It's warm enough. So eat pancakes by a mill and seek warblers, wildflowers

Joseph Dits, South Bend Tribune
·4 min read
A trout lily, which you may find still blooming in area woods, gets its name from speckled leaves that remind you of a trout. Tribune Photo/JOSEPH DITS
A trout lily, which you may find still blooming in area woods, gets its name from speckled leaves that remind you of a trout. Tribune Photo/JOSEPH DITS

Oh, what to do with this 60-degree heat wave? How about outdoor pancakes and prowling for wildflowers, warblers and lightly charred prairies? Or a climb in the trees at Rum Village Park? Here are the details from this week’s Outdoor Adventures column.

Juday Creek cleanup

Volunteer to clean up Juday Creek from 3 to 5 p.m. May 5 by a retail building in the JMS Plaza, 4609 Grape Road, Mishawaka. Meet outside of Clear Outlook at the plaza’s southwest corner. Work gloves and trash bags will be provided. Veggies, pizza, dessert and water will be served afterwards. For questions, email organizer Diana Mendelsohn at greenearthbikerental@gmail.com or text her at 574-310-9428.

Pancakes at the mill

A buckwheat pancake breakfast will be served from 7:30 to 10 a.m. May 7 under a shelter by the old grist mill at Bonneyville Mill County Park, 53373 County Road 131, Bristol (from Bristol, go 3 miles east on Indiana 120). The mill will be grinding grain into flour. One-pound bags of flour will be given away every 30 minutes. The breakfast costs $6 per person and free for ages 6 and younger.

Shown on a previous hike, prescribed burn expert Buffy Dunham will talk about the role of controlled prairie fires on a hike with the Harbor Country Hikers on May 7, 2022, at Chikaming Township Park & Preserve in Three Oaks.
Shown on a previous hike, prescribed burn expert Buffy Dunham will talk about the role of controlled prairie fires on a hike with the Harbor Country Hikers on May 7, 2022, at Chikaming Township Park & Preserve in Three Oaks.

Learn the burn

Buffy Dunham will talk about the role of controlled prairie fires on a hike with the Harbor Country Hikers at 2 p.m. May 7 at Chikaming Township Park & Preserve in Three Oaks.

Dunham has years of experience with controlled burns — a technique used to naturally spur the regrowth of prairies. She’ll lead a walk through the park’s recently burned prairie. Club President Pat Fisher will follow with a hike in other parts of the park, a total of two miles.

The park is north of U.S. 12 on Warren Woods Road, just east of Interstate 94 and 1.4 miles east of Red Arrow Highway.

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Hike with state botanist

Scott Namestnik of North Liberty, who is Indiana’s state botanist, will lead a 1.5-hour hike to explore spring wildflowers and other native flora at 3 p.m. May 7 at Potato Creek State Park, 25601 Indiana 4. Meet at the Porter Rae Cemetery parking lot. This is hosted by Friends of Potato Creek State Park.

Migratory bird hike

A local Audubon member will lead a hike to look for migratory birds from 5:30 to 7 p.m. May 10 at the Elkhart Environmental Center, 1717 E. Lusher Ave., Elkhart. Field-guide pamphlets and binoculars will be available to borrow. Cost is $1. Register in a link in this column online.

Rum Village climbs

The climbing season began April 30 at Rum Village Aerial Adventure Park in South Bend. In May, the ropes course is open just Saturdays and Sundays, with climbs starting from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In June, it opens for the same hours but six days a week; closed on Tuesdays.

Rates remain the same as last year: A 3-hour pass costs about $50 per adult, $5 less for ages 16 and younger, while an all-day pass costs $69. (800-590-8347, edgeadventureparks.com)

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Bird migration mania

Heads up (and across and down) — watch bushes and trees for small birds that look different from your usual backyard suspects. Warblers are among the birds moving through for just a few weeks.

And the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival returns May 12-15. Although almost all of the special trips are booked, there will be free, drop-in activities for families and others. Find details at indunesbirdingfestival.com.

Pumpkinvine ribbon cutting

The public is invited to the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. May 6 for the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail’s new extension into the town of Shipshewana. As I’d reported, the 1.2-mile extension was mostly finished late last year while a key crossing light was installed this spring.

The ceremony will be at the new trailhead at 345 North Morton St., which is at Town Park, just east of the Wolfe Community Building, which contains town hall. It will be during the town’s Mayfest.

This has been a long-awaited connection, because the trail had previously ended at County Road 850. The Pumpkinvine is a 17-mile trail from Shipshewana to Goshen.

The main column: Where's the trout? Homeschoolers learn slimy lessons as they stock Potato Creek.

Follow Outdoor Adventures columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures. Contact him at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Eat pancakes at Bonneyville Mill, seek wildflowers, climb Rum Village