Everyone is invited to come to a Grexwalk. You do not have to be a Grexer, or even to own a computer. The people of Grex are very friendly and will welcome you.
We meet in the parking lot just off Fuller Road, opposite Huron High School, just west of Huron Parkway. In this map of Gallup Park, the blue dot is the starting point, and the blue arrows indicates the path of the walk and the return path from the Arboretum.
Click on this map to view an ASCII version, useful for non-graphical browsers.
This page documents the walk taken on June 15, 1996. Four earlier versions of the Grexwalk page exist (September, October), December), and May), showing the event at different seasons.
This year we had a late, cool
spring with much more rain than usual. By now, though, the plants are finally
catching up with the calendar. This walk is a special one, because once a year the
peony gardens at the Nichols Arboretum are at their finest. On the best weekend for
viewing peonies, the Grexers always detour away from the normal route so that they
can pass through the peony gardens. This weekend is the perfect weekend for it, so
today we are going to see
Today's weather is sunny and warm. In this view you can see the GrexWalkers
enjoying the bright sunlight as they walk along the paved walk
that proceeds west from the Gallup Park parking lot along the Huron River.
The second picture is looking West across the meadow
as the walkers follow the dirt pathway through it. You can see how
lush and green the meadow is at this time of year.
We continued walking until we reached the "beach". Today the water in the river
was running very high and fast. Canoeing on this portion of the Huron River
is always very popular. When you approach the rock dam in your canoe, you are
supposed to steer through the gap. Some people apparently have trouble with
this part. As we arrived at the beach, I snapped a picture of this canoe which
had ran aground on the rock dam. One of the occupants has climbed out into the river
trying to free the canoe. This task was much more difficult because
of the fast current. The fast current and
high river are due to the unusually large runoff from spring rains.
The first picture shows three of our party heading for the starts that
begin the upward trek. The face in the lower left corner is that of
Hsiu-Pi Yang (pisces) who stayed back with me to bring up the rear as we began
our ascent to the peony garden. The second picture is a view up through the
woods to where the climbers ahead of us on the ridge trail are visible.
The first picture gives you an idea of how large and colorful the garden is.
A number of walkers have rushed down the central aisle of the garden and
are looking in all different directions. No matter which way you turn
there are more different colored blooms.
In the second picture I caught Carl Miller (carl) posing among the peonies
with his walking stick, and wearing his "University of Mars" T-shirt.
The second picture shows Mark Conger (aruba) discussing something with
Dan Romanchik. Dan is known for using his arms when he talks, and this
photo caught him doing exactly that.
When the walk is finished, the Grexers will usually head to a local
restaurant to "debrief", where sometimes they may be met by other
Grexers who chose not to walk. The location of the debriefing is agreed
to by consensus on-line on Grex. A
schedule of upcoming
debriefing sites can be viewed on the Grex system.
It costs nothing to use Grex. All you need is a terminal or a computer with
a modem. In Ann Arbor dial 761-3000 or telnet to cyberspace.org,
and log in as "newuser" to get a free account for
yourself. Then you can discuss matters both great and small with
others, and also participate in the process of deciding which
restaurant will be the one chosen each week.
These next two pictures were taken after the group had left the path and
entered the Nichols Arboretum. The wide open area that we enter first
is the Dow Meadow. I ran ahead of the group and took it looking back
toward the east. In this picture,
Silvia Ruiz and Valerie Mates (popcorn) are in the front row, while
Scott Helmke (scott) is the tall one behind Valerie. Note that the name in
parentheses is used throughout these pages to indicate a user's account
ID on Grex.
As we come to the end of the meadow, we pass near the weeping fruit tree
(tree 57) that was in bloom last month. It looks much more ordinary now.
You can see what it looked like last month if you care to.
Today the walkers did not stop to climb it, because we were in a hurry to
get to the peony garden.
At this point the walkers normally turn left, leave the river, and begin
to walk toward the top of the arb following the rightmost drive, which
leads all the way to the top. We occasionally take the leftmost drive,
which goes to the caretaker's cottage, but today we are going to see the
peonies, and that requires that we take the stairs on the right which lead
to a steep uphill trail along a ridge that was deposited here by the glaciers.
The upward climb is a beautiful one. We rise higher and higher over the
river to our right, and we can also look down on the left into a deep wooded glen.
The path adheres strictly to the ridge crest as it climbs up and up.
At the top, it open out into a lovely open area filled with peony plants,
carefully planted in rectangular patches.
Since this is the week that they are all blooming, the view was
absolutely remarkable -- a huge sea of color. This is what we came to see.
One of my favorites are these pink flowers with the yellow centers, as shown in the
first picture. The second picture shows many of the other colors in the garden.
Each patch of the garden only contains flowers of one variety, so the
patches of color are large, as there will be many plants of the same
variety all grouped together.
When we were finally able to tear ourselves away from the
peony garden, the group exited via the southern path that leads over the hill,
through pine trees, to the main driveway of the Arboretum. We continued
up that path until we reached the traditional resting place for the GrexWalk,
a shady area overlooking the main valley of the Arb. Here is a picture of everyone
in the group except me, at the resting spot.
At this point Carl Miller pointed out that there has never been a
picture of me on any of these pages. that is mainly because I have been
unwilling to relinquish control of my camera. Carl convinced me to hold still
for this picture, which shows me sitting on the fence near Valerie Mates.
The walkers leave the Arboretum through the upper gate onto Geddes
Avenue, and proceed East along Geddes Avenue, following it all the way
back to the starting place at Gallup Park.
There is an asphalt path which goes along the road. This is the
Dina and Reuben Kahn Memorial Pathway. In these last two pictures
you can see the sign which has been erected to identify the pathway and
a portion of the group returning along the pathway itself.
The total distance is about three miles, and the walk is usually over by
about 11:30 AM. It was probably a little longer today because of the
detour we took to get to the peony garden, but no one was complaining
about the extra hiking.
The text, drawing, and photos for this site were all made by
Steven R. Weiss and are all copyright 1996,
Steven R. Weiss. The Ascii map was drawn by Mark Conger.
The web site was made available by the
Huron Valley Community Network.
Please direct any comments or suggestions to Steven R Weiss at
srw@cyberspace.org.
