A Walk on the Kiwanis Trail
We invite you to eavesdrop on a walk taken last June. It was a
two-mile journey from Valley Road, through woods and wetlands that
border farmlands, to Curtis Road. Along the way, the hikers discovered
artifacts of a landscape in accelerated transition: native flora struggling
against introduced species, farmland turning to wetland, asphalt where
the rails were not long ago. Still, it was a lovely morning’s
walk, in good company.
THE HIKERS:
Wes Boyd is a conservationist and organizer whose efforts have
contributed to the development of the North Country National Scenic
Trail, among other things. He is also the Editor of the Hudson Post-Gazette
Ted Durst, a lawyer and member of the Adrian Kiwanis Club,
is one of the trails' founders.
Robert Gentry directs the trail's maintenance as part of his
role with the Adrian Parks Department.
Bob Jacksy is a Naturalist at the Toledo Metropark's Oak Openings
Preserve.
Bob Smith is an "amateur" naturalist (see Meet Your
Community)
Martin Bialecki is RVLT's resident bird and butterfly enthusiast.
He contributed the article "Butterflies in December" in
our Winter 2002 edition.
RVLT is Bob Kellum, Linda Kendall and Sybil Kolon
Edited from this transcript are many, many voices calling "Good
morning!" and "Nice day!" as they passed our slow-moving
group.
10:00 AM - It is the first hot morning of the season. Very occasional
clouds, recent rain still evaporating. As we gather in sparse shade
at the Valley Road crossing, Ted Durst begins to tell us about the
trail's history. He explains that this portion of Adrian's rail system
was built a century ago and then purchased by the Ford Motor Company
in 1920. The right of way became available in the early 1970's, when
the tracks were finally abandoned.
DURST: Ray Maxe, Director of Parks and Recreation for Adrian,
brought it to my attention that this right of way might be for sale.
We thought it was going to be easy.
The 6.5-mile trail they planned would eventually pass through
the City of Adrian, Adrian Township and Raisin Township.
DURST: Adrian Township was indifferent. It didn't make any
difference to them one way or another; they had no interest. But they
weren't stopping us.
Raisin Township did consider stopping the trail. At least one
resident persistently voiced concern that it would be used by criminals.
DURST: They never specifically took any action [in the end],
but their total words were negative.
Meanwhile, purchasing the right-of-way turned out to be a slow
and occasionally contentious legal process. Several of the original
landowners had obtained a "Right of Reverter," which would
have returned the easement to the landowner when the railroad left.
It took three years to determine that none of the current landowners
held title to the easements on their property.
"A descending whinny" [Roger Tory Peterson's description]
interrupts, from behind thick shrubbery.
RVLT: What was that?
BIALECKI: Sora Rail. There's a wetland back there.
JACKSY: There is?
DURST: All along here there's water, in various places.
After a moment's pause to listen for another whinny, Ted resumes.
DURST: Then we made what could have been a fatal error.
The plan had been to purchase the right of way with a grant of
$145,000 made to the project from the State of Michigan's Land Trust
Fund; but a seemingly better idea developed.
DURST: This right of way runs through what is now an extensive
gravel pit outside of town.
Uncomfortable with the idea of a public trail passing through
hazardous excavated property, the owner offered to pay $145,000 for
the right of way on his land - enough to fund the purchase of the
6.5 miles leading up to the gravel pit.
DURST: We thought the State of Michigan could save that money,
and spend it on improvements instead.
The State's funds, however, had been granted specifically for
purchasing property and, it turned out, there were no funds available
for other purposes. So the City of Adrian, the only one to be, as
Ted recalled, 'just happy' with the idea of the trail, took over the
project.
DURST: And they've done a pretty good job. The Adrian Kiwanis
Club has paid for part of the paving, and the City of Adrian has paid
for part…and they have bought some equipment to help mow it.
They've been good stewards of the trail. It did take a long time,
and it seemed like it was going to be forever.
RVLT: Does the one concerned resident still raise her voice?
DURST: Never heard from her. She never had any trouble.
Martin steps into the brush.
JACKSY: He'll come out with that Sora by the feet!
Instead, he returns with the twining end of a green vine.
BIALECKI: These are so fragrant right now. Wild Grape. Have
you noticed the really nice smell? It's one of those smells that you
smell more readily at a distance than up close.
