A Brief Explanation

A brief explanation about my backpacking experience. My plans for backpacking began in high school but didn't materialize until the end of my freshman year in college about 13 years ago, it think. I continued to backpack for a few more years until I took my girlfriend (now wife) on her first and only backpacking experience. She swears she will never go again. After that trip with work and a family there just wasn't time or money to do much on my own. Then in 2003 I decided I needed to get back to the woods, so I planned a solo trip to North Carolina to climb Cold Mountain before the movie came out and ruined the are with too many people. In the process of planning the trip a colleague at work volunteered himself to join me on the trip. Ever since that first trip and since my wife and family have no interest in joining me (with the recent exception of my son, but those are still limited short trips) this colleague (his name is Gustavo who is from Guatemala) has been a part of all but one of my misadventures. All of my trips to date have been either in Michigan or North Carolina, mostly for reasons of convenience, which I will detail later. I am hoping to expand my geographical horizons eventually but as I said it is usually a matter of convenience.

Coming next: Labor Day Death March on the NCT

Top Hiking Trails in Michigan According to Me

These are my top hiking trials or places to hike in Michigan. Of course they are the places I have hiked in Michigan. I will be more elaborate in my descriptions as I write on each trail or place individually.

1. Isle Royale - So far my all time favorite place to Backpack, falling asleep hearing the loons and maybe a wolf howl is just my idea of a perfect place. The campsites are fantastic with great scenery whether you are in the interior of the island or on the coast. For being one of the least visited national parks in the country, the size of the island can make it seem rather crowded at the wrong time of the year. By crowded I mean you will probably run into a half a dozen people throughout the day maybe a few more the closer you are to Rock Harbor or Windigo.
   
2. Porcupine Mountains - Haven't been there in a while but was the place of my first successful trip, and first and only encounter with a black bear.
3. Manistee River Trail Loop (NCT) - I rank this loop rather high because it was a nice relaxing trail, supprisingly not very crowded, a great fly fishing river and a supposed waterfall, which if what I saw was the waterfall my definition of a waterfall is way off. all I saw was a trickle coming out of the side of the river bank, but I guess in the L.P. that qualifies as a waterfall.
   
4. NCT U.P. - Parts of this trail was not very well maintained, really had the feeling of being out in the wilderness. At times the trail disappeared underneath the thick underbrush, Lots of wild blueberries along trail Labor day weekend. Hiked North to South from where trial leaves Lake Superior headed toward St. Ignace but didn't make it that far.
   
5. High Country Pathway - Nice easy hiking spot, Chance to see wild Elk
   
6. North Manitou Island - This was my second ever backpacking trip and my second unsuccessful backpacking trip. Definitely worth a second chance, probably would rank higher if I were to go back again. Which I will do some day
   
7. Wateroo-Pinckney State Park - This is a nice easy hike, terrain is fairly easy, there is a sign on the trail in one sections warning backpackers to stay on trail entering prison area. Could hear prisoners do exercises or something. No backcountry camping here, must stay at one of I think 3 large campgrounds, oh well.
   

7 year olds don't make for good guides in the woods Part 2

So after wandering in among the wooded dune hills for about an hour or so, and with the sun now low enough that I was no longer able to see it to tell which direction we were hiking. I broke out the compass and headed towards the West. So what should have been a nice easy hike to Lake Michigan wound up being a couple of hour death march through thorns and underbrush of the woods a "bushwhack to the lake".

Eventually we found our way to the main trail that parallels Lake Michigan. The sun was sinking rather quickly now and day light was at a premium, plus I had a tired and hungry 7 year old, who just hiked about twice as far as I had planned or should have had him go on his first hike. I found a well used campsite a ways off the main trail with a fire pit and everything. After setting up the tent we went to the beach got some water and watched the sun set into Lake Michigan. Back at camp we had a gourmet meal of shells and cheese, which we were forced to eat with home made hand carved chop sticks. Because I forgot to pack eating utensils (this was not the first time I had to do this). The rest of the night went by relatively uneventfully. We ate some s'mores and a few more backpackers showed up and camped not to far from our spot, but that was okay. We fell asleep reading about the Jonas Brother from a magazine he borrowed from one of his sisters. I forgot my book, which is far worse than forgetting a fork or spoon, I don't mind homemade chop sticks but forgetting my book is bad news.

