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Post by snowmom on May 31, 2014 5:06:26 GMT -5
Ocqueoc falls is the highest/largest falls in the lower peninsula, very user friendly. The river is fast running gravel bottom with some sand, and though it is darkened with tannins and metals it is so shallow that it is easy to see the bottom in most places. I went hiking there 5/31. The skeeters were fierce but we had the place to ourselves and I will come back and wade the river looking for stones. Just below the falls is an area set up so people can approach the river and wade in it, and I understand it is heavily used in the summer. I think one could walk down the river for more than a mile especially with waders or a swim suit, and pick rocks nearly the whole way. There are holes, make sure you can see where you are putting your feet!) There are many public beaches on Lake Huron very close to this location, and the rock I found in a short examination was a lot of Devonian fossil, some calcified. The bed of the river and the falls seems to be limestone, with gravel deposits over it. plenty of granite and quartz stuff all in the heavily picked area just below the falls. I brought home a pocket full in 5 minutes picking. My partner was anxious to begin his hike, no dawdling allowed (torture!). If you follow the trails there is even a lot of rock right on the trail in some places. If you are in the area and picking the lakes this seems a very likely place to find some good stuff, especially downriver from the falls where it won't have been as heavily picked.
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Post by 1dave on Jun 1, 2014 9:46:06 GMT -5
Any time outdoors is a blessing. Finding rocks is icing on the cake!
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jun 1, 2014 9:59:18 GMT -5
It's also a popular place for swimming in the summer. There are usually lots of kids playing in the falls. My daughter's biology teacher suggested going there to find insects for the insect collection that was part of the class. We spent an afternoon there flipping rocks and finding all sorts of creepy crawly things. There are more there because of the oxygen in the water from the falls.
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Post by snowmom on Jun 2, 2014 17:53:17 GMT -5
Jugglerguy, Looks like she was having fun! I found all sorts of little shrimp like things when I turned over some of the rocks there! they could really move! Made me jump the first time. Maybe some sort of scud? The columbine (a couple acres at least along trail 1-4) are about to burst into bloom. It will look like something out of National Geographic. Going back to see if they are putting on a show soon. There were 3 kinds of wild violets in bloom there when we went, one about an inch tall with tiny 1/4 inch blossoms. Never saw that kind before. Scared up a big deer which only went maybe 20 yards and snorted loud as a steam whistle just down the ridge from us. We had plenty of desperately voracious mosquitoes as companions, too. Gonna get the heavy duty bug spray out for the next trip.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jun 2, 2014 19:17:57 GMT -5
I just asked Allison what bugs we were finding there. She mentioned dobson flies, may flies, and stone flies. If they were in the water, they'd all be in the larva stage. She said some of them bite too. I was just hoping we wouldn't run across any toe biters. She said those giant water bugs have one of the worst bites (not stings) of any insect. She said that her biology teacher once felt the need to test that out for himself and let one bite him. He only did it once.
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Post by snowmom on Jun 3, 2014 6:08:37 GMT -5
LOL, hmmm sometimes you wonder about some people.
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