is even better than I remembered.
The weather was too nice on Saturday, June 13 to not go out, so even though I knew it would be “crowded,” I set out on my bike for the Bird Hills/Barton Nature Areas area. After the world’s most unnecessary detour, I made it and added a couple more parks to my list. It was indeed busier than my usual mosquito-infested, swampy haunts, but not too bad away from a couple spots. On Sunday, June 14, I again watched church on Facebook live, then did a load of laundry, and ate my last two freezer pancakes for dinner. I did my semi-annual file backup/SD card reformatting on Monday, June 15 and otherwise got research done over the rest of the week. Plus baked a batch of popovers for the heck of it on Wednesday, June 17 (I got flour at the grocery store and it wasn’t 900 degrees in my apartment).
On Saturday, June 20 I went grocery shopping in the morning (still basically 100% of people wearing face coverings1) and in the afternoon headed out to visit another group of parks. Why the city of Ann Arbor thought right next to the M-14 was a good place for a nature area is beyond me. Nothing like the sounds of the birds and 75 mph traffic as you walk through the woods. Anyway, joke’s on me because I took the time to visit this park. I still wasn’t attending church as of Sunday, June 21, so it was another Facebook sermon with questionable audio for me. The rest of the week was research as usual; I also visited parks, ate sandwiches, baked apple cobbler, watched Netflix, reread books. The university committed to a partially in-person fall semester with a modified schedule, but we’ll see how well that works out once students return en masse.
On Saturday, June 27, I took my bike out to the northern half of Ann Arbor to visit my remaining parks north of the Huron River. With that done, I’ll have to start ranging farther afield into lesser known territories. On the plus side, biking in high heat, humidity, and sun makes my 85-degree apartment feel cool . . . for about ten minutes when I first get back. Another Sunday, another Facebook sermon on Sunday, June 28. Then I finished out the month with a couple days of work. On to July. I’m still not making plans to go anywhere/do anything while I wait and see how things go. Like I said, the numbers in Michigan still seem pretty good but other states are not looking great.
1A side note on masks/face coverings from my science-ish perspective: Even if they aren’t super effective, and are hot and uncomfortable, I’d rather be careful. And no, you are not suffocating yourself, with carbon dioxide or otherwise. 1) Air is already mostly not oxygen (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen by volume). 2) You don’t extract all the oxygen from air you inhale. Exhaled air is still ~16% oxygen; in other words ~80% of the oxygen that’s inhaled is exhaled. 3) Masks are porous. The pore size of cloth is on the order of microns. Air molecules are hundreds of picometers, or 5-6 orders of magnitude smaller. Your exhalations are not hitting your mask and rebounding back into your respiratory system. (Virus sizes are on the order of nanometers, so would not be filtered out by a cloth mask, but respiratory droplets are again in the micron range and could be stopped by a mask, which is the point.) 4) Doctors, nurses, dentists, construction workers, etc. are not all passing out at work from hypoxia every time they put on a mask. So even if you don’t really think masks do anything, you’re not killing your brain cells by wearing one, and you might even be helping other people. Isn’t that nice?
At the beginning of the month, Governor Whitmer lifted the stay-at-home order, effective immediately on Monday, June 1. Indoor gatherings with less than 10 people and outdoor gatherings with less than 100 people and social distancing were permitted. As this was only a week after Memorial Day and its unknown numbers of barbeques with unknown quantities of people practicing unknown degrees of social distancing/facial covering, I declined to do anything other than stay at home and do research and watch Netflix. On Sunday, June 7, my church restarted in-person services outdoors. I didn’t attend because 1) I didn’t want to bike there and 2) unknown quantities of people practicing unknown degrees of social distancing/facial covering. I did, however, bake a pineapple upside down cake. It was a midcentury-esque masterpiece.
 |
| Pineapple upside down cake |
By Monday, June 8, retail, restaurants, pools, libraries, museums, offices, etc. were all allowed to be open with varying social distancing and capacity restrictions. The places that were left closed at this point were things like gyms, bowling alleys, movie theaters, and nail salons, where groups of people congregate and/or are in close contact for not strictly essential activities. I did my roughly biannual intensive floor washing on Tuesday, June 9, because turns out dust is a thing. On Wednesday, June 10, I finished watching all of the Great British Baking Show episodes available on Netflix. Friday, June 12, the Ann Arbor library started the coronavirus/socially distanced/virtual summer 2020 Summer Game and I started rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is even better than I remembered.
