Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Chapel Loop Hike -- Post 1

Yesterday I actually took the day off to go hiking with my Ann Arbor friends.  We camped out at Twelve Mile Beach and got a fairly early start.  It was a great day to hike with temperatures in the 60s and sunny skies.  I'll post the pictures over the next few days.

Driving over to the trail head.....

The trail is a ten mile or so loop.  We walked in the clockwise direction, going to Mosquito Beach first.

This is the sign for the distances if you walk counter-clockwise.

The group:  Denise, Marsha, Jim, Steph, Jan, and me.

We have had so much rain lately that the trail was extremely muddy.  There were some bridges, boardwalks, and other raised walk ways -- but not enough. 

It appears that porcupines ate part of this sign.

We saw dozens of different types of mushrooms.

Club moss....

Most of the time we hiked through a beach maple forest.  Most of the beach trees are dying.

We spotted this natural spring bubbling up out of the ground.

We took several breaks along the trail...