Wandering Knight

It has been 9 years since I did a solo backpacking trip. That trip was my second Great Outdoors Challenge crossing of Socttland from Mallaig to Stonehaven. While that was a solo trip I probably met people every day and hiked with them at least some of the time. This hike on the North Country Trail would not only be solo but I expected it would be solitary except at major campgrounds. In this two-part series I travel from Mackinaw City, Michigan to Petowskey, Michigan. In some ways it proves to be a great trip; in other ways not so much.

In part 2 I travel from Richard’s property near Levering Road to Petoskey. I also spend some time in Petoskey proper, though I do leave a modest gap, adding a bit more to my totaly milage. All in all I probably hike another 28.5 trail miles along with a modest bit of going to and fro in Petoskey itself. In some ways this segment was less eventful than the first portion but it does have highs and lows and some just plain dull stretches. It is, in other words, prety much what one should expect from a trip: not what you expect.

I hope you enjoy the conclusion to this backpacking trip through the Harbor Springs chapter’s section of trail (and a tiny bit of Grand Traverse chapter ).

I think I am actually a bit off the NCT at this point. I went left and think the trail went right. My two-track sure looked like the proper option. I passed this small field of wildflowers as I neared Robinson Road where I popped out a bit west of the trail interesction.

--August 17 2019 at 13:05:52. Harbor Springs, MI, United States

Gazing out upon the river in Petowskey, Michigan (Bear River I suppose). The NCT follows bike paths and sidewalks through the heart of Petowskey. It is particularly nice in the Bear River Valley REcreation Area.

--August 19 2019 at 14:19:26. Petoskey, MI, United States

A bit north of mile marker 603.5 and not far from my end around marker 600. This might actually be a private path to the beach here at Little Traverse Bay but that seems like it should not be so.

--August 19 2019 at 16:34:11. Petoskey, MI, United States

The silo-like structure at the back right of this building is what really clued me in to the fact that this had to be Petowskey Brewing Company. I probably had the most dangerous bit of hiking right here crossing the road.

--August 19 2019 at 18:20:09. Petoskey, MI, United States

It has been 9 years since I did a solo backpacking trip. That trip was my second Great Outdoors Challenge crossing of Socttland from Mallaig to Stonehaven. While that was a solo trip I probably met people every day and hiked with them at least some of the time. This hike on the North Country Trail would not only be solo but I expected it would be solitary except at major campgrounds. In this two-part series I travel from Mackinaw City, Michigan to Petowskey, Michigan. In some ways it proves to be a great trip; in other ways not so much.

In part 1 join me for the first 3 days of the hike from Mackinaw City to Levering Road. That is a distance of about 28 trail miles though I actually walked more than that.

The actual North Country Trail (NCT) is running across the Mackinac Bridge behind me. I just dipped my toes in the waters of Lake Huron here at Gary R. Witt Memorial park: close enough to the trail. I’ll eventually walk towards the bridge and thus closer to the trail as I head back towards the trailhead at Mackinaw Crossings. For what it is worth I believe my pack tips the scales at about 31 pounds (though it feels heavier). I am crying. 1 liter of water and , unfortunately, 1 quart denatured alcohol for stove fuel.

--August 14 2019 at 11:53:42. Mackinaw City, MI, United States

Good morning. It is a bit sad that my first campsite had the prettiest morning.

--August 15 2019 at 06:55:56. Mackinaw City, MI, United States

Sunrise at French Farm Lake.

--August 15 2019 at 06:58:29. Mackinaw City, MI, United States

A panoramic view of Ssturgeon Bay at the Lakeview Trailhead beach. I spent a bit more time than neccessary to get and treat water. This was a nice place to pause after the first few miles hiking from the Pines campground in Wilderness State Park.

--August 16 2019 at 13:30:51. Levering, MI, United States

I hope you enjoy this audio journal. You can find a video that provides a slightly different glimpse of the trip here .

Lower Tahquamenon Falls. Even though it is cloudy you will always be impressed when you come here.

--May 23 2019 at 15:25. Paradise, MI, United States

Tahquamenon Falls. The Upper Falls are shown pouring themselves over the drop. While bugs can sometimes drive you nuts at this state park (not today) it is definitely a place worth visiting.

--May 23 2019 at 17:11. Newberry, MI, United States

This is Clark’s first backpacking trip. We are a couple hours in to our first day having our first lunch on the trail at a spot we like.

--May 24 2019 at 14:09. Munising, MI, United States

Our first day on the Lakeshore Trail. Joni looks happy and ready to tackle the world.

--May 24 2019 at 15:27. Munising, MI, United States

I wish I could recall what this car looked like when I first saw it some 20 years ago. It’s been sitting here far longer than that. The place is an odd spot for an abandoned car as it isn’t really by any roads but maybe that is why it’s here.

Photo by Andy

--May 25 2019 at 18:00. Munising, MI, United States

Pine Bluffs is about a half mile from Trappers Lake. We had to hustle to get here for the sunset but it was worth it. The photo doesn’t really capture the quality of the sunset colors though it does a better job with Lake Suerior which has grown rougher since the afternoon.

--May 25 2019 at 21:37. Munising, MI, United States

Lake Superior waves lap at the shore of this cove which is one of several. Andy is shown here and you can tell it must be a lovely day - he is down to his base layer.

--May 26 2019 at 11:50. Munising, MI, United States

It takes a bit of work to gett down (more to climb back up) to this cove but it sure is a pretty spot I am standing in.

Phto by Clark

--May 26 2019 at 11:56. Munising, MI, United States

Grand Portal Arch. This year we walked through frequent mud spots that threatened to soak your feet. A prelude to what we would find the next day.

--May 26 2019 at 17:07. Munising, MI, United States

Not much of a castle anymore but still worth looking at even, or perhaps especially, on an overcast day such as this day.

--May 27 2019 at 13:07. Munising, MI, United States

During the weekend before the 1999 firearms deer season would commence a group of people, all members of the old yahoo Groups GreatLakesHikes group, would arrive at the Birch Grove Schoolhouse for the first annual GLH Gathering. It is now 2018 and last weekend we held the 20th annual GLH/North Country Trail Gathering. While some people have gone (including sadly one death of fondly remembered Dick Bolton) others have joined the gathering. Just three people, myself, Paul, and Julie, have been able to attend all 20. This year’s event was just as enjoyable as previous ones have been. Good food and drink, enjoyable hiking, interesting weather, and always good company helped make this gathering just as good as the previous ones have been.
Below you will find a handful of photos that give a sense of the event. You will also find the audio podcast I pulled together to document the event.

