Sable Area Hike -- Post 1

One advantage of switching to the fall hours for the rest of September is that I am able to make more time for hiking.  Last night, after closing the museum at 5pm I headed home and prepared a picnic dinner and met up with a friend at Sable Visitor's Center.  We hiked the river trail and headed up into the dunes.  It was a bit chilly, which was welcomed after the hot summer.

First, here are a couple of photos of the nice post-sunset colors that I took from my front porch the other night.

For the past couple of years the national park has been trying to get rid of invasive species.  They stepped up their effort to be preventive by installing this boot cleaner at the trail head.

Nice shelf fungi along the trail...

And a healthy fern...    Due to the drought not all the vegetation looks this healthy.  The local news reported the other day that the lake level on Lake Superior is down 11 inches from last year, which is proof of the multi-year drought. 

There is hardly any water in Sable River.  We actually crossed the river on the log below without any problem.  Usually there is two feet of water in the river at this spot.  Yesterday there were sand bars and only a few inches of water.  I wonder where all the fish went?

After getting into the dunes, I noticed that some of the evergreen trees were dripping sap.

Evidence of a bear looking for grubs....

And then we arrived at the bluff overlooking Lake Superior....

Looking back south into the dunes...

The lake shore...