We pocket our waterbottles, shoulder our snackbags, tighten our
shoelaces. The naturalists in the group are off and running. Robert
Gentry soon stops to admire deep blue flowers on a spindly-stemmed
plant.
GENTRY: Here's some Spiderwort. It's one of a few native
plants on the right of way.
SMITH: This is Highbush Cranberry. I always smile when I see
that. Remember Euell Gibbons? His Grapenuts ad where he was eating
cereal with Highbush Cranberries? He was pulling our legs. You cannot
eat Highbush Cranberries! They are so sour, if you had a handful of
sugar and a handful of cranberries you still couldn't eat them!
The tall shrub's white flower clusters are just beginning to open.
Bob Jacksy pulls one down into better view. It is flat-topped, 2 or
3 inches in diameter. The attractive flowers around the outside of
the cluster have five large petals - and nothing else!
JACKSY: See how it has imperfect flowers around the edge?
These are sterile, there are no reproductive parts there. The reproductive
parts are in the middle, not in the flower itself. The flower is just
a billboard to attract insects.
Wes Boyd, it turns out, was a railroad history buff, "a
long time ago."
BOYD: The original right of way followed the old Norfolk
Southern tracks down to the city of Seneca. Seneca and Delta, on down
through Ohio.
Crossing a Road, the group collects in the shade beside a bench.
RVLT: Robert, what does it take to keep the trail open all
year?
GENTRY: As Ted indicated, the City of Adrian maintains the
trail - what's now all seven miles of it. We mow the edges, and try
to keep the woody brush from encroaching too much. We try to come
out at least twice a week. Some of the issues that we face: when this
asphalt was originally put down - and this is not meant as any disrespect
- it was a single layer put down right on the ballast. What we've
found is you get a lot of cracking where the old ties used to be,
and in areas where the ballast was a little strange we'll get some
alligatoring where there's poor drainage. As we go back and do maintenance
we're trying to solve some of the drainage issues. In the new section,
which we were fortunately just able to pave - through efforts of Chuck
Gross and some money that the City of Adrian had and I believe some
money the Kiwanis gave as well - we actually graded that whole area
out and we put in about 200 ton of base even though a lot of the ballast
was still there, and then we did a double lift of asphalt.
DURST: He had a lot more money than we did!
GENTRY: And that's one thing that should be pointed out. I
think this [original trail] was all done with $80,000 or some obscenely
low number. No one paves 6 miles or 6.5 miles with what they did,
it just doesn't happen. It didn't happen then, but it DID. So it was
pretty remarkable.
Other maintenance issues include dealing with vandalism "on
the order of spray painting," invasive species removal, gravel
removal where the trail crosses the road, and plowing in winter.
DURST: It does get a lot of use in winter
GENTRY: Yes it does, and we try to leave a little bit, on good
snows, for cross-country skiers.
Martin Bialecki has been chasing a very small brown butterfly.
BIALECKI: There's a Silver spotted skipper over there. A
pretty common bug. It's about the 5th or 6th species I've seen.
Off again toward Curtis Road, Robert pauses at a spot where the
wetland is very close to the trail.
GENTRY: There's some Skunk Cabbage out there. There was Marsh
Marigold blooming earlier. Hey, that's Cord Grass!
JACKSY: Nice!
GENTRY: They used to call it Rip-cut. The legend is that it
cut the bellies of the horses.
JACKSY: Duck hunters used it to make their hunting blinds.
Native peoples used it for cordage. It's really tough. But you gotta
watch it - it'll rip your skin.
SMITH: It's a very course grass and when it blooms it gets
head-high.
GENTRY: I had not seen that on the trail before. That's pretty
cool to me. In Illinois where I came from, on roadsides it grows in
circles in big patches.
Bob Jacksy notes an elegant, tall plant in the under story of
an older, drier wooded area.
JACKSY: Here's a Meadow Rue. It's common, but it's a fun
plant because there are male and female plants. We have male and female
trees and shrubs, but as far as herbaceous plants, it's the only one
I know.
SMITH: It's in the Buttercup family with things like Buttercups
and Columbine and Anemones, and none of those other species or genera
have male and female either.
Ninebark, another shrub with white flowers in clusters, attracts
the group's attention.
JACKSY: This would be a great ornamental plant if you cultivated
it. It's a pretty, pretty yard shrub.