The weather was too nice on Saturday, June 13 to not go out, so even though I knew it would be “crowded,” I set out on my bike for the Bird Hills/Barton Nature Areas area. After the world’s most unnecessary detour, I made it and added a couple more parks to my list. It was indeed busier than my usual mosquito-infested, swampy haunts, but not too bad away from a couple spots. On Sunday, June 14, I again watched church on Facebook live, then did a load of laundry, and ate my last two freezer pancakes for dinner. I did my semi-annual file backup/SD card reformatting on Monday, June 15 and otherwise got research done over the rest of the week. Plus baked a batch of popovers for the heck of it on Wednesday, June 17 (I got flour at the grocery store and it wasn’t 900 degrees in my apartment).
 |
| Looks very refreshing. (Fuller Park pool, closed, at the beginning of June.) |
On Saturday, June 20 I went grocery shopping in the morning (still basically 100% of people wearing face coverings1) and in the afternoon headed out to visit another group of parks. Why the city of Ann Arbor thought right next to the M-14 was a good place for a nature area is beyond me. Nothing like the sounds of the birds and 75 mph traffic as you walk through the woods. Anyway, joke’s on me because I took the time to visit this park. I still wasn’t attending church as of Sunday, June 21, so it was another Facebook sermon with questionable audio for me. The rest of the week was research as usual; I also visited parks, ate sandwiches, baked apple cobbler, watched Netflix, reread books. The university committed to a partially in-person fall semester with a modified schedule, but we’ll see how well that works out once students return en masse.
On Saturday, June 27, I took my bike out to the northern half of Ann Arbor to visit my remaining parks north of the Huron River. With that done, I’ll have to start ranging farther afield into lesser known territories. On the plus side, biking in high heat, humidity, and sun makes my 85-degree apartment feel cool . . . for about ten minutes when I first get back. Another Sunday, another Facebook sermon on Sunday, June 28. Then I finished out the month with a couple days of work. On to July. I’m still not making plans to go anywhere/do anything while I wait and see how things go. Like I said, the numbers in Michigan still seem pretty good but other states are not looking great.
1A side note on masks/face coverings from my science-ish perspective: Even if they aren’t super effective, and are hot and uncomfortable, I’d rather be careful. And no, you are not suffocating yourself, with carbon dioxide or otherwise. 1) Air is already mostly not oxygen (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen by volume). 2) You don’t extract all the oxygen from air you inhale. Exhaled air is still ~16% oxygen; in other words ~80% of the oxygen that’s inhaled is exhaled. 3) Masks are porous. The pore size of cloth is on the order of microns. Air molecules are hundreds of picometers, or 5-6 orders of magnitude smaller. Your exhalations are not hitting your mask and rebounding back into your respiratory system. (Virus sizes are on the order of nanometers, so would not be filtered out by a cloth mask, but respiratory droplets are again in the micron range and could be stopped by a mask, which is the point.) 4) Doctors, nurses, dentists, construction workers, etc. are not all passing out at work from hypoxia every time they put on a mask. So even if you don’t really think masks do anything, you’re not killing your brain cells by wearing one, and you might even be helping other people. Isn’t that nice?
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Some Creatures Great and Small
We’ve seen the flora of Ann Arbor, so how about the fauna? Besides the usual suspects of fat campus squirrels, deer, and evil geese, since I’ve been exploring the surrounding area, I’ve encountered a few more denizens of our fair city. I (still) only have the kit lens for my camera, so my zoom is sorely lacking, and we’re going to blame that for my less than stellar wildlife photography. My lack of a telephoto lens also means that I have to get pretty close to anything I photograph, so don’t expect any pictures of bears any time soon.
We’ll start off with our campus stalwarts, deer and squirrels, paired with geese and swans. I was on my way to check on the creek/river levels after a rainy few days when I started seeing hoofprints along the path. The deer was nowhere to be found, but it sure left tracks, especially along a particularly muddy stretch. The squirrel could have been found in any of seven thousand different locations, but this was in a nature area where the stars aligned to give me a squirrel close and still enough, a zoomed in lens, the correct focal point, and a reasonable ISO/shutter speed for a living subject. The most common squirrels in the northeast are the Eastern grey squirrel and the red squirrel. Both are present in Michigan along with fox squirrels. My specimen was too big and not red enough to be a red squirrel, and after consultation of the internet, I think it’s a fox squirrel, based on its yellow-ish, not white, belly.