Having two people working a bow saw makes the job of cutting go much more quickly. When you have two bow saws to use on trees, of which we had several, where two cuts were necessary was quite helpful too. --November 9, 2018 at 11:59 AM. Bitely, MI, United States

I believe the creek Andy, Nancy, John, and Steve are corssing is Cole Creek. We are not too far from the start of the hike at M-20. Some people will do a shorter hike of somewhat over 3 miles stopping at 3 Mile Road. The rest of us (including me) will go a bit more than 8 miles to 6 Mile Road. --November 10, 2018 at 11:07 AM. White Cloud, MI, United States

We found this horse and it improved Elwira’s and my moods. By this time we had learned that Steve was fine and waiting for us at 5 Mile Road with Jim, Linus and Eugene. Earlier Steve had bushwhacked around El and me and we did not know it. We were worried and spent time trying to track him down. --November 10, 2018 at 1:54 PM. White Cloud, MI, United States

Just beyond 5 Mile Road. Steve took this photo of me. --November 10, 2018 at 2:50 PM. White Cloud, MI, United States

Happy birthday Julie and Debi. --November 10, 2018 at 7:16 PM. , ,

Tent city at the Schoolhouse. You can see my tent, Andy and Elwira’s tent, the Haan home, and John’s tiny shelter. --November 11, 2018 at 10:48 AM. White Cloud, MI, United States

Loda Lake. Those of us left after breakfast and Schoolhouse cleanup are doing a 3 mile hike around Loda Lake. --November 11, 2018 at 12:37 PM. White Cloud, MI, United States

Steve has found an emergency shelter. No emgency presented itself during our break so when we left he got up and left with us. --November 11, 2018 at 1:47 PM. White Cloud, MI, United States

#travel

I do not know how many times I have backpacked the Lakeshore Trail in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore over the past couple of decades. I have gone in both directions many times. This year, with 13 other people many with little to no backpacking experience, I would travel the trail once again from Sand Point to Sable Falls. This is something of an annual trip over Memorial Day Weekend though I do not always get to attend.

The trip would turn out to be a very fine one even with some trials and tribulations thrown in. We lucked out with the weather and everyone had a good time. The audio you are listening too will give you a sense of what we experienced. You can find more photos in these photo albums which have the same photos but display differently (Google , Apple ).

There is also a video you can enjoy here on YouTube.

I don't know how many Wheatland Music Festivals I have attended. I know many who have been going for decades. It is a a festival full of music, workshops, dance, and good times. You might not enjoy all the music that you can find but chances are good you will find something you will like. In this episode you will hear music from Bruce Moksly and the Mountain Drifters, Don Julen's Mr. Natural Project, Ruthie Foster, Session Americana, Lunasa, and Jayme Stone'sLomax Project. There was considerably more than just this.

The Waimangu Volcanic Valley features numerous geothermal features. Mount Terawera erupted June 1886 destroying everything in the area and totally reshapedpp q the land. Lake Rotomahana grew 20 times in size and became North Island's deepest lake. The famed pink and white terraces vanished beneath the water or were destroyed. The world's largest hot pool, Fryingpan Lake, was born. Today a fantastic mixture of re-emergent flora and fauna combine with the landscape to create a stunning special place.

More re photos and video coming

The Coast to Coast Trail runs between Waitemata Harbor and Manukau Harbor in the city of Auckland, New Zealand. It is 10 miles long and does have some modest climbing , mostly up and then down Mt. Eden, the local high point. This is an urban walk but don't let that fool you. We saw a lot and were very pleased with this hike through neighborhoods and parks. Enjoy the audio diary.

You can learn more about the trail in many places. Here is just one that includes a map.

Coast to Coast Trail Infow.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/en/parksfacilities/walkingtracks/pages/coasttocoast.aspx

We have now been in Auckland for two days.
Our first day we spent wandering around town: visiting the harbor, walking through some parks including part of what might be the largest park in Auckland - Auckland Domains -and getting a sense of the city. Once you get off of the main streets things get quieter and there certainly are neighborhoods to be found. One thing that struck us is that the vast majority of the people we are seeing seem to be fairly young. I'm not sure how many of them are locals and how many of them are tourists, students from abroad, or workers from abroad but the general trend seems to be towards younger people. We have also noticed a large number of people especially from Pacific Rim countries which I suppose make sense if those people are coming here to work, travel, or study. Our second day we explored a little bit more of the city and also took the harbor tour; featured in the bonus material you'll find at the end of the podcast. Both days the weather has been A bit cloudy and warm. When the sun does break through the clouds it feels quite a bit warmer. So far, we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here. We have even managed to find some rather nice places to eat which sometimes is a challenge for us.

It is a partly sunny afternoon. The temperature is warm enough with just a hint of coolness in the modestly blowing breeze. It's the last day Argo Canoe Livery will be open this year and I am taking advantage of the fine afternoon for one last paddle to Barton Dam and back. This is an easy paddle of just under 4 miles round-trip. You don't really have anything to worry about on this stretch of the Huron River unless you somehow ignore the presence of the dams. While I am sure people can get hurt (I recall a woman did drown in this area years ago) it's hard to imagine. It's hard to imagine even getting stuck though there are shallows, naturally enough, by the banks. It is a thoroughly lovely easy paddle marred only by the roar of nearby traffic.

Photos viewable in an album from Apple iCloud (not captions) or from Google (captioned).

Amsterdam Day 1 - August 5, 2016
Our first day in Amsterdam has come to a close. We spent it exploring beyond the immediate neighborhood. Our apartment is located near museums including the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. Somewhat farther away we found , in due time, Central Station and even the location of the apartment Mom, Dad and I stayed in 16 years ago when last here. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours exploring the immediate surroundings; today we wandered farther afield. Amsterdam is certainly walkable but you had best pay attention to the countless cyclists and motor scooter riders. While the vast majority of them follow the same rules of the road that cars do their bike lane is right next to the sidewalk and easy to stray into. It is certainly an extra challenge for anyone with low vision , let alone blind people; walking here can be a real trial even though traffic lights have audible warnings for when you can cross or not.

We walked around for several hours with notable breaks to take in the Van Gogh Museum. He certainly led a troubled life and yet during his productive career, just ten years, he would have a large impact on the world of painting. It is a remarkable museum even if it is somewhat crowded.

Later in the day, a pleasantly warm partly cloudy afternoon, we took a canal boat tour. You get a bit of a sense of the city's age when doing that. You pick up a few tidbits of information along the way too. It is a nice change of pace.

We wrapped our day up with a jazz concert at the Concert-Gebouw. That was a very fine way to top off the first full day here in Amsterdam.

SEKI Adventure Show Notes

Part 1

Andy and I start our adventure in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI). There are many reasons a trip can be an adventure and only some of them ares strictly physical. I certainly would experience several of them during the trip. In part 1 we get things going from our flights from Michigan to California, initial meanderings through the mountains in search of a campsite and stove fuel, and then the actual backpacking portion of the trip itself.

You can see the complete trip journal in the A Wandering Knight blog (awanderingknight.blogspot.com ). Photos are presented in several different albums and you can find those referenced from the trip journal. Video will be coming soon.

You can find complete photo albums that document the whole trip in Apple (doesn't show photo captions and EXIF data) , Flicrk , and Google (same photos different presentations).

It’s time for summer trail maintenance on the North Country Trail (NCT). Andy and I maintain a section between 13 Mile road (Cleveland Drive) and 16 Mile Road in Newago County. The section also includes the side trail to Highbanks Lake Campground. All told the section is easily 6.5 miles long. This year we hoped to do a lot of re-blazing. Circumstances would rather dramatically affect our plans. Trail maintenance can be saticefying but it can be hard work too.

Learn more about the North Country Trail at their website northcountrytrail.org. Andy and I are part of the Western Michigan chapter.

Get a visual sense of what things can be like from this short video on youtube (https://youtu.be/7iNYXnHSGnw)

Ann Arbor Summer Festival runs for the last three weeks in June. It actually runs through the July 4 weekend. While the festival features numerous paid ticketed shows at the Power Center the real meat and potatoes of the event are, I feel, to be found at the Top of the Park. There you'll find free music of various types from singer songwriters, country, intriguing bands that defy easy categorization, and rock 'n roll. Events for kids as well as other special events happen there too. There is also a wide assortment of food available. Music heard here includes: Magdalen Fossum, Annie and Rod Capps, Annebelle Road, RFD Boys, and Hoodang.