GENTRY: They actually have! It's named "Diablo."
The trail passes through a wide bed of ferns - each in the process
of unfurling - quickly identified as Onoclea or "Sensitive Fern,"
bordered by Jewel Weed.
SMITH: I always read that Jewel Weed sap was good for poison
ivy. One day when I was on a trip with a guy that had poison ivy we
stopped and tried some and it didn't make any difference. It's also
supposed to be good for nettle stings. I tried that last week and
it seemed to work fairly well.
BIALECKI: Hummingbirds really love that stuff, too, because
it flowers so late.
SMITH: That's right, it blooms later than most of the stuff
they like. And it has a tubular flower they would be equipped to handle.
A "catlike mewing" (Peterson's) seems to be following
us.
JACKSY: Hear the catbird up there? This is so nice! It's
a joy.
Bob Smith passes around a carrot-like plant that he has uprooted.
SMITH: Hope you don't mind…
GENTRY: No. But if you do that with a Michigan Lily - that
would be a different story!
SMITH: This is Wild Chervil, or Sweet Cicely. Smell the root:
it's very similar to licorice. It's in the parsley family with carrots
and stuff like that. They used to use it for flavoring, when they
didn't have better choices.
JACKSY: There's Deadly Nightshade - that purple flower there
- or "Belladonna."
SMITH: Yup. A close relative of tomatoes.
RVLT: Poison in the literal sense?
JACKSY: Oh, yeah, it's wicked poison. It's the tomato's evil
sibling.
SMITH: Although there are some people that can eat the berries…I
don't know how they find out things like that.
RVLT: Wes, this is a very short trail, from your perspective.
Is it much different from a long trail? Who walks on the long trails?
BOYD: Well, to date, four people have walked the whole North
Country Trail. We guess - and there's no way to know for sure - we
guess there are on the order of 2 million user-days per year. Most
of it is local. A very, very small amount of it is people walking
long distances.
RVLT: Is there an advantage to the local user, when the trail
is a long one?
BOYD: In a sense there is. From an organizer's viewpoint, it
gives a focus that you might not otherwise have. From the local user's
viewpoint, there's maybe a little more notoriety involved, a feeling
of being a piece of the whole pie. It's like being able to say "I
walked several miles of the Appalachian Trail."
We pause to wonder in horror at a large area completely dominated
by a plant with white flowers on a stalk 2-3 feet tall. Almost no
other species is apparent. The flowers, nearly spent, are giving way
to long thin seedpods.
SMITH: This is Garlic Mustard. It very distinctly combines
the flavors of garlic and mustard if you crush it and smell it or
taste it. It's an alien plant that's invading borders and woodlands
all through this region. Nasty stuff. It puts out thousands and thousands
of seeds. I think it's a lost cause.
GENTRY: Along about March in most years, you can come out with
RoundUp and spray Garlic Mustard and be somewhat successful in areas.
Once they get to this point, they're going to go to seed and then
you have a real issue. The best thing you can do is that March spraying,
when nothing else is green. You can be pretty safe in not killing
other things, but you have to be willing to use the RoundUp. Sometimes
when we're trying to restore areas we get folks who are afraid of
using any kind of chemical to do it, and the reality is we screwed
it up and at some point in time we have to fix it and we have to use
every means possible, I think.
JACKSY: Yeah, you have to.
SMITH: I wouldn't disagree.
JACKSY: We also have young folks in service projects who come
out with scissors and cut off the seed heads, rather than pull it.
If you pull it you loosen the soil, liberate seeds that are in the
soil, and make the soil more receptive to further seeds. And, like
you said, we would come back, even in November when there's still
green garlic mustard, and use Rodeo or RoundUp. Where it's wet we
use Rodeo, which is just RoundUp without the surfactant.
 SMITH: There's a really nice big Swamp White Oak back in there.
Look down toward the base to get a sense of how big it is.
RVLT: Anyone want to guess how old it is?
JACKSY:
Everyone will call me a charlatan but I'm going to say 110 to 120.
RVLT: Oh, older than that!
JACKSY: Because those open-grown trees are deceiving! I've
seen an open-grown burr oak that we cored - 4 foot dbh - it was 140
years old. We went into a forest, same dbh: 400 years old. Same species,
different growing conditions. This is a swamp white, it's feet are
in water so that's not going to be a limiting factor, an open-grown
tree - it's been in the sun most of its life - grows deceivingly fast
for an oak tree.