Similarly to the squirrels, the geese are everywhere there’s water between spring and fall. As bad as the hissing, flapping, and charging is in fall, it’s worse in spring because they have goslings. This particular family unit was blocking a path, because of course. I waited for them to get along to a spot where I could give them a nice, wide berth, pausing for a couple photos on the way. The swans are rarer, but I’ve seen them on the Huron River before. These are, unfortunately, invasive mute swans. They’re problematic because they chase away native birds. I found a site that describes them as “one of the world’s most aggressive waterfowl species.” In Michigan you can apply for a permit from the DNR to remove mute swans, nests, and/or eggs from your property.
My next bird was identified with the help of Cornell’s All About Birds site, run by the Lab of Ornithology. I couldn’t tell if it was a crane or heron, but from their site, I think it might be a great blue heron. It’s got the bluish/greyish coloring, orange bill, black crown, and head plumes. I stumbled across this guy going between nature areas. Bonus bird in flight and goose family in the background.
Lastly I ran into whatever these little guys are by North Campus undergraduate housing. I want to say groundhog babies but I’m not positive they aren’t some other rodent-ish animal.
I have a couple more photos that didn’t make this post – a rabbit and a couple raccoons. Most of the animals I don’t usually see because I’m mostly around campus/downtown, but I think the raccoon sightings might be because there have been less people/cars out. One was behind my apartment by the dumpsters and the other was just strolling around campus.
Other, unphotographed creatures I’ve seen include chipmunks (too fast), a couple [nonvenomous] snakes (also fast, hard to spot in the grass, and usually met right before almost stepping on them), and a variety of birds. Because I don’t have a telephoto lens, the smaller birds will mostly have to remain uncaptured, though I do have a picture of a red-winged blackbird in which the bird is actually visible. Sightings include robins, cardinals, blue jays, a pileated woodpecker, and any number of unidentified flying objects.
We’ll start off with our campus stalwarts, deer and squirrels, paired with geese and swans. I was on my way to check on the creek/river levels after a rainy few days when I started seeing hoofprints along the path. The deer was nowhere to be found, but it sure left tracks, especially along a particularly muddy stretch. The squirrel could have been found in any of seven thousand different locations, but this was in a nature area where the stars aligned to give me a squirrel close and still enough, a zoomed in lens, the correct focal point, and a reasonable ISO/shutter speed for a living subject. The most common squirrels in the northeast are the Eastern grey squirrel and the red squirrel. Both are present in Michigan along with fox squirrels. My specimen was too big and not red enough to be a red squirrel, and after consultation of the internet, I think it’s a fox squirrel, based on its yellow-ish, not white, belly.
Similarly to the squirrels, the geese are everywhere there’s water between spring and fall. As bad as the hissing, flapping, and charging is in fall, it’s worse in spring because they have goslings. This particular family unit was blocking a path, because of course. I waited for them to get along to a spot where I could give them a nice, wide berth, pausing for a couple photos on the way. The swans are rarer, but I’ve seen them on the Huron River before. These are, unfortunately, invasive mute swans. They’re problematic because they chase away native birds. I found a site that describes them as “one of the world’s most aggressive waterfowl species.” In Michigan you can apply for a permit from the DNR to remove mute swans, nests, and/or eggs from your property.
 |
| Clockwise from top left: Evidence of deer, non-campus squirrel, evil geese with baby evil geese, and invasive mute swans with baby invasive mute swans. |
My next bird was identified with the help of Cornell’s All About Birds site, run by the Lab of Ornithology. I couldn’t tell if it was a crane or heron, but from their site, I think it might be a great blue heron. It’s got the bluish/greyish coloring, orange bill, black crown, and head plumes. I stumbled across this guy going between nature areas. Bonus bird in flight and goose family in the background.
 |
| Great blue heron (probably) |
Lastly I ran into whatever these little guys are by North Campus undergraduate housing. I want to say groundhog babies but I’m not positive they aren’t some other rodent-ish animal.
 |
| Baby groundhogs (maybe?) |
I have a couple more photos that didn’t make this post – a rabbit and a couple raccoons. Most of the animals I don’t usually see because I’m mostly around campus/downtown, but I think the raccoon sightings might be because there have been less people/cars out. One was behind my apartment by the dumpsters and the other was just strolling around campus.
Other, unphotographed creatures I’ve seen include chipmunks (too fast), a couple [nonvenomous] snakes (also fast, hard to spot in the grass, and usually met right before almost stepping on them), and a variety of birds. Because I don’t have a telephoto lens, the smaller birds will mostly have to remain uncaptured, though I do have a picture of a red-winged blackbird in which the bird is actually visible. Sightings include robins, cardinals, blue jays, a pileated woodpecker, and any number of unidentified flying objects.
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