It is the second weekend of June and I am finally joining Paul Haan and Eric Doyle with Eric's Friend Jamison for a weekend of fly fishing. This would , for Jamison and me, be our first fly fishing excursion and it quickly became clear that we had a lot to learn as we tried to catch our first fish out of the Muskegon River.

Fly fishing is a more involved activity than you might first think. I am confident that their are scores, if not hundreds, of species of flies that one can use that try and entice various fish to strike and impale themselves upon a hook. The flies you use change depending on the time of year, what is hatching, what is turning from nymph to fly (I think) and what the fish are doing. You may try different flies at different times of the day ; you might try using more than one fly at a time; you might move you line in different ways to make a fish think the fly is more like a real tasty morsel than not. Of course, most times you will fail to catch a fish - it's a good thing we about catch and release and not trying to put food on our tables.

While I doubt I'll ever be an active fisherman, if for no other reason than logistics of getting to fishing holes, I did enjoy my attempt at fly fishing. I am sure their are other people with very limited vision who fish, taking advantage of welcomed help by those who can see and know what they're doing, and I'm quite happy I was able to join the fishing community.

A trip video on YouTube is here.

This year I attended the 42nd annual Wheatland Musci Festival. I am not sure how many I have been too; less than 10 but certainly at least 8. That may seem like alot but compared to many I'm a piker. Paul Haan has probably attended 25 and I know people who have attended nearly every festival. People return year after year not only for the generally excellent muscial variety but to renew friendships. Wheatland Music Festival is more than just dozens of concerts it is a thriving community. I hope you enjoy this audio program and get a good sense of what a wonderful festival Wheatland is. Natually enough I have included a sampling of some of the music played at the festival. You'll hear music by Bill Kirchen, Dervish, California Feetwarmers, some open mich music, Balsam Range, Rapetipitam, and Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton.

You can learn more about the Wheatland Musci Festival, held the weekend after Labor Day, on Wheatland Music Organization's property just outside of Remus, Michigan at their webiste (www.wheatlandmusic.org )

Who is happier about this hike? I think Jim probably is. Kip though would enjoy himself though scampering through the woods when Jim was sure no one else was about.

The Jordan River Pathway and North Country Trail form an 18-mile loop. Located in the northwestern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula the Jordan River valley is perhaps a bit less well known than some other areas. I’ve actually not done this loop hike before. On May 31 and June 1, 2015 I joined Jim Walke and his dog Kip to backpack the loop. Like most people we decided to do the hike in the traditional counter-clockwise fashion starting at the overnight parking lot at Deadman’s Hill. But, I am getting ahead of myself - let’s start at the beginning….

There is a fair bit of information available about the Jordan River Pathway Loop. The JRP is maintained by the Jordan Valley 45° North North Country Trail Association Chapter. While some maps exist online for the area they are pretty meager affairs. You can get a rough sense of the area from this overall trail map (PDF file, page 2) and of the detour from this map. The map in Jim DuFresne’s Backpacking in Michigan book is decent and I expect the NCT map isn’t bad.

We were stirring by 07:00 and it was a chilly morning. I suspect the nighttime low was closer to freezing than either Jim or I expected. In fact, I learned Jim had a chilly night. But with the sun shining down upon us we warmd up as we crossed the Jordan River expecting another fine day of hiking.

Jordan River Pathway Overview Map page 1 of 2.

Jordan River Pathway Overview Map page 2 of 2.

The complete photo album for the hike can be found here on Flickr.

Three times a year I join Andy Mytys and Joh Lawton and we drive west and north towards Lake Michigan to maintain a section of the North Country Trail (NCT). Our section runs about 6.5 miles from 13 Mile Road (north) to 16 Mile Road (south) in Newago County. You usually can find something different in any trail work session and this year was no exception. Finding the very hot remains of a campfire in an illegal campsite was the unfortunate standout this time (see video here ).

Learn more about the North Country Trail and Western Michigan NCTA Chapter .

On the weekend of January 24 and 25th, 2015 I joined nine other adventurous kayakers to paddle a stretch of the Manistee River between Tippy DAm and Rainbow Bend. It would be a good adventure with plenty to learn and experience for all. The trip was organized by the Fortune Bay Expedition Team .

Additional photos can be found here .

A more detailed written account is on my blog .

Photo by Paul Haan

For a few minutes the sun broke through the overcast. It didn't last long but was nice to see for the time it was visible.

This is the 16th annual November GreatLakesHikes Gathering. The weekend before firearms deer season opens here in Michigan members of the GreatLakesHikes Yahoo email group and others gather at a former one-room schoolhouse near White Cloud, Michigan for a weekend of hiking, eating, chatting, and general good fun. This would be one of the smaller gatherings we have had but it was no less fun because of that.

The Gathering is an annual event that is organzied by members of the Great Lakes Hikes Yahoo email group . While the group isn't nearly as active as it used to be we still do use it to talk about hiking and other activities mostly within Michigan. Many of the GLH members are also members of the North Country Trail Association . The trails we typically hike when at the Gathering are maintained by the Western Michigan Chapter of which I am a member. If you enjoy hiking the NCT please do consider joining a trail chapter.

Here are the photos for the GLH Gathering.

We decided to do a shorter-than-usual hike compared to most of the long hikes of Gatherings of previous years. We hiked the North Country Trail from Condon Lake to Leaf Lake and at that point people made decisions about what to do. My group of 7 would continue along Leaf Lake before going off-trail to cross to the other side of the lake and return off-trail back towards Condon Lake and the NCT and either the cars parked there or further on to Highbanks Lake where the last of us (including me) would end our hike. The bushwhack would include a slog across an improvised jerry-built bridge of long branches and then a pause at this large beaver dam. Durning the afternoon wind whipped through the trees and it sprinkled on and off including a bit of sleet.

Photo By Paul Haan

At the end of September the Western Michigan chapter of the North Country Trail Association finished one of many trail projects. Here they built a bridge over this slow moving black as night water near the White River. It's a blustery afternoon sporting a temperature in the upper 30s. While the rain is north of us my rain jacket was nice to have to block the wind that got to us through the bare trees.

today July 11, 2014 was the 20th rolling sculpture car show here in Ann Arbor. I have not been to all of them by any means but I do try to go when I can. Even though I, naturally since I am legally blind, do not drive. There is something special about seeing a plethora of cars from a variety of decades. I think part of what makes car shows like this special is the chance to see how the styles of cars have changed over the years. It also gives us a chance to reflect back on how our society has changed over time after all the styles of the cars affect our society our society also fixed the styles of the car.

Forgive any odd quirks in the text of this web post. I am using dictation to creatwe it as I broke two fingers of my left hand last weekend and typing therefore is impossible. Fortunately I didn't need to type to create this podcast audio.

There is about one week left before the Ann Arbor Summer Festival closes its doors for 2014. Top of the Park is in full swing and I've been a few times already to this basically free outdoor music festival. Their is quite a variety of music to be heard as well as the regularly scheduled movies. I do hope you can get out and enjoy what remains of this special event that takes place every year.

