A ranger walk to the top of Mount (no longer quite as) Baldy
I've been to the top of Mount Baldy, the tallest and the most iconic dune of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, two times - once back in October 2010 and once in February of 2012. I would have come back more often but, a year later, a young kid fell through the hole that mysteriously opened up while playing on Mount Baldy. He survived, but the National Park Service decided to close off the dune until they could figure out what was going on.
In the summer of 2015, the National Park Service started organizing limited guided walks to the top of Mount Baldy. Last year, they reopened the beach on the other side of the dune, which gave me hope that they might open the path to the summit again... But no such luck.
This summer, the National Park Service did schedule more summit walks on certain Fridays and Sundays. On a few Fridays, it scheduled additional "Sunset Summit Walks" that let the people see the entire national park in the setting sun. Which sounded awesome - but the problem with the way they were scheduled is that, by the time they are over, the South Shore Line trains back to Chicago are no longer running. The only way to get back to the city is to catch the last Wolverine Amtrak train.
I have been meaning to do either a regular summit walk or a Sunset summit walk, but the ever-previous combination of time/money didn't really line up until the first full week of July. Sunset summit walk was out of the question - because the idea is to see the actual sunset, it started later then usual, and ended around 9:00 PM. Unless I suddenly developed teleportation powers, there was no way I could catch even the Amtrak train. But I figured I would do the regular 5:00 PM hike. It would end at 6:30 PM, giving me more then enough time to walk back to Uptown Michigan City to catch the very last South Shore Line train (because Michigan City Transit system stops running at 6:00 PM, taking a bus was out of the question). And, while I was at it, I would time out exactly how long it would take me to walk to the city's Amtrak station. I was thinking of doing a sunset walk in August, when sun sets a bit earlier - if my math was right, I would be able to reach the station in half an hour (which was cutting it kind of close, but still doable), but I wanted to be absolutely sure because, once again, that was literally the last public transit anything running between Michigan City and Chicago, and if I had that wrong...
Anyway, I took the bus as far as it would take me (about 2/3rds of the way), which resulted in the usual exchange with the driver that always goes something along those lines:
Driver: Young man, what are you trying to do?
Me: I'm trying to get to Mount Baldy, but, since you don't go there, I want to get off at US-41.
Driver: Oh, okay, makes sense. I just wasn't sure what you're trying to do here.
I made it just in time to see a pretty decent crowd gathering at the Mount Baldy fieldhouse/restroom/de facto changing rooms. I'd say around 25 people, 34 if you count some of the people that wound up tagging along.
It started with a park ranger and her assistant (from what I gathered, he was a volunteer rather than a full-fledged ranger) giving everyone a rundown of Mount Baldy history and what the heck happened on that fateful morning of 2013, anyway. Turned out that we now know that Mount Blady as it existed today actually formed on top of another, smaller, much older dune. And as the sand accumulated, it buried the trees that used to be on top of it. When those trees died, the organic material rotted away, but the space where the tree trunks and branches used to be remained. And the poor kid fell into one of those tree spaces.
(According to the ranger, one enduring mystery is how he managed to survive for two hours without suffocating before he was rescued. According to the Michigan City News-Dispatch report at the time, he wound up breathing in a lot of sand, but theoretically, there shouldn't have been enough oxygen for him to survive on. The best scientists could guess is that there was an air pocket, but the way the ranger put it, it sounded like the scientists weren't sure about that).
After that explanation, we headed along the trail toward the beach and the summit. Along the way, the ranger taught us another interesting factoid - that forested part was sitting on top of dune, too. The sand underneath was a sign of that (I just always assumed wind and human feed carried from the beach or something). It seems that this is what happens to the dunes after a few thousand years is grass and later trees take root, stabilizing the dune and providing a shaded environment where more grass and trees could grow
After walking a bit, we came upon a fork in the trail, where the trail to the Mount Baldy's summit split off. When my mom, f_morgana and I were there last August, I was kind of amused that the only thing that was stopping people from going on the off-limits portion of the trail was...this.
But I was even more amused when the ranger went through the trouble of unlocking the rope that most people would simply step over (in fairness, there were some seniors and young kids in the group, and they were probably grateful for that). The ranger then locked the rope behind us and we forged on.
After a short climb...
..we reached the summit
The ranger warned us that the summit's topography changed a great deal in the last four years. And, indeed, many parts were unrecognizable. For one thing, it was way less, well, bald. The ranger explained that this was deliberate - they wanted to stabilize the dune as much as possible, and planting grass and trees are a big part of it.
