The town of Cass is an old lumber mill town, with many of the structures still standing. In fact, we spent two nights in one of the old company houses.  There’s no air conditioning, but it wasn’t needed with nights in the 50’s.  Modern plumbing, TV, and an updated kitchen make it a pleasant and convenient place to stay.

It’s a short walk to the depot, where we boarded our train.  We had the Heisler locomotive and two cars for the entire day.

We rode the train up the mountain, leaving the depot at 7 on Saturday morning.

At the top of the mountain, we enjoyed hikes at each of our stops and saw lots of great birds.

We encountered a flock of Cedar Waxwings in Spruce and also saw this Black-Billed Cuckoo. 

Others wouldn’t stand still for good pictures, including a Mourning Warbler and an Alder Flycatcher.  I believe the count of birds seen or heard was over 50.

Sunday morning dawn brought some clouds, which soon turned into rain.  In spite of that, we saw some great birds on the walk, including this Great Crested Flycatcher pictured at the left.  The rain made it hard to get a sharp picture.  We also saw the following: Baltimore Oriole, Yellow Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, House Wren, Red-Winged Blackbird, Eastern Towhee, and Indigo Bunting, among many others.

We saw or heard over 60 birds this weekend - a truly delightful experience.  We met lots of great people and had great guides for birds and wildflowers.