Music heard in this podcast includes

Magdalen Fossum
Transe Express
The Crane Wives
The Ragbirds

More photos can be found in this Flickr Album.

On the weekend of June 7-8, 2014 the College of Wooster hosted its annual alumni class reunion weekend. This would be the 25th year reunion for my class of 1989. It would also be the first time I have attended a class reunion. I've never been endowed with a large amount of what you might call school spirit. Nor did I actually have that many close connections with much of the class. In fact, the people I know best all live here in Michigan and not necessarily that far away (hich doesn't mean I see them that often). My expectations were not set to high as I am not a good conversationalist as far as general chit-chat goes. But I hoped to get something positive out of the weekend and I think I did. I hope you enjoy this little audio postcard. I apologize for some of the audio quality being a bit rough. The bulk of the audio was recorded using my iPhone and a new microphone, the Zoom IQ5, and I am definitely still learning its quirks. While the field recording quality isn't up to top tier standards I think you'll get a sense of what the weekend was like. And if the audio doesn't do it for you perhaps the photos will. My thanks to Paul Potts for letting me share his photos.

Good morning, Wooster. Ken Knight waiting for the parade of the classes. The parade will have classes dating back to 1949. lasses come every 5th year (1949, 1954, 1959, and so on through 1989 and ending with 2009).

The parade for the classes is being lead by wooster bagpipers. At least I assume they're affiliated with the College of Wooster bagpipe band as they're wearing MacLeod tartan kilts. Wooster actually, as I understand it, doesn't really have Scottish roots but somehow that cultural identity got adopted by the college and it now certainly infuses sports as well as the band.

I can't recall the name of the mascot on the left but the fellow on the right is Wooster's Fight Scot.

The photos can also be seen in this Flickr album.

It has been a while since I've managed to go on any winter backpacking trips. In fact, it has been several years since I've actually done more than day hiking in the winter even if some of those trips were based out of rustic cabins in places like Wilderness State Park by Mackinaw City or the cabins in the Waterloo-Pinckney Recreation Area. So this two-night weekend spent hiking a portion of the Manistee River Trail with friends was a real treat. Joined by experienced, in some cases (maybe all), winter backpackers Doug, Ewa, and Paul (and Paul's dog Capone) we planned a fairly modest couple days of hiking in and then back out on the Manistee River Trail. Their was a time when I had hiked the entire loop which includes the North Country Trail on the other side of the Manistee River covering about 21 miles over a weekend in snowshoes but this trip would be nowhere nearly that ambitious. Our plan was to drive to Red Bridge Friday night and either camp right there or somewhere nearby, hike however far on Saturday to some point along the trail, and return Sunday for the drive back to our respective homes.

We would meet at Barski Bar in Baldwin and after dinner drive to Red Bridge to start our hiking weekend. I suspect that their aren't that many places to eat in Baldwin, Michigan. Barski's though has some truly wonderful food. I imagine the burger I had that was topped with an egg plus the more usual burger toppings would make a cardiologist cringee but boy was it tasty. The meals everyone else had create similar amounts of gastronomic pleasure and none of us worried much about the calories. After all, we were about to go on a winter hike. It would be well past sunset when we managed to park our two cars in the unplowed snowy parking lot at Red Bridge. We hoisted our packs, heavy with winter gear, grabbed our snowshoes and began the hike which starts with a quarter-mile tromp down North Coates Highway to where the MRT trailhead is. Once there we did a bit more gear re-arranging , stepped into our snowshoes, and began the slow process of hiking along the narrow snowy Manistee River Trail.

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We were in no rush to leave camp Saturday morning. While we all started to stir not long after sunrise we did not actually leave camp until about 11:00. We were only going to hike about 3 miles so leaving so late was hardly a hardship. When we left to hike the rolling hills it was overcast but nice enough. We made our way methodically along the trail enjoying the frequent views of the river as we crunched loudly through the snow. When we reached our planned, well the site Paul figured would be good mostly because it has such fine river views, around 14:00 (perhaps a bit earlier than that) we settled in for a fine lazy afternoon. The sun was out and that made setting up camp a much nicer though perhaps not really all that much quicker of a task. Of course, it was far too early to be done with our day so after dawdling about camp for a while we decided to hike to Slagle Creek. What a wonderful hike that turned out to be. Sure hiking down in and then out of a ravine along a slick hillside was a tiny bit of a chore but only a small annoyance. The sun had conquered the clouds that had been out earlier and it was a fine day to be out enjoying the trail. Settling down later to soak up some of that sun along the southwest facing ridge by our camp was also a real treat.

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The hike back to the cars was as enjoyable as the hike out. To be sure the day was actually somewhat colder but that hardly matters when you're tromping through snow that if you break through will rise well past your calf. We did break camp a bit more quickly but we still weren't in anything like a real hurry. We had ample time to hike out and some of us were lucky enough to spy various wildlife along the way including a couple bald eagles. We paused a few times for enjoyable breaks, usually in places at least a little out of the wind though still with views of the river down below. I think the biggest surprise though of our return hike came near its end. On the way out, seemingly farther along than it really was we had to squeeze by a juniper bush that was pushing well into the trail. On our left the trail vanished into a drop-off that seemed to drop easily 30 feet into blackness that likely concealed a lot of muck. Getting past that bush was something of a trial. When we came to it in the glare of a high sun it was far easier to edge past it and the drop off turned out to be at most 8 feet and nowhere near as imposing let alone dangerous. Hiking at night changes your perspective.

We reached our cars a little after 14:00. Naturally we had to have a post-hike meal and so a return visit to Barski Bar was called for. I must say the rueben I had was even tastier than the burger of Friday night. Everyone else agreed their meals were equally good. After that fine meal it was time for Ewa and I to head back towards Ann Arbor while Paul and Doug returned to Grand Rapids. It had been a very good weekend indeed.

On the weekend of April 11, 2014 Andy, Elwira, John and I went out to do our spring trail maintenance. Our section of North Country Trail runs from 13 Mile Road to 16 Mile Road (Newago County, Michigan) and includes the side trail to Highbank Lake Campground. All told this is about 6.4 miles of trail that passes by several lakes rising and falling through many gentle short climbs. This weekend will be remembered for the great thunderstorm that ripped through the area Saturday night and Sunday morning. Besides the hail and very heavy flood causing rains the storm brought gale force winds that likely hit speeds around 60MPH and brought down numerous trees. Sadly I suspect the section of trail we had worked on Saturday likely has new trees down that we couldn't get back too. We certainly found downed trees that had not been there on the Highbank Lake campground side trail Sunday afternoon.

Since we have a nearly four-hour drive to get to our section campsite located just south of Cedar Creek on FR 5311 not to mention the time we spend driving to places like 13 Mile Road and elsewhere we maintain a somewhat lengthier section than many to make all that travel time worthwhile - it just makes sense. Usually we have just one car so we have to do out-and-back hiking. While that does mean we can be certain our blazes are in great shape in both directions it does double the amount of hiking with our tools. Consequently we typically do our section in two pieces: 13 Mile Road to Highbank Lake campground the first day and 16 Miles to Highbank Lake the second day. Of course, before we can start working on the trail we must drive to the campsite and since we rarely seem to leave the Ann Arbor area before 6:00PM even when things are going smoothly we don't reach camp until rather late at night. This weekend would be no exception. It would, in fact, have a later start for several reasons all of which were outside our control and perhaps can be blamed for some troubles later in the weekend (well, OK that's likely a stretch).