For comparison, a similar view eight years earlier
Here another 2010 vs 2018 pair - at least I think they capture a view within similar angle and distance. Like I said, the landscape changed.
It's also why, unfortunately, we shouldn't be holding our breath for the summit trail to be opened to the general public any time soon. The National Park Service wants to make sure that tall this greenery has a chance to take root, and having people walking all over it... doesn't help.
The group wasted no time taking pictures of the summit of Mount Baldy - and, of course, I wasn't about to waste an opportunity like this. Looking over my camera roll, there is a lot of repetition - partially because there was only so far we could go, and partially because I was paranoid about getting a perfect shot. So here are a few shots that liked the best.
One thing I didn't manage to capture is that I was actually able to see tips of Chicago skyscrapers from the summit of Mount Baldy. I knew this was theoretically possible, but I was never able to see them. Must have been the exceptionally clear sky.
But all good things must come to an end, and, after letting everyone take a few more photos, the ranger and her assistant took us back down.
Some people went off to the beach, but others came back to the parking lot. And after a brief stop by the restroom and refilling my water bottle, I head back to Michigan City.
Running into both a South Shore Line train....
...and an Amtrak train along the way (it's way down the end of the road)
And walking past coal trains some pretty nifty graffiti
I made it to Uptown Michigan City at 6:54 PM, almost, 31 minutes after I left Mount Baldy. Since I still had an hour to kill, I stopped by Lubeznik Center for the Arts - a major Michigan City art institution that I somehow never been inside of in all the times I visited the city - and wound up attending an opening reception for the "Warhol: Icon & Influence" exhibit. Since exhibit included some Warhol originals, photography was unfortunately, strictly a no-no. I also stopped by the museum's exhibit of art by local K-12 kids (some pieces were actually pretty good. Some... showed potential. And, looking at it, I'm kind of impressed just how much anime and manga continues to influence kids).
Then, I killed some times at some stores at nearby Lighthouse Premium Outlets mall. In the irony of ironies, I almost lost track of time and wound up running back to 11th Street Station - just in time to see the train coming down the street.
I barely managed to buy the ticket.
As my mom would say, in spite of my best efforts, I managed to get on the train.
Now, I am actually thinking about attending the August or September sunset summit hike. I know I can make it to the Amtrak station in 30-40 minutes, and Amtrak/MDOT recently moved Wolverine schedule so that it stops at Michigan City at 9:14 PM instead of 8:54 PM, so I have more time.
Let's see what my bank account will look like in a week or two.
In the summer of 2015, the National Park Service started organizing limited guided walks to the top of Mount Baldy. Last year, they reopened the beach on the other side of the dune, which gave me hope that they might open the path to the summit again... But no such luck.
This summer, the National Park Service did schedule more summit walks on certain Fridays and Sundays. On a few Fridays, it scheduled additional "Sunset Summit Walks" that let the people see the entire national park in the setting sun. Which sounded awesome - but the problem with the way they were scheduled is that, by the time they are over, the South Shore Line trains back to Chicago are no longer running. The only way to get back to the city is to catch the last Wolverine Amtrak train.
I have been meaning to do either a regular summit walk or a Sunset summit walk, but the ever-previous combination of time/money didn't really line up until the first full week of July. Sunset summit walk was out of the question - because the idea is to see the actual sunset, it started later then usual, and ended around 9:00 PM. Unless I suddenly developed teleportation powers, there was no way I could catch even the Amtrak train. But I figured I would do the regular 5:00 PM hike. It would end at 6:30 PM, giving me more then enough time to walk back to Uptown Michigan City to catch the very last South Shore Line train (because Michigan City Transit system stops running at 6:00 PM, taking a bus was out of the question). And, while I was at it, I would time out exactly how long it would take me to walk to the city's Amtrak station. I was thinking of doing a sunset walk in August, when sun sets a bit earlier - if my math was right, I would be able to reach the station in half an hour (which was cutting it kind of close, but still doable), but I wanted to be absolutely sure because, once again, that was literally the last public transit anything running between Michigan City and Chicago, and if I had that wrong...
Anyway, I took the bus as far as it would take me (about 2/3rds of the way), which resulted in the usual exchange with the driver that always goes something along those lines:
Driver: Young man, what are you trying to do?
Me: I'm trying to get to Mount Baldy, but, since you don't go there, I want to get off at US-41.
Driver: Oh, okay, makes sense. I just wasn't sure what you're trying to do here.
I made it just in time to see a pretty decent crowd gathering at the Mount Baldy fieldhouse/restroom/de facto changing rooms. I'd say around 25 people, 34 if you count some of the people that wound up tagging along.
