Hoosier National Forest Adventure -- Post 1

After visiting with my kids and their families, I spent a day with my uncle, aunt, and cousin and then picked up my sister and headed to southern Indiana.  This is the 17th straight fall that my sister, Diana, and I have gone on adventures.  All of the other years we traveled in the Upper Peninsula.  However, since my sister had to continue after our time together to Nashville, we decided to visit a new area.  We rented a house in Shoals, Indiana and then went on day trips from there.  Most of our time was spent at various sites in the Hoosier National Forest.

But first we stopped and had lunch at the Morgan Monroe State Forest.

Farms and equipment are everywhere in this part of the state.

On the first morning we decided to go to Bluesprings Cavern.  There is a sink hole on the property with a nature path.  We, of course, had to check it out.

A sink hole forms when acid rain dissolves limestone rock underground, hollowing out a "cavity."  Then, as the erosion continues, the ceiling of the cavity falls in creating a sink hole.

At the bottom of the sink hole there was an opening to a karst cave.  We did not try to enter.

It is difficult to tell but the bottom of this sink hole is around 40 or 50 feet deep.  The sink hole is around 15 acres in size.

Weekend in Southwestern Michigan

As you regular blog followers know, I have not posted in several days.  OK, I will admit it -- I was on vacation.  After a long and busy summer season, the museum's regular hours ended on September 30th.  I left on October 1st and stopped in Mount Pleasant to visit a college friend.  Thanks, Steve, for a great time. 

Next I went to southwestern Michigan and rented a house with my grown sons and their families.  A great time was had by all.  My last post had a few photos that I took during this weekend.  Here are more....

The house we rented with the cool pear tree out front...

The property included a B&B as well as a farm and hiking trails.....

Bee hives....

  
We all went on a hike.  The owners have a sense of humor with some of the "decorations" along the trail.

 

The trail was not exactly stroller compatible, but we managed.

Then we went to the beach....

Do you see the disk in the photo below?

 

Next, we walked around New Buffalo....

Kissing cousins....

Nature Walk Photos

This past weekend I spent time with friends and family.  Here are a few photos....

The bridge...

Interesting pear tree with the branches trained left and right...

Chinese chestnuts....

River hike....

Beach hike in the wind....

Yard Photos, Geese, and More

Well, the museum hours are now done for the year.  In the next several days I have plans, so I will not be available for any private museum appointments.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by this summer to help make this museum's season a success.  I have not finished crunching the numbers, but sales are about the same as last year.  I'll take it!

I only put up half a deer fence this year, thinking that would be enough.  Actually, I was just so busy I never made the time to put up the other half.  Bad decision.  The deer ate most of my beans.

Walking my paths....

Apples, tomatoes, and just a few beans the deer could not reach.

The geese hung out by the basketball courts, across from the museum, a good part of the week.

Mushroom season...

Lake Superior Shoreline Erosion

The other night I drove out into the school forest with friends, Jamey and Lois.  We were curious how much worse, if any, the shoreline erosion has been since we were last there in June.  We figure that we have lost more than 15 feet of bluff since then.  Maybe Lake Superior has always carved its way bigger.

 

Using my zoom lens, I captured several animal tracks (wolf, bear).  It appears that the animals may be getting stuck down on the beach and cannot get up the escarpment sand bluff.