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Even though we expected it to rain Saturday afternoon we didn't rush to get up and moving. After all, no one had gone to sleep before 1:00AM. But by mid-morning we were walking along the trail looking for things that needed to be dealt with. Surprisingly it turned out that we wouldn't have too much hard work to do. Plenty of small brush and a handful of blowdowns constituted the bulk of the work. A little bit of touch-up work on trail blazes, which is how Willow acquired that lovely blue tail, was done too. All in all as we passed by occasional patches of lingering snow as well as lakes that still had some ice floes bobbing about it was pretty easy work. The weather was holding off but we knew that couldn't last so after finishing off our late lunch at Highbank Lake Campground as a sporadic drizzle came down we put on our ponchos and headed back out. We planned to take a short cut which would use the forest service roads and a little cross-country hiking. I'm not sure how much of a short-cut it really ended up being but it certainly wasn't short enough. The storms we worried about started to pound us well before we reached the car. We had some confusion about where we were and the best way to go that may have slowed us up some but even had things gone perfectly I doubt we would've rreched the car before the downpour began. We poured our wet bodies into the car and drove into town for dinner rain falling hard all the way. One local, maybe he was a bit drunk, enthused loudly to the bar that the, "sky was falling." Certainly plenty of rain was and it would stop only briefly throughout the course of the next dozen or so hours. We returned to camp around 6:00PM and scurried into our respective shelters hoping the storm wouldn't last long. The rain stopped and the hail began. That was only the beginning of the extremely lousy, and potentially quite dangerous, weather we would be treated to all night long.

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You can only stay in your shelter so long. That length of time diminishes when you feel you aren't sleeping well. So while John and Andy snored on I was moving about not long after sunrise. Elwira and Willow joined me soon after. The storms had finally abated and we quickly learned that the damage left behind was extensive. Trees had been brought down all over the place; Cedar Creek had flooded; drainage ditches on the forest service road were flooded. I've no doubt that trees are down and blocking the trail we had walked Saturday. Talk about bad timing. We found extensive blowdowns on the section of trail between 16 Mile road and Highbank Lake too as well as bonus blowdowns on the campground side trail.

As you can see doing trail maintenance can have its ups and downs. While you likely won't experience severe weather like we encountered during our weekend all that often it certainly can add a bit of spice to a weekend's worth of work. Even if you do not have a long distance trail like the North Country Trail near you chances are you have some trails near by that can use your help. If you do have a stretch of NCT nearby and want to learn more you can start by visiting the official webiste at northcountrytrail.org.

A Note about the audio: I am experimenting with a new external microphone for the iPhone. It's a Zoom IQ5 stereo microphone and the results are proving interesting. I don't quite understand why one channel is picking up my voice so much more robustly than the other but that seems to be happening. Perhaps I just need to learn the ins and outs of the microphone. It certainly has better fidelity than the little iRig Miccast I used before.

Photos can be found in the following places. The albums have the same pictures but present them differently: Flickr album , Google album

On a crisp overcast late autumn morning I joined many others to help do some trail maintenance on the North Country Trail. The Spirit of the Woods had a big morning planned and since our Great Lakes Hikes annual gathering was happening nearby some of us decided to join them on their project. They also had volunteers from the Ferris State Outdoor Club helping out. The project was to rebuild boardwalk that had been wrecked in a massive treefall and to improve nearby trail making it accessible to people in wheelchairs too. That meant widening existing trail in some places and smoothing it out everywhere. For 3 hours, which seeemed to be the length of the entire project, everyone worked at various tasks and quite a bit seemed to get done. I'm sure the organizers were happy with the results. I know we felt good about the work. That's one big reason why people do this type of thing. To help improve something that others will use and know you have had a tangible effect on the thing in question: that you made a difference. This little video should give you an idea of what it can be like to help in such a project and perhaps you will want to take part in similar projects in your local (or not so local) area.

You can find the photos you saw in the video (along with captions) in this photo album.

You can learn more about the North Country Trail at the trail's Official web site.

A version of this video can also be found on YouTube.

Over the last few years I've joined John Lawton and Andy Mytys and we've hiked portioned of the North Country Tail, the NCT, in Michigan. The NCT in Michigan runs for about 1,100 miles using paved roads, dirts roads, rails to trails, two-tracks, and actual hiking trails. For this hike, the first weekend of November, we didn't have anyone to help us so we had to use 2 cars. This meant setting up a car shuttle and hiking leapfrog style between the cars. Doing this we were able to hike the 28-29 miles from just south of Prairieville to Middleville. We weren't quite sure why type of weather we would get. It seemed that we might actually have to cancel the hike due to severe storms but the weather report moderated to showers with highs in the mid-upper 40s and a low around freezing. For a variety of reasons I did not do much recording during the hike though I do have several thoughts I want to share.

More photos can be found in the Flickr Photo Album here. or if you prefer the Google photo album here. Captions associated with the photos in this podcast

It is a crisp overcast autumn morning at the Prairieville Municipal Park. The temperature is probably in the low 40s with little wind to bother us. The threat of rain, we think, is past. It promises to be a fine day for hiking even with the first several miles being a road walk (two line paned and dirt roads).

Photo by Andy Mytys

At the start of our overnight hiking trip along the North Country Trail. The road walk will cover probably close on 8 miles of paved and dirt roads. They're fairly quiet roads with farms and other homes on each side. But what I think we noticed most at first were the large numbers of sandhill cranes that flew on by during the morning.

Photo by Andy Mytys

Deep Lake not long after sunrise. The campground is rather large with campsites that are big in their own right. The night until around 04:45 or so was actually quite warm. But then the temperature plunged to about 30°F. Before then it stayed fairly warm in the low 40s even when a bit of rain came through around 03:00.

The clouds let the sunlight break through now and then providing us with brilliant splashes of fall color (OK, maybe I pumped it just a tad). Andy stands on the shore of Hall Lake not far from our car and the end of the first day of hiking. We set up camp at Deep Lake Campground.

Fall in Michigan's Lower Peninsula can be very pleasant.

Photo by Andy Mytys

Now and then we would pass a grassy area like this. I'm not sure how many were working farm fields and how many just natural glades though I suspect more were the former than the latter. When in the State Game or Recreation Areas we were in rolling forests dotted with lakes.

The Prairieville Family Inn, I believe that's the right name, is a great place to have dinner. I expect breakfast and lunch are just as good. The food, especially the pie, is more than enough to make a tired hiker happy. Just look at the hot chocolate Andy is having. Another nice feature of stopping at a place like this is meeting those people who work there. They first thought we were hunters scouting for the upcoming rifle deer season but when they learned we were hikers they shared stories of meeting Strider (Luke Jordan) who had stopped here on in thru-hike of the NCT (now completed). They learned a lot from him including the fact that the NCT exists (never having known what those blue blazes were until Luke explained).

Photo by Andy Mytys

The last 3 miles and change of the hike into Middleville are along a Rails to Trails paved path that arrows through this flooding. It is the Thornapple Trail and their are some "rules" associated with it that are obeyed only kind of sort of.

