Temporary Doglessness

As the annual tradition seems to go, I'm dogless once again. Cathy and I have a lot of random traveling coming up for the next several weekends; dogsitting services were needed. So they're at my folks' place for now, where I'm sure many walks, naps, and treats will be had.


I let old man Q sleep on the couch the day before leaving.


Kya, giving me her best impression of an owl.

m4/3

About two years ago, I briefly noted that Olympus had announced the Micro 4/3 (m4/3) standard. The rest of this post is yawn inducing so feel free to check out anytime, but like I said before, it's essentially Olympus DSLR quality with a smaller body. I bought into Olympus SLR 4/3's format despite its major shortcomings since the good parts fit my uses, the bad parts didn't matter too much, and I subjectively like Olympus, having used their venerable OM-4 long ago. I recently decided to buy into m4/3 as my "compact" camera for similar reasons.


A standard m4/3 setup is smaller than my most used 4/3 lens. Certain limitations mean it won't replace my brick yet, but m4/3 has a place with me. A natural feature of m4/3 and similar formats is a shorter flange-to-film distance, allowing the effective use of many legacy lenses. I've seen nice results using old OM, Voigtländer, and even CCTV lenses. I won't be screwing around with that for now though, I just look forward to traveling with the thing.

*the photo is a m4/3 E-P2 with 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 kit lens, compared to a 4/3 12-60mm 2.8-4 (which has some grime on it).

NCT > Manistee River Trail

So I did as I planned and did an overnighter through the Manistee National Forest. I started on the epic North Country Trail and zigzagged north for a ways (the NCT actually runs all the way from New York to North Dakota). I eventually split off and connected to the north end of the Manistee River Trail, and hiked back south until it ended conveniently exactly where I started. I've done this exact loop a couple times now, it's good for a random weekend. Minor elevation changes, maybe 20-25 miles in all.


This portion of the NCT is well-maintained and is a basic hike through a hilly forest. Pictured Rocks, where I hiked with Nick last month (1, 2), is actually part of the NCT too. Anyway, it had rained the prior night and the day was cool and overcast, so conditions were...damp and grayish, I guess. It made for a peaceful hike.


A massive collective of shelf fungus on the NCT. The NCT segment was relatively uneventful, as expected. It's "close" to the Manistee River, but it's not riverside, making it not as popular as the MRT segment which hugs the river closely. So even though I didn't run into anyone yet, I knew that would change. Thankfully, I wasn't in any particular rush, so I scoped out a nice isolated campsite immediately after finding the river and relaxed for the rest of the day.


The forecast predicted a big cold front would be pushing through all weekend, so I was prepared for a chilly night. It ended up dropping down to around 35 degrees overnight, accompanied by a steady breeze. It was fine though, since generally I'd rather be a bit cold than a bit hot.


Woke up early the next morning to major fog, which I figured would be the case. You can see the footpath which connected my campsite to the river, which was totally obscured. I was glad I didn't have to wade around in the river that morning, having filtered extra water the day before. Also, I just noticed this photo was taken in the same spot as the above photo, except looking towards the ground a bit more.


All this talk about the river, and not one photo of it yet. So here you go. After an hour or so of hiking, the fog started to lift and the sun was trying to break through.


I think the MRT is a great Lower Peninsula trail and offers some really pleasant scenery. Views of the river and surrounding forest, while standing high on a cut bank, are common. It has gotten a bit more popular, which is understandable, but overall it's still chock full of good times. I'll be back for sure.

Hike and Hogback

Throwing together a solo overnighter in the Manistee National Forest, a forest I've hiked in many times. I was there earlier this season (here, there) but this time I'll be more inland, near the Manistee River. I used to go there a lot when I lived in Michigan, which was about seven years ago. I was looking through some old shit for a photo of the trail when I found some older shit from at least nine years ago which I scanned:


35mm of Mike and me on one of the various "peaks" at Hogback Mountain, near Marquette, MI. I'm pretty sure Chuck took the photo. Hogback isn't terribly tall, but it's steep, it's the only tall thing out there, and you get a near 360 degree view. I remember the night was nice so I chose to sleep without a tent on a relatively large flat area on a peak. I woke up a couple hours later to find that I had rotated and rolled 30-40 feet towards the edge of a large cliff, now only about 10 feet away. Now that would've been unfortunate.

Cake?

What is that?


A diaper cake? I've never heard of it until Cathy made one for her friend's baby shower. When I first saw it from a distance I wanted to taste it, then I got closer and realized it was made of baby rearing items and no longer wanted to taste it.

Just thought I'd share. Have a good weekend.

Labor Day

What did you do during the holiday weekend? My presence was required here in Chicago so I never made it more than 15 miles from home. I still had a good time though, enjoying the locality, spending time wandering the city on foot and bicycle. It's a favorite hobby of mine; wandering.


I covered a lot of ground but I didn't find much. Then again, I wasn't really trying to find anything at all. I did take two meaningless photos. This is one of them.

Right now? Currently tossing around ideas for a hike sometime soon, probably just an overnighter. Not sure where but that's not important right now.