76th Street Trailhead to 96th Street
5 miles: 111.5 miles total
An encounter with an eastern box turtle was the highlight of this day–something I’d been hoping to experience during this project. As I was passing by a small marsh I noticed what looked like a dirty yellow ball along the edge. I investigated and realized it was an upside down box turtle! Fearing it was probably dead, I picked it up and was surprised how heavy it was. Thinking it might still be alive, I lifted it to my nose and it smelled fine. So I tried to open the hinged part of its shell and it held tight–indicating to me that the turtle was hiding inside.
So I set it right-side up on the trail, retreated a bit with my camera, and waited to see if it would open up. After a few minutes it did open up a bit and peak out from within the shell, but it just stayed like that for about 20 minutes. Thinking it might be overheated from being upside down in the sun, I decided to pour some water over it. This really seemed to refresh the turtle since it soon came out of its shell and wandered back to the wetland.
A long series of boardwalks pass through a large lowland forest just north of 96th street in the Manistee National Forest. 
A small bur clings to a blue eyed grass blossom beside the boardwalk.
Linda Weaver
Beautiful pics and interesting commentary! Thanks, Steve! We are finding so many more animals are coming out again due to the pandemic.