Photo by Andy Mytys

Along with my parent I joined 10 other people for a two week long trip to Peru and Ecuador. This would be our first Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip. It would prove to be quite an interesting and informative experience overall. It is best to think of this as really two trips rolled into one. The first week we spent in Peru traveling mostly through the Sacred Valley with a key highlight being our overnight visit to Machu Picchu. The second week was spent in Ecuador and the key component there was our 4 days spent sailing amongst the Galapagos Islands. OAT trips, at least this one, have a goal of "learning and discovery" and one result of that is you move much more slowly than we are used to doing either by ourselves or with groups such as we travel with when on HF Holiday hiking trips. While an OAT trip can have physical challenges such as dealing with high altitude conditions, Machu Picchu sits at about 8,000 feet and Cusco at just over 11,000 feet above sea level or sea sickness on the 16-passenger catamaran the actual physical endeavors are modest. But you will still experience quite a lot even though at times you may feel both rushed or stuck in place depending on circumstances.

We spent about a week touring the region known as the Sacred Valley. This is the very high alpine valley region that used to be the key region of the Inca Empire. While people go to the Sacred Valley to experience the antiquities their is much more to the region than just the ruins of past civilizations. A big part of an Overseas Adventure Travel trip is learning about the people that live in the place you're visiting. In this segment we'll take a quick look at what we discovered.

You can find more on the A Wanderingknight Blog. Photos can be found at the Flickr Photo Album.

At 12,000 feet above sea level the mountains seem a bit barren. However, agriculture is practiced anywhere it can be even more.

The soil looks rich and the farmers are growing several types of plants (corn, squash, and some sort of bean I think) but it's clearly hard communal work. The bulls pull simple plows made of a local, maybe eucalyptus, wood; people direct the bulls; others place seeds in the furrows; and, still there is work for more. And yet they were happy to see us perhaps just because we represent a break in the day.

Near the village of Chinchero we stopped at at co-op based weavers business. The weavers here are all women but from what I learned days later in a textile shop/museum in Cusco both genders learn to weave though perhaps the men general don't do it as a job (they do to attract attention). This work reminded me a bit of what we saw in Turkey. Here they work with llama or alpaca fibers and as you can see from their clothing it can be quite intricate. All materials are natural. Dad got a chance to dye some yarn.

Perhaps Pavel, our trip leader who is from the Cosco region, told us what this statue is all about but I don't recall now. It is a stunning setting though.

From the roof of the fair sized house we had lunch in. It's true this home with its nice courtyard is home to a good sized family who definitely share close quarters but it is a big step up from many of the shacks you see here.

We walked around this little village for a time. It was rather quiet. Some people were out preparing for an event but other than that it felt rather empty.

While each portion of cuy (pronounce, "cu-ee") was tiny just some skin and a small bite or two of meat I think it is fair to say that this guinea pig was the star attraction of the home cooked meal. Cuy is considered something of a special treat and I think everyone enjoyed it. Some of us the previous night watched the lady of the house slaughter and butcher this cut so we had seen it go from alive to lunch. The other food included a tasty soup, stuffed peppers, potatoes, and some other things I'm no doubt forgetting. A lovely fine lunch and hosted by a friendly family with some very exuberant children.

Our group and the fifth grade class we visited for a time. One thing Overseas Adventure Travel does is support organizations with financial assistance. In this case a school in Urabamba. While the children seemed enthusiastic it is clear the facilities they have need improvement. That can be said of so much in the region. Infrastructure from basic plumbing to reliable power is far from what it should be.

Using a variety of natural materials to paint designs into the ceramics seems to be entirely done by the ladies who work at Seminario Ceramics studio (the men do the shaping of the clay). This studio is run be renown ceramicists and must surely represent part of the peak of artistry in the region.

Along with my parent I joined 10 other people for a two week long trip to Peru and Ecuador. This would be our first Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip. It would prove to be quite an interesting and informative experience overall. It is best to think of this as really two trips rolled into one. The first week we spent in Peru traveling mostly through the Sacred Valley with a key highlight being our overnight visit to Machu Picchu. The second week was spent in Ecuador and the key component there was our 4 days spent sailing amongst the Galapagos Islands. OAT trips, at least this one, have a goal of "learning and discovery" and one result of that is you move much more slowly than we are used to doing either by ourselves or with groups such as we travel with when on HF Holiday hiking trips. While an OAT trip can have physical challenges such as dealing with high altitude conditions, Machu Picchu sits at about 8,000 feet and Cusco at just over 11,000 feet above sea level or sea sickness on the 16-passenger catamaran the actual physical endeavors are modest. But you will still experience quite a lot even though at times you may feel both rushed or stuck in place depending on circumstances.

First we would spent a day in Lima, Peru. Lima is a bustling city and rather large with correspondingly maddeningly slow yet hectic traffic. It seems to take well over a half hour to get from anywhere to anywhere. Our hotel was located in the Miraflores district which is a posh area of the city quite different in feel from the heart of the downtown where central government buildings and the like are. We spent a very interesting bit of time at the archeological museum which held artifacts of ceramic and tapestries some of which are pushing 3,000 years old. It is a compelling reminder that civilizations thrived in this area for a considerable length of time and that the Inca Empire was only a tiny, admittedly very impressive, capstone to the history of the area before the conquest by the Spanish lead by Pizzaro in 1532. Visiting the convent (monastery maybe; I'm not sure - Pavel and the local guide Elisa - I think that's her name - said "convent" but I'm not sure that's what they meant) where lengthy lines of people waited to enter for a months saints day service (Saint Anthony I think) was striking. These were routine services but clearly important. I think we were struck more by this than the throngs in a central square that were watching the Michael Jackson impersonations concert going on just a couple blocks away.

Our hotel is located in the Miraflores district of Lima. Just a couple of block away built into the cliffs that drop down to the Pacific ocean is a pedestrian shopping mall. It's a pretty posh seeming place though when we walked through it just after 9:00 AM on Saturday it was pretty much empty. When we walked some of the streets later in the day things were definitely busier in this area.

We visited the archeological museum in Lima. To get anywhere from our hotel it seemed to take easily 30 minutes by minibus. I am not sure if that says more about traffic congestion, though traffic did seem heavy, or how spread out Lima is. The museum is home to numerous artifacts including tapestries and ceramics (like this). Some of the artifacts are 3,000 years old. Seeing the works of cultures that predate the Inca who really are just the last one and only present for a very short time is impressive.

We visited the heart of Lima and in this square found a Michael Jackson impersonation concert going on. Perhaps some protests too. But the real big deal here was at a monastery (I think) that was running constant services for a saint. I think it may have been Saint Anthony and this type of thing happens every month. The lines of people for what must be a regular and routine yet important service is remarkable.

Over Memorial Day Weekend (May 24-27, 2013) the Western Michigan Chapter of the North Country Trail Association runs a trip to backpack the Lakeshore Trail in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. this year 5 of us did the trip. This year we hiked the trail from west to east, Munising to Grand Marais, the opposite of what we normally do. The trip would treat us to exceptional weather never getting overly warm and though nighttime low temperatures dipped to around freezing we were all prepared for that degree of chill. Of even greater importance to us was the near utter lack of bugs to pester us. That was a real special treat since sometimes when we have done this trip the bugs have been exceptionally voracious. We also got a couple surprises along the way not the least of which would be our chance, after years of merely seeing the light station from the ground, to tour Au Sable Lighthouse on our third day.

Trip photos can be found here.

A quick video glimpse of our hike can be watched here on Vimeo.