It started with a park ranger and her assistant (from what I gathered, he was a volunteer rather than a full-fledged ranger) giving everyone a rundown of Mount Baldy history and what the heck happened on that fateful morning of 2013, anyway. Turned out that we now know that Mount Blady as it existed today actually formed on top of another, smaller, much older dune. And as the sand accumulated, it buried the trees that used to be on top of it. When those trees died, the organic material rotted away, but the space where the tree trunks and branches used to be remained. And the poor kid fell into one of those tree spaces.
(According to the ranger, one enduring mystery is how he managed to survive for two hours without suffocating before he was rescued. According to the Michigan City News-Dispatch report at the time, he wound up breathing in a lot of sand, but theoretically, there shouldn't have been enough oxygen for him to survive on. The best scientists could guess is that there was an air pocket, but the way the ranger put it, it sounded like the scientists weren't sure about that).
After that explanation, we headed along the trail toward the beach and the summit. Along the way, the ranger taught us another interesting factoid - that forested part was sitting on top of dune, too. The sand underneath was a sign of that (I just always assumed wind and human feed carried from the beach or something). It seems that this is what happens to the dunes after a few thousand years is grass and later trees take root, stabilizing the dune and providing a shaded environment where more grass and trees could grow
After walking a bit, we came upon a fork in the trail, where the trail to the Mount Baldy's summit split off. When my mom, f_morgana and I were there last August, I was kind of amused that the only thing that was stopping people from going on the off-limits portion of the trail was...this.
But I was even more amused when the ranger went through the trouble of unlocking the rope that most people would simply step over (in fairness, there were some seniors and young kids in the group, and they were probably grateful for that). The ranger then locked the rope behind us and we forged on.
After a short climb...
..we reached the summit
The ranger warned us that the summit's topography changed a great deal in the last four years. And, indeed, many parts were unrecognizable. For one thing, it was way less, well, bald. The ranger explained that this was deliberate - they wanted to stabilize the dune as much as possible, and planting grass and trees are a big part of it.
For comparison, a similar view eight years earlier
Here another 2010 vs 2018 pair - at least I think they capture a view within similar angle and distance. Like I said, the landscape changed.
It's also why, unfortunately, we shouldn't be holding our breath for the summit trail to be opened to the general public any time soon. The National Park Service wants to make sure that tall this greenery has a chance to take root, and having people walking all over it... doesn't help.
The group wasted no time taking pictures of the summit of Mount Baldy - and, of course, I wasn't about to waste an opportunity like this. Looking over my camera roll, there is a lot of repetition - partially because there was only so far we could go, and partially because I was paranoid about getting a perfect shot. So here are a few shots that liked the best.
One thing I didn't manage to capture is that I was actually able to see tips of Chicago skyscrapers from the summit of Mount Baldy. I knew this was theoretically possible, but I was never able to see them. Must have been the exceptionally clear sky.
But all good things must come to an end, and, after letting everyone take a few more photos, the ranger and her assistant took us back down.
Some people went off to the beach, but others came back to the parking lot. And after a brief stop by the restroom and refilling my water bottle, I head back to Michigan City.
Running into both a South Shore Line train....
...and an Amtrak train along the way (it's way down the end of the road)
And walking past coal trains some pretty nifty graffiti
I made it to Uptown Michigan City at 6:54 PM, almost, 31 minutes after I left Mount Baldy. Since I still had an hour to kill, I stopped by Lubeznik Center for the Arts - a major Michigan City art institution that I somehow never been inside of in all the times I visited the city - and wound up attending an opening reception for the "Warhol: Icon & Influence" exhibit. Since exhibit included some Warhol originals, photography was unfortunately, strictly a no-no. I also stopped by the museum's exhibit of art by local K-12 kids (some pieces were actually pretty good. Some... showed potential. And, looking at it, I'm kind of impressed just how much anime and manga continues to influence kids).
Then, I killed some times at some stores at nearby Lighthouse Premium Outlets mall. In the irony of ironies, I almost lost track of time and wound up running back to 11th Street Station - just in time to see the train coming down the street.
I barely managed to buy the ticket.
As my mom would say, in spite of my best efforts, I managed to get on the train.
Now, I am actually thinking about attending the August or September sunset summit hike. I know I can make it to the Amtrak station in 30-40 minutes, and Amtrak/MDOT recently moved Wolverine schedule so that it stops at Michigan City at 9:14 PM instead of 8:54 PM, so I have more time.
Let's see what my bank account will look like in a week or two.