RVLT: You know this is an open-grown tree because…
JACKSY: How low the branches come, how sprawling it is. It
would be awesome to open up the under story and show off that tree,
and have some prairie savannah species under it.
BOYD: Most of the tree growth in here is probably on this side
of 20 or 30 years old. That sucker stood out in the wide open 40 or
50 years ago.
JACKSY: That would be an awesome one-acre restoration, if it
was trail property.
GENTRY: Yeah, unfortunately the most we have is about 25 feet
on either side of the path, at most.
SMITH: Here's another invasive plant we get a lot of around
here: Honeysuckle.
RVLT: Are there any native Honeysuckles?
SMITH: If you find one that's kind of viney and twines a bit,
it's probably going to be the one native one we have. All of the bushes
that are Honeysuckles are not native.
RVLT: Do you distinguish between "not native" and
"invasive"?
SMITH: (laughing) Not really. Most often if we're saying "invasive,"
we're talking about something that's pretty aggressive. Here's another
one: Multiflora Rose.
BOYD: Think back 40 years ago: farmers were encouraged to plant
Multiflora Rose, for fencerow cover.
SMITH: Same story with Autumn Olive, now that stuff's taking
over. We're getting a lot of it around the county now, on roadsides,
almost everywhere. I've seen it in large swamps! Buckthorn: same story.
We're not learning very fast.
We admire a brand new bridge, designed and paid for by Adrian's
engineering department. It is beautiful, notably 12 feet wide, instead
of the original 8, to accommodate snowplows, mowers and emergency
equipment. Robert beams.
GENTRY: This is the kind of bridge we want everywhere on
the trail, and hopefully we'll have in five or ten years.
The trees seem older and taller, as the rail path runs parallel to
a ravine. There is more of a breeze here.
SMITH: This is one of the nicest stretches of woods on the
trail. There's a good-sized creek that runs through there and eventually
goes down to the river.
BIALECKI: There's a Red-spotted Purple flying around back there.
Eventually he'll turn around and come back…
It is the size of a Monarch, but dark… it does not come back;
at least, not while we wait for it.
BOYD: One thing that fascinates me about rail trails is cuts
like this. You notice everything is fairly flat - it's because that's
what the rail needs were. But most of this was done before the invention
of heavy equipment. Most of it was done with horsepower and back power.
This was an awful lot of digging and it was not a cheap project to
do.
RVLT: Hear the train in the distance?
BOYD: Norfolk and Western.
RVLT: I thought maybe it was a ghost from times past.
BOYD: Not when it's an SD50 whistle.
SMITH: This is Basswood. Ever smell it when it's in bloom?
It's a really nice fragrance.
JACKSY: That's another plant the Indians made cordage from.
And you can eat the leaves of it too, and the buds.
SMITH: My first memory of a Basswood was one not too far from
where we lived when I was a kid. It was a great big old hollow Basswood
that was full of honeybees. I bet that would have been good honey,
but we never got any of it.
JACKSY: Is that Golden Alexander?
SMITH: Oh that's a nice native plant! A lot of times you see
it associated with interesting things. I was driving on Burton Highway
on the west side of the county about this time last year, and saw
that along the road. I thought, 'oh, there might be some interesting
stuff around it,' so I stopped and looked and found Yellow Lady Slippers
[an orchid]. It's the first collection of Large Yellow Lady Slippers
in Lenawee County.
As we approach Curtis Road, yellow flowers are more often Dandelions
than Golden Alexanders. Pink, white and purple are most prevalent
in the understory.
BIALECKI: That white flower, is that Phlox?
SMITH: That's Dames Rocket
BIALECKI: Is that Phlox?
SMITH: No that's Dames Rocket too.
BIALECKI: Wow. All of that?
SMITH: Yup. Phlox has five petals; Dames Rocket has four. It'll
have colors that range from white to pink to violet. It's another
very successful invasive.
When our vans are in sight at Curtis Rd., Martin turns to look
back down the trail.
BIALECKI: I'm surprised at how few Little Wood Satyrs I've
seen. They're tawny brown, with little eyes on their wings, and they
have a very distinctive flight. Right now they're just starting to
emerge and I would think there would be a lot of them. I'd like to
come back in a week, to see if there are more of them.
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