The North Country Trail runs from New York to North Dakota. When completed it will span some 4,600 miles. Over 1,100 miles of the trail run through Michigan and well over half of that is on traditional backpacking type wilderness trail. Over the past several years I have hiked many portions of the trail in Michigan. In 2008 I joined Andy, Doug, and John to hike the segment of trail between Tahquamenon Falls Rivermouth Campground (near by anyway) and Grand Marais. We thought the trip would be just over 80 miles in length but it turned out to be somewhat longer than that. That was just one of the surprises this 5-day expedition would have in store for our group.Photos of the trip can be found on the associated blog page at A Wanderingknight blog (straight to the photos album ).

I have only just realized that I never shared my experiences of Hollerfest 2012 with you. This was a fine festival and it seemed to me well attended. Hollerfest takes place at the Frog Holler farm and you can learn more about the festival at the hollerfest.com website. I managed to catch quite a few acts and was happy to see the wide assortment of musical style represented at the festival. I hope you enjoy listening to this audio postcard.

Performers heard (in order) are:

1. The Illogical Spoon

2. The Moxie Strings

3. Annie and Rod Capps (with special guests)

4. Creole du Nord

5. The Dorkestra

6. Jay Steelstra

On May 5 the third annual Water Hill Music Festival took place. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon strolling around the hilly neighborhood soaking up plenty of fine music. When you get 100 musical acts together throughout several blocks of area to perform throughout a warm lazy afternoon you can only catch a smattering of music. But even that little bit is enough when you hear the joy and lessure people bring to wht they are doing. Performers ran the spectrum from amateur to professional and all were having fun. Events like this bring out the best in most people as musicians play, families gatehr, people catch up with old friends, and a sense of community is enhanced. I hope you enjoy this audio postcard from the event and I apologize for the little hiccoughs that appear now and then.

This was a bit of an experiement as the podcast was pretty much completely assembled and edited on an iPhone.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore sits on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Alger County, Michigan. For the last several years a trip loosely organized by the Western Michigan chapter of the North Country Trail Association has gone to hike the full length of the Lakeshore Trail over the Memorial Day Weekend. The Lakeshore Trail runs for 42 miles. It is an easy hiking trail as these things go with just a smattering of small ups and downs sprinkled about. The trail spends a great deal of time within easy sight of Lake Superior. This means walkers often have wonderful views of the lake in all its moods. When you don't have fine views of the lake you may have the pleasure of looking at huge stretches of wildflowers and richly endowed forests.

Hollerfest has been running now for 5 years. Put on the by the King family on their farm, Frog Holler Farm, the festival is an intimate gathering for performers and patrons alike. The music is varied and the atmosphere is congenial. I joined several friends this year, at long last, for the festival weekend and had a wonderful time.

I had not planned on doing a podcast for this festival so I apologize for any audio quirks as all I had with me was my iPhone. I think it turned out rather well. My heartfelt thanks to all those who gave me a bit of their time to take part in this podcast. I especially want to thank the bands I recorded under-the-radar as it were. In order that you heard them (I hope):

1 Appleseed Collective

2 Dorkestra

3 String Cheese

4 Frank Allison

5 Nutshell

6 Blue Party

7 Griff's Jams

8 Isosceles

9 Natalie Mae

10 Lac La Belle

11 Nervous But Excited

12 Bliss

13 Creole du Nord

This is the second year that the Maker Faire has come to the Henry Ford Museum in the Dearborn/Detroit area. The fair is all about do-it-yourself building projects from the very small to the huge. While the huge projects, like the Gon Kirin fire breathing dragon or the Life Sized Mousetrap, certainly attract attention (they did for us) the smaller projects including swarms of robots and Makerbot printers to name ust two are important too. The fair is really about the spirit of creating things and the joy of experimentation and exploration. It is, of course, great fun to watch the Eppybird gentlemen fire off a display of over 100 Coke Zeros with over 600 Mentos and create geysers of foam that sway back and forth into the sky. But it is their enthusiasm for what they do that is really catching and perhaps some will try creating their own soda foam plumes later on.

I joined Larry, Marla, and little Andrew Biederman and we explored what we could on the second day of the Maker Faire. We had a very fine time doing it even though we had to spend some time standing around in lines sweating in the 90+ (F) degree heat. The price for admission seems a bit steep at $28 but I would pay it again.

On an overcast morning Andy Mytys pulled up and I hopped into his car for the drive to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to join dozens of others for the memorial service for Richard "Dick" Bolton. I was part of the small contingent of people who knew Dick through hiking activities focused on the North Country Trail and through the Great Lakes Hikes email group (hosted at Yahoo Groups as "greatlakeshikes"). We arrived not long before the service was meant to start and so were settled down in the basement (undercroft as the church pastor refers to it) amongst a couple dozen other people. The nave was full of everyone else. This modest sized, oldest continually used building, 1882 I believe was when it went up, was a fine place for the memorial service.

After the service people scattered to regroup at a nearby school for a nicely put together lunch. This was where people really had a chance I think to talk and perhaps share memories of Dick. I can't say if that really happened or not but I hope it did. For those of us from Great Lakes Hikes though the highlight of the day was after the lunch. We drove over to Deerfield Park (in Isabella County) to spend a few hours wandering through a perennial favorite place of Dick's throughout the years. This was the first time I had been to this 591 acre park and that added an extra special bit of pleasure for me. I can fully see why Dick enjoyed visiting the park and strolling the few miles of trails that wander through forests of beech, oak, and pine as well as along the banks of the Chippewa River. The afternoon weather had not cleared but when within the forest none of us really noticed the breeze. It was fun to talk through the woods and past things like Bailey's Rock which all have meaning for those of us who either talked with Dick about Deerfield Park or read his numerous missives about the park.

Since 1999 the members of the GreatLakesHikes email group hosted over on Yahoo Groups has held a gathering in early November the weekend before modern gun (rifle) deer season starts. For a weekend we take over the Schoolhouse owned by the Western Michigan Chapter of the North Country Trail Association. The Schoolhouse is located near the town of White Cloud at the intersection of 5 Mile Road and Felch. The North Country Trail is less than a mile away and other trails like the Birch Grove Loop are even closer. It's a great place to get together for a base-camping weekend where you can enjoy the company of friends in an indoor or outdoor setting.

This year the Gathering was held the weekend of November 12-14. People started arriving in the early evening of the 12th and so the fun around the campfire was well under way by the time Andy, Elwira, John, and I pulled in just before 11:00PM on Friday. The evening was chilly but their was little wind and the fire was burning bright and hot. People were comfortable and having fun. We joined right in once we got our shelters pitched. Of course, some people were already asleep for the night but when you remember that some of those people are young, very young, kids that's quite alright. Even the diehards, including me, packed it in around 1:00AM, after all we all knew we had a long fun day ahead of us Saturday.

What really makes the Gathering shine are the people who attend. We had our usual mixed-bag breakfast before getting ourselves sorted out for the various hikes Saturday. The longest of these turned out to be about 11 miles starting at Echo Lake Road and returning to the Schoolhouse. SHorter hikes used that same basic route just starting closer to the Schoolhouse. The weather was overcast and crisp, threatening rain. A pretty typical autumn day in Michigan's woods. By the time we were closing in on the end of the hike that threatening rain began to drizzle down upon us. It wasn't a storm but it was steady. More than enough to cause us, once back inside, to stay pretty much inside. Durning the evening the on-and-off rain kept us from making a second campfire but we made up for it throughout the night with the usual good varied food, excellent conversation, and impromptu live music from Chuck and Charlotte on guitar and violin with Chuck providing gritty vocals.

