Shingle Mill Pathway (6.0 miles; d=6.90)
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Shingle Mill Pathway Hike Route Map
The approximate track of my hike along the Shingle Mill Pathway, depicted a la Google Earth...
Shingle Mill Pathway Hike Route Map
The approximate track of my hike along the Shingle Mill Pathway...
Sunny, 60, and leaves on the trees...this was going to be a good day...
My first order of business was to briefly follow the Shingle Mill west to the south end of Grass Lake then make a short bushwhack to its east side...
The greenish tint of this Bunchberry flower hints that it only recently bloomed...
The one mile bushwhack to the east shore of Grass Lake started out easy enough through this conifer swamp...
...eventually though, things got a bit more tight...
Keeping Grass Lake to my right kept me from getting too far off-course...
There was virtually no breeze so Grass Lake was amazingly placid...
Even when there's no real danger of getting lost its always nice to find the trail again...
The trail stays a ways away from Grass Lake as it heads north so there were no views to speak of...
Crossing one of the many unnamed two-tracks in the area not far from Devils Soupbowl...
Devils Soupbowl is the remains of an old sinkhole now filled with rainwater and runoff. I must have taken a dozen shots of it but due to the intense contrast this was the only one that turned out to my liking...
The steep climb down to the shore of Devils Soupbowl did reward me with a couple new wildflowers. Here a cluster of Yellow Pond Lily's...
...and here the rather unremarkable Daisy Fleabane...
From Devils Soupbowl I continued north and east to a reported overlook about a mile away. With a full canopy overhead, and the fact that this is Michigan, I kept my expectations low...
The fact that the trail did climb a bit was cause for a bit more hope that there might be a view ahead...
Shingle Mill-High Country Pathway Junction
Up to this point the Shingle Mill coincided with the High Country Pathway. From here I'd turn right while the High Country continued on for the remainder of its 80-mile loop...
The overlook has a name!! This could be a good thing...
I hate to say I was right...but I was right. You'd think at an overlook named for Grass Lake that one would actually be able to SEE Grass Lake...
The 10-mile loop cuts across a mile of fairly unremarkable forest while the 11-mile heads down to the Pigeon River...that'd be where I'd be heading...
A solitary Canada Violet gleams in the sun on the way to the Pigeon River...
Man, I love spring inthe North Woods...nothing but green from top to bottom...
I crossed a couple of these open areas as I neared the Pigeon River...possibly old homesteads?