After a fairly good nights sleep we got up ate some oatmeal and drank some hot chocolate. Packed our backpacks and headed for the beach. My plan was to walk South down the beach until we found the trail back to the parking lot or found someone who could tell us where it was. Finding someone turned out to be the easy part, it seem that sometime after we arrived scores of other people showed up, they were coming out of the dunes like a swarm of ants. I don't know how we didn't here more people than we did the night before, because now they were everywhere. I let the boy play in the sand with the bucket and shovel we bought at the store in Ludington the day before. Eventually we found the trail and started back to the parking lot. within 10 minutes of walking down the trail which was probably only about 1 - 2 miles long, the boy yelled out "I have to poop!" and kept repeating it with greater urgency. Despite my pleading with him to hold it for a few more minutes until we get back to the parking lot, I went off the trail and dug him a small cat-hole and told him to have at it. He looked at the hole and then at me with a look that seemed to say "are you crazy, I'm not crapping in that." Needless to say he was able to hold it until we got back to the parking lot and used the nice clean outhouse. So as the hike started with the outhouse it ended with it.

I can't forget to mention the drive home. I had taken my wife old 1994 Ford Taurus beater, mostly because it got way better gas mileage than my gas guzzler. (note: the Taurus had recently sat for almost 2 years. We had it worked on in February to get it running again.) we had made it about 2 hours into a 3 hour drive when all the lights on the dash blew up and the engine got real hot and everything died. Seeing as how my mechanical expertise is about the same as my 7 year old, I had no idea. I called my wife to come get me, and called a wrecker to come tow it. So it cost me about $160.00 for the tow and it turned out to be a belt that cost me about $10.00 to buy and was able to fix myself. (note: the Taurus is still sitting in my driveway since it was towed back. The belt turned out to be an easy fix but it also turned out that the water pump was basically shot. I did change that before, with a significant amount of help, but this time I don't seem to be able to do it. So it still sits.

7 year olds don't make for good guides in the woods Part 1

I decided that this would be a good time to take my son on his first overnight hiking trip. I picked Nordhouse Dunes, even though I had never been there before, because I was told that it was a good spot for a first time backpacking trip. Seeing as how my son was only 7 at the time I thought easy would be best.

We arrived on the Friday before Memorial Day hoping to beat the holiday crowd that I knew would be arriving. when we got to the parking lot there were only 5 other cars there in a fairly large lot. We used the privy provided at the parking lot one last time (it would be cat holes for the rest of the trip) studied the map on the sign (I forgot to pack my map) put on our packs and headed in a Northerly direction on the trail. I wasn't worried about not having a map, the wilderness area is rather small bordered by Lake Michigan to the West, Ludington State Park to the South, A national Forest Campground to the North and a Road to the East, and only a couple of miles wide by long.

Within 15 minutes of starting off the boy was complaining of being tired, and bored. I should have expected this, but it was still frustrating. I was able to laugh it off for a while and try to encourage him and tell him "it's just around this next corner." After being passed by about 3 different groups that arrived after we did, I decided to make the trip interesting and let him lead the way for a while. Besides it was such a small area and we had to be close to Lake Michigan by now, he couldn't get us too terribly lost.

The boy decided he wanted to climb a steep dune up a side trail. So up we went. There wasn't much of a view from the top of the hill but the trail continued on toward what looked like some old campsites. We followed the trail for a while and pasted those sites because they were too small and not level enough for my tent and taste. Besides I had yet to see any water and we would need some from somewhere for dinner. Eventually the trail dwindled away and become nothing more than a game trail. We had gone to far to turn around now, and I kept reassuring myself that we had to run into the main trail eventually. So we continued to follow the game trails, when I could find them, I also figured that one of them would lead to water and then we would be able to find our way from there.

2008

I managed two short hikes this year. the first on Memorial weekend to Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area, near Manistee, Michigan with my son who was 7 years old at the time. It was a short out and back overnight which turned into quite an adventure in itself. The second trip was a long Labor Day weekend to hike a section of the North Country Trail in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was supposed to be a 3 night out and back which also turned into one disaster after another. I will be posting more complete details of each trip along with past trips.