Sunday dawned colder but dry. Weather that would turn out to be ideal for what we had planned to do. People helped clean up the Schoolhouse and then went their separate ways. Several others decided to join Andy, John, Elwira, and myself and hike our section of North Country Trail and help us do our fall maintenance work. That help was quite welcome as we had a dozen or so major blow down of primarily oak trees stretching across the trail. Over half of them were too big to merely drag off and required us to saw through them first. Many of those required a few hundred strokes with the bow saw to cut through: oak is tough. But with the help we got through the 7 miles of trail in about 5.5 hours of good solid work. Thanks everyone.

This was a very good Gathering and perhaps one of the best attended.

My apologies for the problems in the audio. For those of a technical bent wondering what is going on it is a side-effect of using an external microphone with an iPhone left in regular mode. The iPhone must be in Airplane mode when doing such recording to prevent any chance of interference from the radios in the phone. This is annoying, but to be fair a smartphone isn't a dedicated recording device.

Generally the first weekend of every October you can expect a nip in the air and the leaves of trees to be turning. Autumn is just getting started and the burst of colors before the quiet stark beauty of winter is just beginning to appear in the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is a fine time to be outdoors and a great reason to spend time with friends. With that in mind the Western Michigan chapter of the North Country Trail Association holds an annual event they call Fall Fun Day. A day is spent doing some gentle hikes in the area of White Cloud, Michigan based out of the Birch Grove Schoolhouse. After the hiking is done those that are up for it spend a few more happy hours enjoying fantastic food that has been prepared by diligent volunteers of the chapter.

Hiking trails require attention. If they do not receive attention they become overgrown, hard to follow, perhaps even dangerous. With attention a hiking trail, even one that does not see much foot traffic, can remain a high quality pathway ffor years.Three times a year I join friends and we go to a stretch of the North COuntry Trail to give it some special attention. We are just a few of the hundreds of volunteers who help maintain the NCT. The NCT, like the vast majority of long-distance trails, is maintained by dedicated volunteers. Some take care of just a mile or so and others take care of considerably longer stretches. Some trail segment could be in remote locations. Our section though is not among these as it is bounded by two minor roads in Newago County. We just have to drive across the stae to reach the trail. Our section rolls through modestly hilly forest passing by several lakes as it worms its way between 16 and 13 Mile Roads. We also maintain, and helped build, the spur trail that leads to Highbanks Lake campground. All in all we are responsible for about 6.5 miles of trail.

As a trail maintainer your job is to make sure the trail is in good shape. You want to keep the tread way clean, remove blown down trees, remove dead overhanging limbs that could fall on a passing hiker, remove dead trees that are next to the trail and are showing imminent signs that they will fall, and do any blaze work that needs doing. You do all of this with hand tools. If a tree comes down that is too big to handle with a bow saw you have to leave it for the certified sawyers to deal with. We hate doing that and have spent considerable time and energy (1,000 stroke logs) to avoid having to call for the chain saw gang. You walk along your trail enjoying the pleasures of being outside but you keep an eye out for all the things I just mentioned. If you are fortunate you won't have much work to do. If you stay on top of sections that become quickly overgrown then you will not have to spend countless hours whipping them into shape. We used to have a stretch of trail that was incredibly overgrown with thorn bushes and the like. After hours of work on several different visits we have tamed the section and now it only requires a few minutes of pruning. But there will probably be another such section growing up someplace and unless we nip it in the bud we'll have our hands full once again.

We take a weekend to tackle our section. After all,, you have to hike in and back out with your tools. While many sections are short enough that this can likely be easily done in a day we like to take our time and do two-thirds (about 9 miles) one day and the remain third (4 miles) the following day. You might think that you could hike the trail in just one direction and catch everything you need to catch but this is not always true. You do see the trail differently as you travel in different directions. Besides who wants to deal with setting up car shuttles?

You come to know your section of trail pretty well as you take care of it but that does not mean it becomes dull. Grand events, like a modest-sized forest brush fire liven things up but smaller scale events happen too and there is always something new to see. Last summer we came across some wonderful snakes, this spring the remains of a just-happened fire.

You also do trail work because you are becoming part of something greater than yourself. You are helping take care of something that should last generations and be enjoying by hundreds and hundreds of people. That is a good feel. ANd it is a feeling you can share with your fellow trail maintainers. You might even get lucky and encounters people using your trail segment while you are working on it and be thanked by them. For these reasons and more I think it is a very worthwhile volunteer activity. Especially if , like me, you enjoy hiking the trails anyway. Why not give something back?

You don't have to go into the wilderness to get a taste of nature. If you want to just get out there but live in an urban or sub-urban area look into the parks in your region. You'll probably be surprised at what you find. Besides the numerous city parks here in Ann Arbor we are blessed with an extensive metropark system that covers 5 counties (we are lucky to also have State Game Areas and much more, you probably have them too). This time we visited Hudson Mills Metropark and strolled broad nature paths and paved trails for a couple hours. Even though we were about as close to civilization as you can get an urban nature hike can still re-vitalize and give you that little extra boost that makes being outside worthwhile (the excursive doesn't hurt either). Autumn is a superb time for little treks like this. Get out and enjoy.

I have a confession to make: I like space. I shudder when I look at some backpacking shelters and see that they claim to be suitable for two people and yet have only space enough, or so it seems, for one. To the best of my knowledge I am not claustrophobic but I know that squeezing into a shelter with just 20 or so square feet and only a small bit of headroom near one end or another really gets on my nerves if I must spend hours, let alone days, under the sheltering canopy of fabric. I worry that in such a tiny space something will get wet all too easily as I brush the walls of the shelter. I bemoan the fact that I can wriggle around all long nights but must stay put so I don't bump the walls. I know that in the vast majority of cases I really do not need the space. I shelter alone most times even if I am traveling with a group. I don't have a canine companion I need to keep under cover (though I have thought about that now and then). But I like the ability to spread out. That desire outweighs the urge to save a few ounces of weight (heresy, I know). So when a shelter like the Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar comes along I find myself intrigued. Here is a shaped tarp, a plus in its own right since I don't have to have an advanced degree in tarpology, that when even pitched low affords not only ample floor area but copious headroom (i.e., volume). It feels larger than it actually is because of its openness. I can bring a Tyvek floor or a bug bivy to improve my comfort depending on the situation (in either case the weight will likely be similar) and I even have all the extra space I could want should the day come and I find myself sharing a shelter routinely with another person.

While MLD claims the shelter can be set up in less than two minutes I doubt I'll ever get that fast. I take longer than anyone I know to set up even the very fast-to-pitch Shires Tarptent Virga. That is just the way I am: blame my vision. However, I have no doubt that in short order I will be pitching the Trailstar much more adroitly than I did in this video.

The Ann Arbor Art Fairs have been around for fifty years (the original street Art Fair) and I don't think they're going to stop any time soon judging by the number of booths and people I saw milling around thi summer. I enjoyed my wandering around over the 4 days of the Art Fair. I think the secret for my successful enjoyment is to spend just a couple hours any given day. If you can spend some of that time enjoying the Art Fair extras like live music that makes things so much better.