Townsend Park to Belding Road

7 miles round trip: 25 miles total

Today I hiked a section of the North Country Trail that follows the Cannon Township Trail, a paved multi-use trail. The trail passes through some nice woodlands, an extensive wetland, and past suburban developments. It’s the kind of landscape where you often encounter introduced species. I’m not enough of an naturalist to always know if something that catches my eye is a native or introduced species. So it’s always a bit of a disappointment when I discover later that some beautiful things are thriving where they really don’t belong.

Though resembling native viburnum species, Japanese Snowball is an introduced species that had established itself sporadically in a few southern counties in Michigan.
Star-of-Bethlehem is an introduced species of Lily native to eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East. I found this growing just outside the historic Cannonsburg cemetery.