vacation from vacation

The tour headed on vacation this past week to....Benzie County, I didn't go anywhere as the area has everything I need versus having to go the plane/train/automobile route somewhere else. And my house still has 600 things left on the list to fix/update/add.

Tuesday was fishing day at Lower Herring Lake, not to be confused with Upper Herring Lake across the road. I doubled my normal output as a 16 and 14 incher made it into the boat so a good morning.

Wednesday the tour headed about 30 miles north to the east side of Glen Arbor to pedal Palmer Woods Forest Reserve. A new one for me (new trail altogether) and it did not disappoint. The developers did a great job balancing the climbs/descents. Some fun descents. At the bottom of this post is a short clip from there.

Back to my work vacation tomorrow.

Trail Head

Quota

I hit my quota (1) Saturday morning on Big Platte Lake; a decent size lake about 10 miles north of me off of M-22. It barely made legal length but a nice belly on this green fish. One of these days I'm going to catch two and not know what to do but until then, keep on paddling. 

Trail Head

 

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door...

"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door," a famous saying by someone and gave me pause while I battled a mouse earlier this week. More on the mouse capture in a bit but for all the fancy technology out there, the mouse trap has not changed much and still works as efficiently as ever. 

So my mouse battle (hopefully singular) started about a week ago when my desk clock fell in the middle of the night. I haven't lost my mind yet so ruled out ghosts. The next night I heard a rattle near the garbage can in the bedroom. On go the lights and on the rim of the can stood the critter. Behind the dresser he went. My last need for a mouse trap was two houses ago and still had a couple traps in my junk drawer. No cheese available so went with bits of pizza. Back to sleep I went, woke the next morning and the pizza was gone in both traps, both didn't snap. I didn't push the food against the 'plate' enough so went with gummy bears the following night. Bingo!!! Sorry, no paparazzi photos to share on here. I haven't heard or seen any repeat performances in my bedroom since so believe Mr. Mouse was riding solo.

With the mouse gone, off to the ant hill battles on my front lawn...

Trail Head

Betsie Bay

The blind squirrel found a fish this morning on a pink wacky worm in Betsie Bay.

see some old friends, good for the soul

The brain trust of the world gathered again this weekend to fix everything that needs to be fixed (at least in our pea-brain minds) and managed to catch a few fish while doing so in the annual Skegemog fish spectacular. 

The team competition of Class of '84 vs '85 has left the building as our old asses are too tired to fight. With that, unless side bets are around, there would be no team competition. The biggest fish of the weekend would attain the prestigious Master Angler award. Gus took the award Friday with a 5+ pound bass on an evening when conditions were great but nibbles were minimal. All it takes is one stupid fish latching onto that bubble gum wacky worm and he got it.

Besides fishing, the guitar pluckers in the group entertained throughout the weekend around the campfire with special guest Wendy S. making an appearance to pitch in on vocals. We also got to hear the gory details of "spank-gate" again (not for publishing here).

Trail Head

Stinky Water Park

Today's northern journey takes us to downtown Frankfort and Mineral Springs Park. Curious George that I am in search of knowledge, I assumed there would be some plaque near the dual springs explaining the history of mineral springs and how the park came to be but nothing. Not much there except a spring down below that shoots out two water fountains of stinky mineral water, all day, every day.  The information superhighway also had limited information so I took it to my elderlies in town for their angle. The majority just kind of shrugged their shoulders and called it "Stinky Water Park," 

So there is your northern history lesson for today.

Trail Head

Bike Tour fishing report - Upper Herring Lake

The bike tour hit the water for the first time this year yesterday, paddling Upper Herring Lake a few miles up the road from me off of M-22 with sister Lower Herring Lake on the other side of M-22. The locals gave me tips on where to go and there was a nice structure base below along with ideal drop offs but....no fish to be had. Saw a handful but possibly Friday night's wacky storms spooked them. I didn't see any net grabs for the other two boats out there so I wasn't the only one sucking.

Hopefully some fish stories to share in the upcoming weeks but in the meantime, enjoy a short 360 video view of Upper Herring from Saturday.

Trail Head