Foley Creek Hike St. Ignace, Michigan

By Barb Scott January 16, 2021 Questions or comments? [email protected]

The two weeks prior to our scheduled snowshoe low dunes. The wind was down, so we took a bit of outing were unseasonably warm, with daily a break there, and some explored the beach. temperatures above freezing and a bit of wet . One of the unexpected benefits of having patchy, It was very unexpected for mid-January, and there shallow snow cover was seeing the bright green of was a bit of trepidation on the leader’s part, as this mosses, grasses, and sedges, which are ordinarily trail traverses forested wetland and can be buried under the snow. We also saw creeping impassable much of the snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula), wintergreen time. (Gaultheria procumbens), various Carex sedges, But six Sault Naturalists sphagnum mosses, dwarf scouring rush (Equisetum decided to take a chance on scirpoides), and Canada yew (Taxus canadensis). wet feet and set out from Other interesting things included many types of the Foley Creek Day Park lichens, puffball mushrooms (still puffing), and parking area wearing hiking snow fleas (Hypogastrura nivicola). The snow fleas boots and light winter coats. are actually tiny that It was mid-30s (2-ish gather in great numbers on top of degrees Celsius) at the start the snow in “warm” weather to of our hike, with snow find mates and eat algae. melting from the trees Interestingly, Wikipedia notes that dropping onto our heads researchers at Queen’s University and shoulders. have identified a unique protein Since the park was at one time a rustic that prevents the ’s body campground, the first half-mile was on old road fluid from freezing. They (now closed to vehicles). The extra width gave us a speculated that it could be used to wonderful opportunity to walk alongside each other extend the life of transplant and chat while appropriately distanced. organs or make better The one-mile trail starts in pine-dominated forest The tiny black (that’s a lot of springtails!). and traverses designated wilderness, consisting specks are snow tracks were abundant fleas. mostly of an undisturbed white cedar / spruce / but indistinct, and birds other balsam fir wetland complex. The trail was passable than chickadees were scarce. We and it looked as if broken Oreo cookies were mixed thought maybe a kinglet was about but didn’t find it into the snow at the low, mucky spots. We crossed in the green canopy. over narrow Foley Creek at one point on old plank We returned to the vehicles with wet shoulders boards. At the end, the trail opens onto Lake and hair, but with big smiles on our faces. We’ll be Huron’s sandy Horseshoe Bay after passing through back, hopefully next time with the rest of the club.

Some went under rather than over.

The rest of the photos are here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmTMGX4x

Extreme close-up of a snow flea on snow (photo by Robert Lieberman).