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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Union Spring Trail, Tale of the Friendly Squirrel

Some of the trails in the Porcupine Mountains allow biking, and one of these is the Union Spring Trail.


It's 4 miles out to the spring and back, and we went most of that way by bike but had to lean them against a tree for the last bit as the trail got narrow and a bit muddy in spots.


On foot we got a chance to spy some fungi, but Wayne was not happy to spot a snake.  I was lagging behind with my camera and suddenly he was shouting a word that begins with the letter "f" repeatedly.  I thought he had gone ankle deep in some mud, and had quite a laugh when he pointed out the cause of his distress...


 While Wayne wasn't about to make friends with the garden snake, he did make friends with a local squirrel while on the trail.

The Union Spring is the second largest natural spring in Michigan. From the floating dock, you can view over 700 gallons of clear water bubble out the ground each minute, though the size of the spring will vary with rainfall. It's not the same as the springs in Yellowstone....but then again there's nothing like Yellowstone, now, is there?

Check out our video below (my first attempt at editing a video with our Adobe Premiere Elements 10 software) to see his new friend, the spring itself, and then part of our ride back down the trail.  I had some trouble figuring out how to do everything, but not too bad for a first attempt and hopefully I will do better next time!




Click on the You Tube icon at the bottom of the frame to view it full size and see our squirrel friend!





5 comments:

  1. Very nice video. Amazing for the first one.
    I love reading about and seeing all these places. Are you still there? How's the weather?

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    1. No, we were only there for four days. I just like to drag out the posts and make it feel like we're still on vacation! It's a long winter ahead here in the midwest....

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  2. Funny your hubby doesn't like snakes. Like your first photo. Nice colors.

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    1. Snakes, earwigs and junebugs are his enemies. But the funny thing is he's not afraid of moose at all or of hanging on a utility pole in a thunderstorm. We are all complex people!

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